Differential heat treat on TOPS knives

G

GrReaper

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Sep 22, 2014
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I was looking for reviews on TOPS knives, specifically the Condor Alert, and there's not much about 'em on bladeforums. I did find a youtube vid that recommended it highly. Anyways, I was going through the Tops website and watched their video about how they make their knives. I was floored to find out that they differentially heat treat their knives individually. I was under the impression that differential heat treat is only offered in the best custom knives. This would explain the high prices, along with the made in usa factor. I got mine on amazon for a good deal less than the MSRP on the tops website. I'm curious if anyone knows of any other factory made knives that are differentially heat treated?
 
I don't know of any factory knives that are (not to say there aren't any), but most traditional Kukris - at least those made by HI - are differentially heat treated. They're handmade, but are priced on par with many mid-priced US production fixed blades.
 
Blackjack Classic knives, made by Bark River, are differentially heat treated.

It's how you make stick tanged knives that can hang with full tang sharpened prybars.
 
Most of KA-BAR's Becker line are differentially HT'ed as well. It's not that big of a deal/difficult with any basic carbon steel. :)
 
Matthew SB,

Those blackjacks are nicely made but I dont think you can call them differentially heat treated. That term refers to the edge being harder than the spine, not blade harder than tang.
 
I read that first knife from Tops which had differential HT was Anaconda - designed by Dr. Ron Hood.
 
There are some Busse/Scrap Yard/Swamp Rat knives that are differentially hardened.
 
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