Pro Soldier 55-57 RC ?

M

Merlperl

Joined
May 18, 2014
Messages
9
I just received a Professional soldier that I ordered from knifeart.com.

The "birth certificate" says that it was hardened to 55-57rc

The knife was made in Sept 2012 and is s35vn

The Chris reeve website says these knives are hardened to 58-59rc and even the Crucible website says this steel should be optimally hardened to 59-61.

I am curious to know if anyone else's Pro Soldier came that soft?

Also how will it affect the performance of the blade?

It seems to me it should be harder.

Btw I called Chris Reeve and briefly talked with Heather who is also going to look into my question but said initially that she thought the birth certificate card might be wrong.

What gives?
 
I do not own any CRK but something in the back of my mental Rolodex is telling me that sounds familiar. If I remember correctly the article quoted the hardness being RC56. Again, I can't give you specifics. I don't recall where I read it. It's a possibility I never even read it and am imagining the whole thing...:confused:
 
Brain freeze? I am interested to know if this article, real or imagined, was a positive write up about the hardness or if it, should it actually exist, expressed negativity with regard to that hardness?
 
My S35VN Nyala from 2010 states it is 58-59Rc. The A2 one pice knives were 55-57Rc.
 
Merlperl said:
I just received a Professional soldier that I ordered from knifeart.com.

The "birth certificate" says that it was hardened to 55-57rc

The knife was made in Sept 2012 and is s35vn

The Chris reeve website says these knives are hardened to 58-59rc and even the Crucible website says this steel should be optimally hardened to 59-61.

I am curious to know if anyone else's Pro Soldier came that soft?

Also how will it affect the performance of the blade?

It seems to me it should be harder.

Btw I called Chris Reeve and briefly talked with Heather who is also going to look into my question but said initially that she thought the birth certificate card might be wrong.

What gives?
Click to expand...

On the CRK website it shows the Pacific and the Green Beret at 55-57 HRC in the specs. The Pro Soldier is in the same family. I think the 58-59HRC on the website for the Pro Soldier is a typo, though is does state that, or maybe the older Pro Soldiers were softer. My understanding of the reason for the lower hardness on the military knives is that a broken blade is the worst-case scenario for a soldier, so they keep the hardness down a couple points below their folders. Edge retention is not a factor when your are trying to stay alive i suppose.

http://www.chrisreeve.com/Green-Beret
 
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That makes sense. Rather have a blade bend or need re sharpening than snap! As for me not only am I not in the military but survival to me means roughing it at home for lunch when my daughter has my car! Most action this knife will see is opening bills most likely. But still, I am curious to know if any other pro soldier owners have similarly "soft" knives?
 
Here is the article in question. Good thing I am a pack rat for all things CRK.....LOL. This is back when the PS was made with S30V which mine is. Enjoy...!!!











 
That's what I was thinking of. I knew someone would come up with it .
 
Thank you nyfemaker! I noticed they said the s30v was at 57-58. My s35vn is only 55-57. My A2 sable iv is at that same hardness but it seems this steel begs to be hardened at least a little higher than A2. Article was fulfilling but still interested in comments specific to whether or not this knife is to current spec?
 
"It seems to me it should be harder."

Why do you think it should be harder? Internet gossip? Opinions from self-professed experts?

Reeve and Harsey are professional knifemakers, with probably 35 years of experience each. Why not trust their judgement? There are thousands of words written about Reeve and his "too low" hardness, however the (idiot?) savants of the internet may disagree with CRK, but as of yet not one of them is a professional knifemaker.

Since "survival to me means roughing it at home for lunch when my daughter has my car" why not just rest easy and enjoy your knife.
 
brownshoe said:
"It seems to me it should be harder."

Why do you think it should be harder? Internet gossip? Opinions from self-professed experts?
Click to expand...

Brownshoe....don't be so quick to jump on the OP. Please note that the CRK website says it should be harder here, so there is every reason to expect it should be (note the specs): http://www.chrisreeve.com/Professional-Soldier

I agree with what you are saying, but there is clearly some mixed information regarding the heat-treat, or it has recently changed to a harder heat treat.
 
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Kidcongo nailed it. And I am just mostly curious. Just because I don't put myself into survival situations daily doesn't mean it couldn't happen. I hike a lot and here in SoCal you hear about hikers losing their way occasionally and having to deal with being on their own for a few days. So it's not like it would never happen. In any case I am just concerned because of the mixed information. That's all.
 
Given the name and intent of the knife it's not surprising that the makers trended towards a softer heat treat. Ease of edge sharpening, toughness, less big chipping... makes a lot of sense to me given the intended purpose.

Sometimes makers evolve and change their minds about things based on feedback before they get around to updating their websites. I'm sure he'd answer you if you asked.
 
kidcongo said:
On the CRK website it shows the Pacific and the Green Beret at 55-57 HRC in the specs. The Pro Soldier is in the same family. I think the 58-59HRC on the website for the Pro Soldier is a typo, though is does state that, or maybe the older Pro Soldiers were softer. My understanding of the reason for the lower hardness on the military knives is that a broken blade is the worst-case scenario for a soldier, so they keep the hardness down a couple points below their folders. Edge retention is not a factor when your are trying to stay alive i suppose.

http://www.chrisreeve.com/Green-Beret
Click to expand...

While I don't care for the pseudo-military nature of (and a lot of other things about) Strider knives, I've never heard of anyone breaking one of their fixed blades even under stupid hard use. I suspect that the "necessity" of these ultra soft heat treats is severely overstated and that it's completely possible to create ultra hard use knives with good to great edge retention properties (since Strider has done it consistently). Clearly CRK doesn't wish to offer this sort of knife, and that's fully their prerogative, but the above rational seems questionable IMO.
 
Just ignore "brownshoe" he is a troll, he didn't get that fancy custom title from Spark for nothing.....

One could agrue both ways here pretty much all day I think. I personally would prefer to see a higher hardness on smaller knives as you generally just don't use small knives for the sort of tasks that will cause the problems you can have with larger blades. As has been pointed out the knife is aimed at a prticular group and the softer heat treat should take more abuse but that could still be thought of as questionable. I have many knives that have been beaten on that are in the ~60RC range and are perfectly tough enough. I still see the lower RC as a bit of a miss though, given most Pro Soldiers will be used as neck or pocket knives for cutting every day things and perhaps a bit of out door or kitchen work. The softer heat treat really does nothing for you there. :)
 
Thanks haze! It seems to cut like a razor and hopefully it will stay that way for a while. At least it'll be easier to sharpen than my BG-42 sebenza!
 
Thanks for keeping me humble haze.

My tag is not from spark but from a past pile-on. Due to its nastiness, spark made the ability to give a tag to someone else so expensive it's never been done again. It, like you, help keep me humble.

By the way haze, direct personal insults are not considered proper form on BF.
 
I have a 3-11 S35VN one and on the card it's 55-57hrc as always seen
I'm hopefully getting a 13/14 insingo one tomorrow

will confront the 2 Birth Cards and give feedback, wondered the same as the OP last week as I ordered it , noticing the 58-59 on the CRK site

maybe after some testing time, the feedback was to have it at 58-59, like the sebs and the other CPM ones (could be? it's change-improvement too after all :thumbup: )
mine held well and I still have to sharpen it after a couple years (it's a backup for the UM when hiking) I believe both versions are good!
 
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