What do we know about Demko heat treat and hardness targets across their range of steel offerings?

[Mr. Spock]

I enjoy a variety of the Demko designs but I reached out asking about hardness targets for their different steels and they told me they aim for 60-62 on all of their steels. This might be perfectly appropriate for 3v but it’s quite soft for others they use like MagnaCut and CruWear.

Is there other information out there that can provide more insight into the performance of their heat treat(s)? Performance in a knife is very important to me and so a dialed in heat treat is important to me.

 

[RocketFoot]

This would be a great question for Demko Knives MWallace

 

[Demko Knives MWallace]

I lack the expertise to address this. That being said I will speak with Andrew and get RC hardness specifics on MagnaCut and CruWear.

 

[Mr. Spock]

I lack the expertise to address this. That being said I will speak with Andrew and get RC hardness specifics on MagnaCut and CruWear.

I appreciate that!

 

[Demko Knives MWallace]

So this comes straight from the top. Magnacut is 61RC + / - In our testing that gave us the best performance.
CruWear is heat treated per the manufacturer’s recommendation.

 

[Big_Tex]

I've emailed back and forth with Andrew Demko and these are the numbers he has given me when I've asked:

M4 - 62-64 HRC
Magnacut - 62 HRC
Cruwear - 62 HRC (was given that number this morning)
XHP - 62 HRC

 

[Mr. Spock]

I've emailed back and forth with Andrew Demko and these are the numbers he has given me when I've asked:

M4 - 62-64 HRC
Magnacut - 62 HRC
Cruwear - 62 HRC (was given that number this morning)
XHP - 62 HRC

How long ago were you corresponding with Andrew? The 62 for MagnaCut conflicts with what has “come from the top” very recently

 

[Big_Tex]

How long ago were you corresponding with Andrew? The 62 for MagnaCut conflicts with what has “come from the top” very recently

The email regarding Magnacut HRC was from late June 2024 and he shared "Our magnacut is specified to come in at 62. We may try to push the RC higher in the future to 63-64 as we have a lot of requests but that brings lots of manufacturing challenges we are trying to figure out."

 

[Mr. Spock]

The last part is particularly interesting, thanks for sharing!