Rc confusion...

[Jared Stenoien]

I always thought that knives with Rc around 60-61 were pushing the limits of useabilty, but recently I've been reading about knives that are 64+, on a small thinly convexed S90v blade only to be used on soft materials, what would be the highest useable hardness? I ask this because I was going to go with Rc 61 but now I'm not so sure if I couldnt go harder and get the benefits of that

 

[Cliff Stamp]

I would suggest you drop Phil Wilson an email as he has worked extensively with the steel and has a focus on higher than average hardness and very fine edge geometries.

-Cliff

 

[Jared Stenoien]

thanks, that's actually who I'm going to have HT the steel, I didnt think about asking him for some reason...:foot:

 

[Phil Wilson]

mrstenoien, S90V in my experience is best at 59/61. I have been able to get it harder than that but it tends to get chippy on a thin edge. The only high percentage vanadium carbide CPM steel that works for a thin blade over RC62 is CPM 10V. I like 30V at 61 and CPM 154 at 62. My experience with 3V is limited so can't advise on that one. PHIL