Kitchen knife question

It could be etched or polished. The soft cladding that doesn't harden like the core steel can often polish up different. That's how traditional Japanese finishing through polishing can result in the kasumi finish, a soft hazy finish versus say a shiny finish on the core steel.

If it's mass produced, my bet is that is etched. Usually etching will give a lot more contrast than simple polishing.
 
Yes it does look like it's been acid etched but I suppose that it's faint because those are stainless steels. Also 60-62HRC for a knife is a wide range imo. the performance can vary quite a bit. Idk, I'm still learning so might be wrong.
 
Tehemton said:
Also 60-62HRC for a knife is a wide range imo. the performance can vary quite a bit. Idk,
Click to expand...

respectfully, I don't think it's that wide and I would be curious what other's think.
I'm basing my opinion on personal hardness tests done on my knives and test coupons of several high carbon steels. HRC points taken across various parts of the blade.

I also think that in practical terms it's like saying 61 HRC +/- 1 point.
I don't believe most people could tell the sharpening difference or performance cutting difference of 1 or even 2 points across the same knife at that hardness range.

I think if you are a knifemaker and you give a range of two points on your knife, it doesn't sound like you have the HT variations dialed in well, that's the appearance of that statement. The conversations are that such variation is sloppy HT or that's what production knife ranges are.

I'm not saying that hardness can't be more consistent at +/- .5, but I wouldn't call +/- 1 a wide range

regards
 
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Agreed Harbeer. It's perfectly acceptable. IIRC, hardness testers are going to have an error range, like you mentioned, of plus/minus 1HRC point anyway. So if you shoot for 61, then to say it is 60-62 falls exactly in line with tolerances alone, much less any variations in the HT itself!
 
Thanks all for the replies.

I would agree with Harbeer as well, considering even NIST certified test blocks can vary as much as almost 1 point between certification test numbers on a block.
 
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