How hard can 52100 get?

Very broad question....even to ask max "working hardness", because not all work is the same. Kitchen knife vs camp knife, for example. 52100 can reach 67, 13C26 can reach 64, O1 can reach 65, Shiro can reach 67. Now some HT protocols may actually increase these numbers slightly, but at the expense of a fine, well dispersed carbide and grain structure. One could probably leave as quenched hardness with these steels on dedicated kitchen slicers and the like, with experienced hands only. You can already start to see the many variables that could come into play when trying to answer your question. Max working hardness....I suppose you could say drop a couple points each. Usual working hardness for 13C26 would be 61, same with O1, same with 52100. Shiro, because it usually is a dedicated kitchen knife steel (usually....yes there are plenty hunters and chisels and etc with White steel), is usually kept higher in hardness....maybe around 63-64. This is just a quick generalization formulated by opinion....there will be differing answers.
 
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