52 HRC blade? What's the point of this?

I usually am able to use a knife with a lower Rockwell on butter alternatives, but only by a little bit. They seem to work out margarinely.

In all seriousness, I dunno why they would stamp the Rockwell on the knife. Knives can run soft and cut just fine if you maintain the edge. Just seems silly to go to the effort to stamp "mediocre" on the blade, thought.
 
Nothing like being able to shave on a 5-o'clock shadow. Having a full beard though, better steel at higher hardness is the way to go.
 
It's Russian, or at least made to be sold on the Russian market. A few of their low to mid priced tactical knife makers run their steels low in that range 52-55 HRC. If I had to guess, they'd make the toughness argument.
 
Steely_Gunz said:
In all seriousness, I dunno why they would stamp the Rockwell on the knife. Knives can run soft and cut just fine if you maintain the edge. Just seems silly to go to the effort to stamp "mediocre" on the blade, thought.
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I'm wondering exactly why they do this. It's such an absurd thing that it seems like there must be a clever reason that I don't know about.
 
whereismyknife said:
I'm wondering exactly why they do this. It's such an absurd thing that it seems like there must be a clever reason that I don't know about.
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It's just for appearances. Put a bunch of stuff on the blade, it must mean something, right? Might as well print "tactical" or "shiny" or "oooooh". At least it's honest.

40X13 is the steel, BTW. Russian analogue to 420.
 
I will answer how it looks from Russia. :)
This knife is made in China, by the Chinese brand Pirat. The steel on the 40X13 blade is an analogue of the American 420 (without letters). It is not known what kind of steel is actually there.
It is sold in all sorts of cheap fishing or tourist shops. In Russia, this knife costs $ 6.
 
tltt said:
It's Russian, or at least made to be sold on the Russian market. A few of their low to mid priced tactical knife makers run their steels low in that range 52-55 HRC. If I had to guess, they'd make the toughness argument.
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Made for one time use, for cutting wrists after you receive your draft notice to the Ukie Front lines.
 
Many historical blades were run in the 40hrc range. This was in some cases nessesary to make up for impurities in the steel and inconsistent heat treatment. Keep in mind the Thermometer was not invented yet, neither were standardised hardening/tempering protocols. There is really no reason to run a modern knife this soft, tho.

Like others mentioned, swords and machetes are run at around this hardness. Some axes are aswell.
 
I made a knife from cold rolled and annealed 1095 steel. It was likely in the low to mid 20s HRc. It cut cardboard for way longer than I thought before it lost arm shaving ability and way longer than that before loosing paper slicing ability. Why they’d put that hardness in the blade I don’t know, but at least you know what you’re getting. I don’t really like the design but it doesn’t have anything to do with the steel hardness.
 
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