Who does the best heat treat on factory produced blades?

L

lonestar1979

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Mar 2, 2014
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I know Buck has good heat treatment for their steels, but what are the others that heat treat the blades that perform better than other brands by using better HT to get most out of certain steel.I am talking about production blades!
 
For the range of steels they use, CPK/Keffler (S!K 3V by extension) comes to mind.
 
Opinel's 12C27Mod (Sandvik) stainless is done very well, and likely rivals their 'carbone' blades (XC90) in hardness and edge-holding.

Queen's D2 blades also have a good reputation (Peters' Heat Treating does them for Queen).


David
 
Well some may be surprised but I have found Cold Steel to be very good. From their inexspensive $10 Kitchen Classic paring knives from Krups German 4116 steel (which I EDC in a sheath and own three of them) to their BD-1 large Voyager to their CTS-XHP which I have many of. I'm happy with ALL OF THEM.

PS : Here's a forzample . . . I have never spent much time with S35VN and decided I would remedy that. I remembered I have a Cold Steel Lucky that I bought to use only the serrated blade on that two blade knife (up until now I just ignored the plane edge blade. So I decided to reprofile the edge a bit to get it in line with the geometry I usually like to use. When I took that blade to my 10 inch DMT 220 grit diamond plate I swear it took more effort and strokes to reprofile than my Spyderco S110V which was very easy to reprofile.
Hmmmmmmm
I thought one of the high points of S35VN was that it was relatively easy to sharpen and polish. Anyway I'm not complaining. Seems to be good and hard.
 
Last edited:
Wowbagger said:
Well some may be surprised but I have found Cold Steel to be very good. From their inexspensive $10 Kitchen Classic paring knives from Krups German 4116 steel (which I EDC in a sheath and own three of them) to their BD-1 large Voyager to their CTS-XHP which I have many of. I'm happy with ALL OF THEM.

PS : Here's a forzample . . . I have never spent much time with S35VN and decided I would remedy that. I remembered I have a Cold Steel Lucky that I bought to use only the serrated blade on that two blade knife (up until now I just ignored the plane edge blade. So I decided to reprofile the edge a bit to get it in line with the geometry I usually like to use. When I took that blade to my 10 inch DMT 220 grit diamond plate I swear it took more effort and strokes to reprofile than my Spyderco S110V which was very easy to reprofile.
Hmmmmmmm
I thought one of the high points of S35VN was that it was relatively easy to sharpen and polish. Anyway I'm not complaining. Seems to be good and hard.
Click to expand...

On coarse diamond hones, a big part of the disparity in grinding speed often comes down to differences in each steel's tendency to clog the surface of the hone. A more ductile steel with a fairly high chromium content (like S35VN) would likely be more prone to clogging the hone with swarf than the 110V would. I've noticed similar disparities between low-alloy stainless (420HC, 440A, etc) and something like ZDP-189, on diamond hones. Grinding can come almost to a halt with the low-alloy stainless, especially on an unwetted hone, due to the steel's extreme tendency to blanket the abrasive with ribbons of steel swarf (I picture it like the old-school aluminum 'tinsel' we used to drape on christmas trees). ZDP-189, which is much, much less ductile and extremely hard, grinds more easily because it'll tend to produce swarf in chips, which aren't as likely to clog the hone. I've also noticed similar differences between S30V and S90V, of which my S90V Spyderco seems to grind much easier on a diamond hone, than S30V.


David
 
Cold steel heat treating is pretty good,the one I do not like is vg10from spyderco,its too soft and doesn't hold edge as it should at least in my knife(delica)
 
That's really tough to say, without extensive testing. Most major knife-makers do a pretty good job, IMHO, as their reputation depends on the quality of their blades. I'm more leery of lower-priced knives.
 
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