Rockwell Hardness is the Megapixels of Knife Specs

Love it!!!! You’re 100% right, nowadays people are obsessed with hrc values and some even ask a particular value to their knifemakers, when they should ask for the heat treatment that gives the best edge retention, without compromising toughness too much, or the heat treatment that gives better toughness, without sacrificing wear resistance too much, or the heat treatment (austenization and tempering temperatures) that gives better stain resistant properties, or the best austenization/tempering temperatures for that type of steel, instead, people ask for a number!!!! Incredible!
 
Thanks for this article! It's well written and very informative. I usually tell people in simple terms (I've learned alot of this from prior posts on bf and other resources ) this but you've explained that in great detail with supporting information and include data. Really enjoying all of your articles.
 
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Great article. Really helps understand the properties of steel for different applications. We simply have mutually exclusive needs for cutting tools. There is no such thing as one size fits all. I gravitate towards fine slicing tools, and my steel selections and heat treat are consistent with those parameters. If I was making axes, I’d be on a very different path.

What i’d love to see in future is micrographs of the steel structures that are present with the different heat treat regimes.
 
Willie71 said:
What i’d love to see in future is micrographs of the steel structures that are present with the different heat treat regimes.
Click to expand...
Sometimes the differences in heat treatment are on a very fine scale, such as plate vs lath martensite or cementite precipitation with tempered martensite embrittlement. It may not be possible to see the difference between the three CruForgeV heat treatments shown in the article, for example. But I will try to incorporate more micrographs where I can.
 
Great article Larrin!
This could help explain why some companies are accused of running their steel "soft", yet claiming a pretty standard HRC.
 
Another great article.

Looking at the charts clearly shows why I recommend tempering most steels around 45oF. Very tough and still very hard. That is what makes a knife edge last.
 
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