Steel hardness

J

John Savage

Joined
Apr 28, 2021
Messages
34
I'm a little confused, which happens often in my life, but... I've been going between 2 edc knives for awhile, one is a Chinese schrade sharp finger, the other is a Chinese shrade schf57, with the steel being a 65mn, supposedly close to 1095... I think both of these blades are great edc bcz they're very inexpensive, im not gonna carry a really good knife everyday to get dropped on concrete etc n they're a good fixed blade size, not too scary looking for the general masses..my question is, everywhere I've looked on the internet it's saying this steel hardened is bout 28-34 on the Rockwell C scale..as it's description is a high carbon steel, it's not easy to sharpen, comes new in the box very dull as well btw, what am I missing here as I'm quite sure that a good knife hardness would be in the 58-62 range in hardness..id post some pics but I haven't figured out how to do that yet. Thanks 👍
 
Last edited:
OklahomaOutlaw said:
schf57_front.jpg


HCHF57…can’t find the other one.
Click to expand...
Yup that's it..thanks
 
shane45-1911 said:
Or....it IS right. No wonder you can't sharpen it, lol. That would be like trying to sharpen Jello.
Click to expand...
It's bout 53 Rc someone found out on the thread here...not too bad, but it does need sharpening often it seems..right now it's razor sharp but I've yet to cut a box open today yet 😆
 
The Mastiff said:
65mn is 1065 and not 1095. If I'm not mistaken it's more what hammers and wrenches are made from and not really a preferred knife steel.
Click to expand...
Much closer to 5160 I see after looking it up again.. fairly tough steel but won't hold a great edge..part knife, part pry bar😁👍
 
John Savage said:
I'm a little confused, which happens often in my life, but... I've been going between 2 edc knives for awhile, one is a Chinese schrade sharp finger, the other is a Chinese shrade schf57, with the steel being a 65mn, supposedly close to 1095... I think both of these blades are great edc bcz they're very inexpensive, im not gonna carry a really good knife everyday to get dropped on concrete etc n they're a good fixed blade size, not too scary looking for the general masses..my question is, everywhere I've looked on the internet it's saying this steel hardened is bout 28-34 on the Rockwell C scale..as it's description is a high carbon steel, it's not easy to sharpen, comes new in the box very dull as well btw, what am I missing here as I'm quite sure that a good knife hardness would be in the 58-62 range in hardness..id post some pics but I haven't figured out how to do that yet. Thanks 👍
Click to expand...

65Mn is fairly close to 1065 Carbon Steel. It just has Manganese added to it for improved hardenability.

The hardness to which a steel is heat treated is going to depend on the usage. This alloy is commonly used for springs. And for such a usage 28-34 HRC is reasonable. It's also used for machetes and other large blades subject to impact in use. For that sort of usage, I would expect it to be hardened to 54-55HRC.

I don't know what the highest hardness possible is for 1065 or 65MN. If they take it "as quenched" without tempering, they might be able to deliver close to 60.

That's why, if the manufacturer does not state what his hardness spec is, all bets are off as to what you got. You just have to go use it and see how well it works for what you want to do with it.
 
And would you folks PLEASE stop plastering this thread with pictures labelled with the name of a non-supporting knife dealer?
 
One potential excuse they are "difficult" to sharpen is they are really thick behind the edges, because the original edge is an obtuse 60 to 70 degrees inclusive.
I noticed that on a couple of my offshore Schrade folders, and the USA Sharp finger I bought back in the 1980's, and the USA 6OT and 7OT I bought in the 1990's. (The Buck 110's used to be fat like that, too)

After reprofiling and thinning the edges to 20 or 30 Degrees inclusive (10 to 15 DPS) they are easy to sharpen, and cut/slice and hold a working edge better than when the edge was fat/obtuse.
 
Last edited:
knarfeng said:
65Mn is fairly close to 1065 Carbon Steel. It just has Manganese added to it for improved hardenability.

The hardness to which a steel is heat treated is going to depend on the usage. This alloy is commonly used for springs. And for such a usage 28-34 HRC is reasonable. It's also used for machetes and other large blades subject to impact in use. For that sort of usage, I would expect it to be hardened to 54-55HRC.

I don't know what the highest hardness possible is for 1065 or 65MN. If they take it "as quenched" without tempering, they might be able to deliver close to 60.

That's why, if the manufacturer does not state what his hardness spec is, all bets are off as to what you got. You just have to go use it and see how well it works for what you want to do with it.
Click to expand...
Really good info, thanks.. makes sense it can be hardened to whatever the application of the steel is going to be.. I think for an edc cheap fixed blade it works fairly well, tho I switch between couple other knives.. I can get it very sharp after a lil stropping, tho when I looked up the 65mn n only saw an Rc of 34 it threw me LOL.. Thanks again 👍
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top