26C3 Stability/brittleness at 66-67 HRC ?

L

Londinium Armoury

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Jun 2, 2020
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I'm thinking of switching over to using 26C3 at very high hardness for some precision slicers, have no experience with it, often called "Spicy White" in circles around here.
Anybody have experience with the edge stability / toughness etc of this steel in those high 60's?
How hard can I take this stuff without it being overly fragile. Any of you use this over 65 HRC?
Thanks in advance.
 
65RC is the highest I've used it. If used responsibly it's fine at this hardness I haven't had any issues that have been reported to me nor have my personal knives been damaged. I can't get much higher than 65, probably about 66, without dipping below 300F temper.
 
imill3567 said:
65RC is the highest I've used it. If used responsibly it's fine at this hardness I haven't had any issues that have been reported to me nor have my personal knives been damaged. I can't get much higher than 65, probably about 66, without dipping below 300F temper.
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Thank you,
I will try running one around 65-66 when the bar stock arrives, what kind of knives are you using this steel on, craft, utility / kitchen?
Cheers for the help.
 
Londinium Armoury said:
Thank you,
I will try running one around 65-66 when the bar stock arrives, what kind of knives are you using this steel on, craft, utility / kitchen?
Cheers for the help.
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Almost all kitchen knives. I have one pocket fixed blade at 65RC which has seen only occasional use due to me having too many knives and one foraging knife my mother has but that's tempered down lower probably about 62RC, it was pre hardness tester so not totally sure.
 
imill3567 said:
Almost all kitchen knives. I have one pocket fixed blade at 65RC which has seen only occasional use due to me having too many knives and one foraging knife my mother has but that's tempered down lower probably about 62RC, it was pre hardness tester so not totally sure.
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Nice, I was hoping to make kitchen knives and smaller fixed blades with it, possibly some clay tempered stuff too.
 
I've been using a lot of it for a while now. Currently cutting 42 blades out of two sheets and just finished ground 8 others for another batch. Performance wise I've been very happy with it in the 63-64 range. Most of my knives are smallish thin edc types, although I did make one kitchen set out of it. I personally have been carrying a blade out of this steel too for quite some time now and I really like it and my customers do too.

A Vaquero model (5.25" overall) with blue smooth bone for a handle:

kpNWnHt.jpg


Mine are all clay coated but as they are work knives I don't spen a lot of time chasing the hamon around. I've been pleasantly surprised how well the hamon has lasted too.
 
Horsewright said:
I've been using a lot of it for a while now. Currently cutting 42 blades out of two sheets and just finished ground 8 others for another batch. Performance wise I've been very happy with it in the 63-64 range. Most of my knives are smallish thin edc types, although I did make one kitchen set out of it. I personally have been carrying a blade out of this steel too for quite some time now and I really like it and my customers do too.

A Vaquero model (5.25" overall) with blue smooth bone for a handle:

kpNWnHt.jpg


Mine are all clay coated but as they are work knives I don't spen a lot of time chasing the hamon around. I've been pleasantly surprised how well the hamon has lasted too.
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Great work as usual, what temp are you putting them in for to get 64, 160-70C ish?
 
Cheers guys, the billets should be arriving Tuesday as it's bank holiday Monday this week. I was surprized how cheap I got this 26C3 for, it ended up being cheaper than my O1.

EDIT: Nope the billets just arrived via private courier on Saturday morning. Pretty nice, GFSknifesupplies are fast.
 
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All heat treated ready for scales and whetstone sharpening.
This should be 65 HRC tempered at 155c
Persian scandi
https://imgur.com/a/nlcEusB

Tested it with my Tsubosan HRC files, it's scating the 65 post tempering so, I think it's probably 66 HRC. I can't test higher than 65 with my budget HRC testing methods.
 
The file are good for getting a ballpark estimate, but you should take a blade or a sample coupon to a shop and have it tested on a Rockwell tester. Personally, I think the files/chisels are not any good above Rc60.
 
Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith said:
The file are good for getting a ballpark estimate, but you should take a blade or a sample coupon to a shop and have it tested on a Rockwell tester. Personally, I think the files/chisels are not any good above Rc60.
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Cheers, I'll have a little look around for any places that offer HRC testing. I have a bunch of off cuts I could use as sample pieces. Shouldn't be too hard to find that service in London somewhere.
 
Okay so I just quenched the little spicy white clip point blade. Then as I was dropping the blade into the quenchant slowly (on a horizontal plane) a temper line quickly formed within -1 second as if I edge quenched it mid dunk. I dropped the blade 100% submerged below the surface. I have tested the quenched hardness (roughly with files) It appears the edge is over 65+ but heres the strange thing. So is the back where the lighter steel is behind the quench line.
Is this possible? what hardness difference in the quench will show a visible line. if the edge is 68 and the spine is 65 will that still even show a temper line?
I though the softness / hardness had to be more of a severe ratio. Like the spine below -50 HRC edge above +60 HRC.
Anyway I just accidentally created a spicy white with hamon.
Heres a short video i recorded on my phone after I quenched it in shock.
 
Natlek said:
You my friend need to get heat treat oven and Hardness tester ...........
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I'm saving up for a complete equipment upgrade, should have enough soon 10k in total I need. Difficult with a 5 year old son who collects expensive lego sets and PS4 downloads lol. His lego Ninjago cities run into the thousands sigh.
 
Here's what type of refinement I get from my heat treat set up. Even though I do it by eye I'm still producing decent end results.
Cross section
https://imgur.com/a/64vulHG
I snapped this one because I ground it too thin before quenching and it got bacon edge, you can see it was pushing the limits a little trying that geometry quenching haha.
 
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