|
|
Heat Treating and Metallurgy Discussion of heat treatment and metallurgy in knife making. |
|
Thread Tools | Display Modes |
#1
|
|||
|
|||
knife hardness
where is a good place to find info on how hard different kinds of knives should be?
Doug Jn. 3:16 |
#2
|
|||
|
|||
Doug,
Generally speaking a quality knife should be at least in the mid 50sHRC and up. Once you get much past 64HRC, most steels are just too hard (Some steels like ZDP189 seem to hold 66HRC well). For example, the better knife brands like Wustoff and Henkels and Victorinox kitchen knives are around 57HRC, and use a stainless steel that has around 0.5% carbon. They're good knives, better than many, not as good as some. Japanese kitchen knives use mostly carbon steel like White and Blue and Super Blue, and are often around 64HRC. I would say the average HRC of quality knives, like hand made knives with good steel and heat treatment, is 60-61HRC. This is a good balance of strength (hardness) vs toughness. The more abuse a knife will undergo, the softer you want it generally speaking, but probably no lower than the upper 50sHRC. I wouldn't want ANY knife that was 57HRC or under. My personal philosophy about hardness in a blade, it should be at LEAST 60HRC. If 60HRC is not giving the toughness needed, then choose a different steel that will be tough at 60HRC. Vary the steel, not the hardness (generally speaking). |
#3
|
|||
|
|||
Thanks
|
Tags |
a, blade, carbon, choose, hand, hand made, heat, heat treatment, japanese, kitchen, kitchen knives, knife, knives, made, stainless, stainless steel, toughness, victorinox, white |
Currently Active Users Viewing This Thread: 1 (0 members and 1 guests) | |
|
|
Similar Threads | ||||
Thread | Thread Starter | Forum | Replies | Last Post |
rc hardness of ats 34 | 22H2 | The Folding Knife (& Switchblade) Forum | 3 | 07-06-2012 04:10 PM |
RC Hardness vs Knife Purpose | xspook2158 | Knife Making Discussions | 2 | 01-02-2012 12:35 PM |
Hardness and RC numbers | Txcwboy | The Newbies Arena | 5 | 02-28-2006 07:41 PM |
Best RC hardness ? | Predator | Heat Treating and Metallurgy | 13 | 12-09-2004 06:48 PM |
5160 Knife Blade Hardness | yahooty | Knife Making Discussions | 2 | 06-25-2003 02:56 PM |