CRKT Heat Treatment

I've found blades made for "the masses" are generally run at a lower HRC. At the end of the day the average user won't notice a difference in edge retention, but they will notice a broken blade. Running soft decreases the chance of breakage and an unhappy customer.
 
Banter 247 said:
This raises a valid point, imo. While I’m certainly not perfect, I do try to make it a point to avoid offering an opinion without basing it on best available information.

Having not seen specific data suggesting a trend for CRKT heat treatments, I won’t say what they do/don’t do.

There are two sides to the coin, though. We can’t say for certain that the rumors are inaccurate, either.

I hope to see some of them tested soon. I’ve been encouraging the group to test as much common use steel as possible so that we can have a more clear perspective on what is being delivered to consumers.
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I like some good data and quantitative analysis as much as the next dork. But it is going to be near impossible to do such an analysis up to acceptable levels on this issue.

So with that in mind, I appreciate when trusted community members chime in with their actual real life experiences. Hard science on crkt will be difficult to produce, unless it comes from crkt, which it never will. Best we are going to get are a few private tests of metallurgy and/or actual use.

Actual use, as reported here isn't good, my experience included. Take it as you will and remember the scale needed to do an objective scientific analysis. After all, they were selling blades marked as s30v. Some seemed to be, but a lot obviously weren't.
 
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Where I noticed the difference wasn't the high end but more so the lower end.

I had a Sog made from aus8 and a m21 made from aus8. The sog simply kept a better edge. Now I have a RAT 1 in Aus8 and it's keeping a better edge then both of the previous knives. But I think it's not just heat treat but also geometry.
 
GatorFlash1 said:
I'm curious to know how all those who claim CRKT has soft steel because of bad heat treatment determined that fact?

Or are they just repeating inaccurate rumors. Anyone can say anything they want, but that doesn't make it the truth.

I'm sure CRKT folks have heard these claims and if they want to stay in business and make a little money they are taking them seriously like any good business would.
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Because some of us have owned CRKT knives and found them to be lacking. Mine demonstrated serious edge rolling at edge angles that would be fine on other knives.

Another way is you could look up their stated hardness targets for some of their common steels and see that they intend to run them a little soft compared to their competitors. Link

Better yet, you could just look at the overall lack of care that they take when making their knives and reasonably assume that they put the same level of effort into their heat treatment...
 
Crkt just shop for the lowest bidder within reason. So they may use factory x y Z.

They get volume knives in at $5 a pop and then sell them at 40$ a pop to the customer. Prices obviously vary.

For a sub 20$ knife. It's hard to spend the correct time required in heat treatment. And for the most part buyers are left out of the know about what heat treatment even is. So they sell knives based off of the designs or gimmicks mostly.
 
Mo2 said:
For a sub 20$ knife. It's hard to spend the correct time required in heat treatment.
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Their competitors seem to do it. I've got a few Kershaws in 8cr that are better treated than what crkt has put out, and more importantly, the rest of the knives are done better as well.

I'm not disagreeing with most of what you've said in this thread. Just pointing out that some companies can do it because they so choose. They might make less money in the process but overall their reputation might be more valuable to them. A different business model I guess.

Also, lots of what crkt produces is not sub $20, and......it is still sub par.
 
I have a Ken Onion CRKT Eros made in Taiwan. It's got Acuto+ steel at 60Rc. It holds an edge like it's 60RC and is a high quality knife. I use it a lot and have had it for years. So my CRKT has a heat treat equal to my CRK, except CRKT is just a little harder.
 
Only knife I owned that's edge just rolled off, from green hardwood. Haven't even thought of buying one since. Even though it was over 10 years ago
 
I’ve never owned a CRKT as none have really ever caught my eye.
I will say they look very overpriced for materials used, country of origin and overall design.
A lot of them also look like they’re trying desperately to copy Kershaw.

Meh
 
brownshoe said:
I have a Ken Onion CRKT Eros made in Taiwan. It's got Acuto+ steel at 60Rc. It holds an edge like it's 60RC and is a high quality knife. I use it a lot and have had it for years. So my CRKT has a heat treat equal to my CRK, except CRKT is just a little harder.
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I've had a very good crkt as well. It was an Apache in ats34. Fantastic knife.

But that doesn't change the fact that the other crkt's I've owned had major problems, ht being low on the problem list (other problems were more significant to me).

