Three hours for an offset is brutal, I would've thrown my hammer through a window by hour two. The flex liners are worth every penny honestly, especially when you're dealing with tight offsets that fight back. I made the switch after a similar nightmare and haven't looked back since.

idk man, maybe it's just me but is it really that serious? like, unless you're trying to hit some specific hardness for a knife or something, non-magnetic gets you close enough for most stuff. @troy832 probably has a point for precision work, but for a backyard forge or a quick job, it's not like it's gonna ruin anything.

Honestly did you try scraping out any of the darker liquid that separated from the rest? That stuff usually has the most lactobacillus still alive and you can sometimes salvage it from there.

40% drop in 2 weeks, did you check if your content quality changed?

@henderson.wesley i brined mine for a few hours and it finally came out juicy.