Another way to harden a blade?

[UPSTARTCROWE]

A machinist friend of mine asked me if anyone carburizes their blades. He explained that the application of extra carbon would harden the blade while tempering draws internal carbon to a desired area. Would a carburized edge provde workable? There would be an increased hardness and thus edge retention, right?

[This message has been edited by UPSTARTCROWE (edited 06-02-2000).]

 

[Matt Shade]

I don't know much about it, but I thought that only affected a very thin section of the steel. Similar to case hardening. It would probably be okay for a little while, but the more you sharpen it the softer the edge will be. Unless of course you use a chisel grind with the same concept as Buck's Buckote blades which have a very thin layer of TiNi or something similar which serves as the cutting edge and you simply hone away the other side of the blade to meet it.

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It'll feel better when it stops hurting.

 

[mikeS]

I agree with Matt, eventualy youwill sharpen away the carburized layer.

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Why am I good enough to fix my mistakes, but not good enough to keep from making them in the first place?