Some good does not mean I ignore the bad.
 
I'm confused reading many of these posts. The topic of the post concerns heat treatment, not style, fit and finish, etc. Let's stick to the topic and post some information comparing their heat treatment to that of other knives.

I'd like to hear from folks who have had heat treatment problems, not all the other stuff.

Here is an example from Brownshoe to follow:

"I have a Ken Onion CRKT Eros made in Taiwan. It's got Acuto+ steel at 60Rc. It holds an edge like it's 60RC and is a high quality knife. I use it a lot and have had it for years. So my CRKT has a heat treat equal to my CRK, except CRKT is just a little harder."

Is that not helpful information about heat treatment?
 
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GatorFlash1 said:
I'm confused reading many of these posts. The topic of the post concerns heat treatment, not style, fit and finish, etc. Let's stick to the topic and post some information comparing their heat treatment to that of other knives.

I'd like to hear from folks who have had heat treatment, not all the other stuff.

Here is an example from Brownshoe to follow:

"I have a Ken Onion CRKT Eros made in Taiwan. It's got Acuto+ steel at 60Rc. It holds an edge like it's 60RC and is a high quality knife. I use it a lot and have had it for years. So my CRKT has a heat treat equal to my CRK, except CRKT is just a little harder."

Is that not helpful information about heat treatment?
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Not really. He's just comparing the number listed on the web page.
 
GatorFlash1 said:
I'm confused reading many of these posts. The topic of the post concerns heat treatment, not style, fit and finish, etc. Let's stick to the topic and post some information comparing their heat treatment to that of other knives.

I'd like to hear from folks who have had heat treatment, not all the other stuff.

Here is an example from Brownshoe to follow:

"I have a Ken Onion CRKT Eros made in Taiwan. It's got Acuto+ steel at 60Rc. It holds an edge like it's 60RC and is a high quality knife. I use it a lot and have had it for years. So my CRKT has a heat treat equal to my CRK, except CRKT is just a little harder."

Is that not helpful information about heat treatment?
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I've had a hissatsu folder in AUS8 that was not heat treated near as well as other AUS8 I have from other companies (SOG and ontario). But that wasn't even close to the biggest problem. The assist on it made it impossible to open. That was a common and well documented problem. I wasn't as knife savvy back then and got duped into buying a thing that CRKT knew didn't work properly. The knife was unusable for it's intended purpose without modification or removing the assist all together. I've also had a couple heihos. I can't remember which steel version it was, as they changed, but I believe the one that had issues was 8cr. There was clearly a defect in the steel represented a big line going through the blade. I sold it on the exchange fully disclosed with pictures. Never used it enough to judge if the defect was that important but it was clearly there. Fun little knife, and at least the damn thing opened as advertised. I gave another one away that looked and worked just fine.

CRKT apologists would like the topic of CRKT threads to only focus on whatever the specific praise or problem might be. We can't ignore the fact that there are a lot of other issues that stop knife enthusiasts from even being able to test the heat treatment. If the knife is unacceptable then what is the point of discussing the heat treat. If the company is not trustworthy to give the customer even close to the correct steel, I'm not sure the importance of the heat treat. That's why CRKT has earned the reputation they deserve here and that is why you will hear comments stating such in most threads on CRKT.
 
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In the time i worked in the knife Dept. at my local sporting goods store, we had many of the CRKT knives on display, i do not remember ever having a customer ask to see one.
 
Mo2 said:
Not really. He's just comparing the number listed on the web page.
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No I'm not. I know what different hardnesses of a blade are like due to use and sharpening.

I know my CRKT has a good heat treat due to using it and sharpening it. For example, it's harder than my S35V by CRK at 58 Rc and certainly not as hard as my William and Henry at 67Rc.

However, I do know the Rc number due to the fact AGRussell supplies it on their site for every knife they can. CRKT does not supply hardness values.
 
brownshoe said:
No I'm not. I know what different hardnesses of a blade are like due to use and sharpening.

I know my CRKT has a good heat treat due to using it and sharpening it. For example, it's harder than my S35V by CRK at 58 Rc and certainly not as hard as my William and Henry at 67Rc.

However, I do know the Rc number due to the fact AGRussell supplies it on their site for every knife they can. CRKT does not supply hardness values.
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This isn't very helpful regardless.
 
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