Rockwell hardness tester to sniff out counterfeits?

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Bucktool_02

Joined
Nov 11, 2005
Messages
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The recent discussions about highly detailed counterfeits reaching our shores and showing up on ebay has got me a little worried. Most of my knife purchases are from ebay, and I try to buy from sellers with good histories. I'm just wondering if there's any more lines of defense.

Would a Rockwell hardness tester reveal anything useful on a suspect knife? Would putting a dimple from the hardness testing on the blade void any warranty, if turns out to be a real Spyderco or Benchmade?

Any thoughts anyone?
 
Among other difficulties, a Rockwell tester co$t$ $um $seriou$ buck$. Buy yourself a second home instead; you'll have twice as much space to keep your knives in. :cool:
 
Cougar Allen said:
Among other difficulties, a Rockwell tester co$t$ $um $seriou$ buck$. Buy yourself a second home instead; you'll have twice as much space to keep your knives in. :cool:
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Google searching, I did see some handheld gizmos that were for Rockwell testing, unfortunately I didn't see price tags. I ASS-sumed, they couldn't be that expensive.

With my luck I'll get an affordable one that turns out to be a counterfeit.
 
The last time I used a Rockwell hardness tester was in 1965. It was a large and obviously expensive bench-mounted device.
 
Bucktool_02 said:
Google searching, I did see some handheld gizmos that were for Rockwell testing, unfortunately I didn't see price tags. I ASS-sumed, they couldn't be that expensive.

With my luck I'll get an affordable one that turns out to be a counterfeit.
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Even a portable unit runs about $1,000.
 
you can get them cheaper on the bay, I have one that I want to send in for recert
 
a rockwell test needs a certain thickness and it needs the two faces to be flat and parallel not sure how easy it would be for a knife blade.
 
You ebay'ers can play the ebay game all you want, but when I buy a knife, I buy from a reputable dealer. I get two things when I do (realizing I may spend more money). I get more than a reasonable assurance it's genuine, and I have someone to go back to if there's a problem with the piece. You can bet anyone using a "trade name" on a counterfeit is committing business suicide.

Dr. Mudd is right on the tester, the last one I saw was in 1976 and it cost a wad....not a small wad at that! It could be used if there were two parallel surfaces, but could not be used on a "grind". Further this one I used weighed in at 500 lbs or so.
 
You can buy used decent calibrated hardness tester on C scale for about $1000 from the dealer, but also you will need to learn how to use it, which is not complicated, but little more complicated that most people think.
Also, it will tell you only hardness of the blade and nothing else. If counterfeit made out of harden steel you will see nothing wrong.Even with poor heat treat you can reach required Rc, but other properties of steel will be bad.
I would stick with reliable sellers.
 
s0rce said:
a rockwell test needs a certain thickness and it needs the two faces to be flat and parallel not sure how easy it would be for a knife blade.
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Depends on the shape of the blade. I have had several of my blades tested on the tester at work. So far I have always found a flat spot.
 
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