CRK, HRC and Perception

[Modernflame]

I'm an expert in nothing, but it seems that in any corner of the internet, one can find someone who says that CRK knife steel is soft. When I look at the specs, it appears that s35vn steel at 59-60 and s45vn at 60-62 are commonly targeted rockwell hardness values in the industry. Moreover, I've used and sharpened a lot of pocket knives over the past few years and I find that my CRK knives perform in ways quite similar to other brands. Am I missing something? Does CRK's heat treat process compare unfavorably to that of other manufacturers? Or is this a vestigial stereotype from the time when CRK treated s35 to 58-59 hrc? Will people say that Magnacut at 63-64 is also too soft? Thoughts?

 

[brock stewart]

I’m not worth much at sharpening and I just got s35 down and a good working edge at 20 degrees lasts me a minute or two. S45 isn’t that much different but it is different. Gonna have to figure out magnacut too. As an enthusiast I like different steels and changes. As a user s35 works very well for ME. just my .02

 

[Eric Alp]

Also no knife steel expert, but I find my s35 and s45 CRK’s perform just as well as my m390, s90v blades from other manufactures. I like how easy they are to sharpen and they strop up beautifully for easy maintenance.

 

[BTTLBRN]

As far as CRK is concerned, I have absolutely zero complaints and typically notice that much of time complaining about heat treat/etc is being done by those on a strictly intellectual level. To clarify, I watch/read reviews from people stating that CRK's choice of steel is "long in the tooth," outdated and overpriced for what you get. Yet in these same reviews the knives appear to be largely unused and show little signs of ever even being carried. I take all of that with a rather large grain of salt - debates are being done from statistics and not actual use.

My sample size of a half dozen or so CRK knives have proven to be a perfectly workable steel, that holds an edge admirably, sharpens quite easily, and as mentioned strops/hones up with little effort.

While I plan on getting one of their Magnacut offerings, I want to do so based on curiosity, and not due to any deficiency that I have experienced while actually using the knife.

I tend to treat HT questions on a case by case basis as well; I do not doubt CRK's numbers for a minute - while some unknown Chinese knife would be met with great scrutiny, though I would be hard pressed to actually purchase one to find out.

 

[tinfoil hat timmy]

If it cuts stuff and doesn't fold over or break off at the tip like peanut brittle I'm guessing you'll be ok using it like a knife for prolonged periods of time.

a knife brand cant really get popular if people are always sending the product back to be fixed.

eyedunno

 

[SuzukiGS750EZ]

I’ve stripped wire, cut the vanes off of aluminum arrows and shaved the adhesive off, whittled sticks, broken down a ton of cardboard and tape.
The knife always strops back with no damage whatsoever.

 

[madcap_magician]

For one thing, your numbers reflect CRK's latest heat treat target hardness, not what they've been doing for the majority of their existence. At one time S30V at RC57-59 was an accepted norm, but that time was 20 years ago. Most of the commentary complaining about soft target hardness at CRK comes from the period of time after that where a lot of high-end limited-production knives were being made in Elmax and M390 analogues at RC61-63 and CRK declined participating in that steel shift in favor of sticking with incremental upgrades to S35VN at only a minute hardness target increase.

With the next incremental update to S45VN, CRK finally joined the RC60+ crowd, but now they're jumping ahead to Magnacut, which was designed for cutlery and target hardness at RC62-64, and it looks like they'll follow that design heat treat.

... And as a result, basically everyone who criticized their lower hardness is saying how glad they are.

 

[Sisyphus...]

For one thing, your numbers reflect CRK's latest heat treat target hardness, not what they've been doing for the majority of their existence. At one time S30V at RC57-59 was an accepted norm, but that time was 20 years ago. Most of the commentary complaining about soft target hardness at CRK comes from the period of time after that where a lot of high-end limited-production knives were being made in Elmax and M390 analogues at RC61-63 and CRK declined participating in that steel shift in favor of sticking with incremental upgrades to S35VN at only a minute hardness target increase.

With the next incremental update to S45VN, CRK finally joined the RC60+ crowd, but now they're jumping ahead to Magnacut, which was designed for cutlery and target hardness at RC62-64, and it looks like they'll follow that design heat treat.

... And as a result, basically everyone who criticized their lower hardness is saying how glad they are.

Makes sense for, what is known to be, a conservative manufacturer.