Ok to heat and bend a pitman arm?

My dad makes folding pocket knives and huntng knives as a hobby and he uses a kiln for tempering the blades. He can pretty much make the steel as hard or soft as he wants depending on what the blade is intended for. He's very well read in metalurgy. If I knew the compostition of the part I could ask him how he would bend the piece and retain the original strength. He uses a Rockwell hardness tester and other tools for this kind of work. Anyways, i'm sure Drock gets the point. Good discussion though.