3'' blade differentially hardened or fully hardened

chadsims44 · Nov 10, 2014

would it be better to have small blade fully hardened or differentially hardened?I just thought fully hardened would last longer because you are eventually gonna get into the soft part of metal after years of sharpening.Every ones thoughts and opinions please

davek14 · Nov 10, 2014

chadsims44 said:
would it be better to have small blade fully hardened or differentially hardened?I just thought fully hardened would last longer because you are eventually gonna get into the soft part of metal after years of sharpening.Every ones thoughts and opinions please

And it doesn't have as great an advantage on a small blade.

TravisH · Nov 10, 2014

My basic understanding is that differential hardening is mostly for swords, providing a hard sharp edge backed by softer shock-absorbing steel so it doesn't break under impact.

For a 3' blade, being swung around with a lot of kinetic energy, that would be useful.

For a 3" blade, in what usage would that be necessary?

RevDevil · Nov 10, 2014

davek14 said:
And it doesn't have as great an advantage on a small blade.

TravisH said:
My basic understanding is that differential hardening is mostly for swords, providing a hard sharp edge backed by softer shock-absorbing steel so it doesn't break under impact.

For a 3' blade being swung around, that would be useful. But for a 3" blade, in what usage would that be advantageous?

Same, I cannot see how that could possibly be cost effective to make or advantageous in use. On smaller fixed blade I don't think I'd be able to tell the difference in day to day cutting.

EChoil · Nov 10, 2014

I think on a small blade they'd go composite at that point.

tiguy7 · Nov 10, 2014

I carry a William Henry B-15 Tom Brown Quest. The 3 1/8" blade is laminated with a core of ZDP-189 steel at 65 HRC and a cladding of 410 stainless steel. Since the bologna in the sandwich goes all the way to the spine of the blade, you can't run out of material to sharpen. The bread in the sandwich is softer and quite resistant to corrosion. I think this set up is better for a small knife than a differentially heat treated blade.

Sonnydaze · Nov 15, 2014

I don't think that anyone lives that long...

EChoil · Nov 15, 2014

Sonnydaze said:
I don't think that anyone lives that long...

My feeling on most replaceable frame lock inserts.

NorthernSouthpaw · Nov 15, 2014

A good hamon looks quite awesome. That's enough of a reason for me.

Kaizen1 · Nov 15, 2014

The only benefit I see is that you can get pretty temper lines with differential heat treatment. Sharpening knives down to a nub isn't a concern for me. I just don't cut that frequently.