Heat treat questions

[Sean Yaw]

I have two basic (and likely ignorant) questions related to heat treating stainless steel for slipjoints:
1 - Is any steel that is hardenable to ~48 HRC appropriate for a slipjoint spring, or is steel selection (with respect to appropriateness as a spring) more complicated than that?
2 - If a steel benefits from a cryo treatment, is there any sense in cryo treating the spring in addition the blade?

 

[Ken H>]

#1: Most any knife blade steel is suitable for the backspring on a slipjoint. Even AEB-L type SS makes a good backspring. Just temper around 1100°F to reduce the Rc hardness to desired level. I usually shoot for around 45 Rc hardness for backsprings.

#2: Other folks might have other ideas, but I don't see any reason at all for Cyro'ing backsprings.

 

[Signalprick]

I was told by a few guys there is no reason to cryo spring parts.