heat treat ?

[cut it out]

what is best and what are advantages vs. disadvantages of case hardend vs. through hardened? what do you guys prefer? thanks

 

[Obsessed with Edges]

If I understand what I read about case hardening, it implies hardening a relatively thin surface layer of the steel, which provides good abrasion resistance. For parts that are machined/ground only ONCE (at time of manufacture), and then case hardened afterwards, this would make them more durable (like machine parts/gears). Don't think this would be practical for knives, as the surface layer would presumably be ground away every time the knife edge was sharpened. So far as I know, knife blades must me through-hardened.

That's my relatively uneducated two cent's worth...

 

[mete]

On a knife case hardening has no use. For other items the hard wear resistant surface and tough core provide certain advantages. For a roller bearing a case hardened one won't give catastrofic failure [ races breaking] .Failure would only be spalling of the hardened part. Through hardened failure might produce a broken race.