Elmax HT-hardness?

G

Gatogordo

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May 31, 2005
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I apologize if this has been covered elsewhere, but I searched for BF for Elmax and after reading 3 or 4 of the 40plus pages, mostly with knives for sale, and after searching the web, I still can't find an answer.

I note that most Elmax knives for sale seem to have a hardness in the 58-60 range, with 59-60 being the most common. Uddeholm seems to think 58-62 is the best range for this steel.

Why are not more or some Elmax knives HT to 61-62? Is it simply more difficult or does the edge lose something at that higher hardness or is there nothing gained by it? Thanks for any insights.
 
I have the same question. I plan to make kitchen cutlery out of Elmax and I would like it HT'd to Rc 62. Anyone have any experience with that high a hardness?

Tim
 
Well, I had to "push" a bit but I knew the person doing the heat treating was well experienced and had done lots of quality work for me. He came up with the 60.0 to 61.5. One of these blades with a 3 3/4" drop point blade went into one of my folders. It was used on a moose not only for the gutting but also skinning. The customer was estatic and wondered why he should give it back to me to check out how it stood up and to evaluate how "not" sharp it now was. He had said he didn't think it needed to be touched up. It was "pretty darn good" alright but not as sharp as Elmax and M390 can get. Here is a little after note about these steels. I messed up grinding on a blade after heat treating and decided I would grind it feather thin to see if it was still flexible . Every once in a while I still pick it up and blow hard on it. It waves but still hasn't fallen apart even when I give it a tweek with a finger.
Frank
 
I use elmax steel on all my kitchen and hunting knives. Most blades are ground to 0.012 at the edge before sharpening.
There all heat treated at Peters and 61 to 62 Rc . I haven't had any problem with my knives for hunting and kitchen but they are not made for chopping. If I do. Camp knife I leave 0.020 at the edge and have them 60rc
 
Conventional wisdom is that Elmax is a totally different steel (in a good way) when you get it over 60Rc.
 
I had good results at 61. Don't believe that 58-59 is optimal just because factory knives are made that way.
 
I also have heard that Elmax sweet spot is 60.5-61.5. Poor performance below that, too chippy above that.
 
I have two Alan Davis folders in elmax, he quoted me 61 and heat treats himself. These knives are a whole other ball game then zero tolerance blades. They really hold an edge and feel quite a bit different on my stones, be it a shapton or a diamond plate. The sod buster he made me is my favorite folder and a big part of it is the edge retention. Russ
 
I am remembering a discussion I had with someone a couple of years ago about Elmax. Can't remember who, but it was someone who had used the stuff. I do believe that Elmax is pretty darn tough (for stainless steel) and some people leave it a bit soft in order to enhance that toughness. His opinion was that you don't really give up much in the way of toughness by going over 60Rc, but what you gain is abrasion resistance, etc, that is not worse than like 80% of that you get with the crazy allowed stuff like M390, etc. and a steel that is tougher, easier to work with and a bit cheaper. One other thing I picked up for the B-U guy at Blade is the it really needs LN cold treatment for maximum effect. It is one of those alloys that needs to get about 15-20 degrees colder than you can typically get with dry ice.
 
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