What can custom knives offer over production knives BESIDES individuality?

flatgrinder said:
Factory knives are not heat treated properly -often too soft.
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You're kidding, right?

Otherwise you should contact those factories and offer your services as a heat treating consultant. You can make a fortune. I'm sure Paul Bos over at Buck would be happy to hear from ya!
:D
 
What is considered custom? If I go to a maker's page and click on the 'available' link, I don't really think any of those are customized. Or, if they only offer 2 or 3 steels or handle options, there are some companies that do the same for certain models.
 
KW - I presume that flatgrinder meant that most factory knives don't heat treat to achieve the maximum level of hardness possible. Factory knives do tend to run for the tougher, less hard route for their offerings.

BM and M2 for example. Could have been 64HRc, instead ran with 61HRc or so. Ditto D2 and other steels.

The perception that buyers value ease of sharpening and to lower "blade snapping", among other considerations, probably play their part.
 
Kevin Wilkins said:
You're kidding, right?

Otherwise you should contact those factories and offer your services as a heat treating consultant. You can make a fortune. I'm sure Paul Bos over at Buck would be happy to hear from ya!
:D
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Paul Bos heat treats my blades :D . And I'm very happy with his work.

I just think D2 should be run at HRC 60-61, rather than the HRC 57-58 that Benchmade uses on D2 -to name one company. 3 points makes quite a noticeable difference in edge retention.

Another example is CRK's Sebenza, I personally feel that he should have his S30V blades at HRC 60 rather than HRC 58. Nice knife, shame about the edge retention.

As orthogonal1 said, factories are probably looking for a "tougher" blade that's easy to sharpen rather than one which stays sharp for a long time. Plus, it's probably cheaper to HT to a lower hardness (as less heat is involved) and I doubt every factory cryos every blade of every model -these two reasons are probably why factory knives have a lower hardness of approx. HRC 3.

-Just my .02 from personal experience. :)
 
I am pretty sure Chris Reeves knows a thing or two about heat treating and has his very good reasons for running his s30v at the hardness he does. My Sebbie has excellent edge retention.
 
flatgrinder said:
I just think D2 should be run at HRC 60-61, rather than the HRC 57-58 that Benchmade uses on D2 -to name one company. 3 points makes quite a noticeable difference in edge retention.
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??? BM advertises 59-61 on their D2 blades (eg CSK, Nim, 806, Stryker)
 
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