Alright, I'm going to clarify a few things. I don't typically hang out in Bladeforums, so I won't be going back and forth with anyone.
1. Contrary to what the C&D says, Rick Hinderer never reached out to me. Even when we were in the same chat room during the USA Made Blade livestream, Rick did not respond to me when I @'d him. When I joined the livestream with Whitty to talk about the situation, Rick chose to lurk in the comments rather than defend his position publicly.
2. I do not care about .2 Rockwell points. At all. My argument was that M390/20CV/204P are high wear resistance steel variants best run harder if used at all. I said 59 HRC M390 (the lower end of Hinderer's target range) is does not perform satisfactorily for me. 61 HRC (the higher end) I find personally acceptable, though I prefer higher in a high performance cutting tool. Keep in mind 59-61 is a very wide range. Additionally, I stated that if Hinderer's goal is durable, robust blades then perhaps a steel like 3V or MagnaCut would be more appropriate rather than taking a steel with low toughness by design (due to high carbide volume) and lowering its hardness to take away one of its only advantages as a blade steel. For those unfamiliar with the effect of hardness on edge retention, please see controlled cut tests by people like outpost76.
3. I have covered this numerous times, but the low thermal conductivity of steel means heat travels very slowly from the point of introduction. Grinding a flipper tab off under coolant would not affect the hardness on the flats where the blade was tested. This can be easily proven by testing any blade on the flats before grinding off the flipper tab slowly and under coolant, and then testing it again afterwards. The result will be the same. These are repeatable and easy to perform tests. In addition, I find it ironic that Hinderer would complain about a flipper tab when A) there is video evidence of him grinding with no coolant on Youtube, B) he was doing so on the bevels themselves C) recent Instagram posts show him sharpening on a belt grinder with no coolant again which has been shown by knifesteelnerds and others to lower the hardness at the edge where it matters and cause burning and fatigue at the apex.
4. Other companies have sent me soft blades before, as lemons and one-offs happen. WE Knives for example apologized and sent me a new blade with proper heat treat when I got a soft Bishop. I applauded them for it.
5. A +- .5 range can go either way. Assuming that something at 58.8 average Rockwell is automatically 59.3 doesn't make sense. It could also be 58.3. I left the door open to it possibly being in spec because, again, I do not care. I personally think the spec is suboptimal.
6. I did not say Hinderer uses "soft steel" in general. I made no claims about their other blade steels, except for their S45VN which I actually complimented because it performed well in cut testing. I took issue only with the spec and performance of their 20CV, nothing more nothing less.
7. The claim Hinderer has made and wants me to make in an apology video that M390 at 62 HRC or above is "chippy" would not only force me to lie because it isn't true, but also undermine companies doing a good job. Clark runs M390 at 63 HRC. Cultrotech runs it 62-64 HRC using Yanook heat treating. Spyderco runs Paramilitaries at 62 HRC. These knives perform well. Why should I say that good knives are bad just because Hinderer is upset? Take a 62 HRC M390 Para2 and a 59 HRC Hinderer (in spec). Cut test them. Tell me which performs better.
8. I'm sorry for being poor. I just started making knives in earnest. I promised to show receipts and donate any money not used on the gofundme to charity. If you don't believe me, that is your right. I'm just a stranger to you, especially if you've never heard of me before. However, I do not agree that being poor means I should be shit on by a larger company for having my own opinions on proper steel choice, optimal heat treat, and applicable edge geometries.
