I've been buying stainless steel knives for a long time, then I started reading here a few years ago about carbon steels and their increased toughness for bushcraft and other things. I started remembering how I had really beat hard on various tools of my own, in particular an old pry bar and an old wood chisel, so it made sense that the right steel would bring some of this performance to a knife. I was in my garage today cleaning up some tools after a plumbing adventure and took this photo. Of course everybody has beat on chisels, and back when I was working as a mechanic we beat on screwdrivers a lot too. I've seen warnings to wear eye protection when using striking tools, and I've seen bearing races and such shatter when being beat on with chisels. And strangely as hard as chisels might be I've seen lots of them with mushrooms on the end where they have continually been hit with hammers, so this might be hard steel but also is pretty tough/ductile.
So I'm wondering what steels would likely be used in tools such as these and what Rc they might be hardened to, so I can relate it to what I read about blade steels.
So I'm wondering what steels would likely be used in tools such as these and what Rc they might be hardened to, so I can relate it to what I read about blade steels.
