The difference in steel hardness

Yes to the first (those numbers measure hardness, of course there is a difference,,,they are different numbers)

Possibly for the second, depending on ones experience....though 56 to 62 is pretty noticeable.
 
58 won't hold an edge as well as 62, but will be tougher and easier to sharpen. Different steels perform better at different hardnesses, and different applications call for different hardnesses.
 
Yes there is a difference 62 is harder... You should be able to notice a difference if it went threw a proper heat treat. Its possible to mess up and get the desired hardness without the desired properties you want for a knife.
 
Nathan Akins said:
What about 58 to 62? Is 58 soft?
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Depends on the steel and what you want to do with it. For an axe in something like 1055 58 is probably way too hard. For a medium to large fixed blade in 1095 it's probably about right. For an EDC folder in ZDP-189 it's way too soft.
 
If you use thin/sharp enough edge, you will notice 1HRC. I did at least, in a totally blind, long running test, which wasn't a test actually, Ive used 2 M2 steel knives and one was a bit harder then the other. Ended up with a thicker edge on the soft blade, because it kept getting dull easier. Few years later I found out, after measuring HRC on both.
58HRC can be soft or hard depending on the steel and what the knife is used for...
 
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