Differential tempering vs differential hardening.
Both methods work on carbon steels (witness all the different folks using different methods over time).
Regarding stainless steels, hmmmm... You might be able to do differential hardening, like Graymaker is testing. But, differential tempering might not be possible with stainless. I mean things happen so slow on airhardened steel that by the time the spine is tempered the edge would be hot. Would it not?
In other words, I think what Walking Man is asking is: You would heat treat/temper in the normal way. Then could you heat just the spine hot enough to lower the RC?
The trouble I see is that, unlike carbon steel, I don't think just a few seconds of heat and an air cool will do much. Plus the super alloys have secondary hardening temperatures - you might actually make the spine harder!
I might be wrong, but the idea of differential tempering with stainless is a very interesting idea, I don't think you could pull it off.
Good question, Walking Man.
Steve
Both methods work on carbon steels (witness all the different folks using different methods over time).
Regarding stainless steels, hmmmm... You might be able to do differential hardening, like Graymaker is testing. But, differential tempering might not be possible with stainless. I mean things happen so slow on airhardened steel that by the time the spine is tempered the edge would be hot. Would it not?
In other words, I think what Walking Man is asking is: You would heat treat/temper in the normal way. Then could you heat just the spine hot enough to lower the RC?
The trouble I see is that, unlike carbon steel, I don't think just a few seconds of heat and an air cool will do much. Plus the super alloys have secondary hardening temperatures - you might actually make the spine harder!
I might be wrong, but the idea of differential tempering with stainless is a very interesting idea, I don't think you could pull it off.
Good question, Walking Man.
Steve
