Heat treating survival knife best steel.

SpookStrickland said:
I'm just wondering what steel is naturally stronger and holds an edge better when you take the heat treat out of the equation. I was thinking that steel might make the best "long term" survival knife.
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You can't take heat treat out of the equation. No common knife steel will hold an edge worth a damn until it's properly HT'ed. At that point you may as well use scrap metal or a soup can lid and save yourself a whole lot of money and trouble.

The cheapest Dollar Store "surgical stainless" knife will perform better for longer than an annealed piece of pretty much any super steel you can name, given the same geometry. The exception is cobalt-bearing "steels" that don't require HT as we usually think of it (Talonite, Stellite, etc) and ceramics... so maybe you could look into those.
 
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Generally, the temperature would need to exceeded 350 - 400 degrees Fahrenheit to alter the temper.
 
james terrio said:
You can't take heat treat out of the equation. No common knife steel will hold an edge worth a damn until it's properly HT'ed. At that point you may as well use scrap metal or a soup can lid and save yourself a whole lot of money and trouble.

The cheapest Dollar Store "surgical stainless" knife will perform better for longer than an annealed piece of pretty much any super steel you can name, given the same geometry. The exception is cobalt-bearing "steels" that don't require HT as we usually think of it (Talonite, Stellite, etc) and ceramics... so maybe you could look into those.
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Ok that's good know, so no matter what steel I use if it loses it's treatment it is about worthless.
 
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