Category: Hardness

1 thought on “Hardness”

  1. Very interesting informative and a very personable approach. Excellent read and highly recommended

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Hardness, Nitrogen-alloyed

Why Nitrogen Knife Steels are Soft

Larrin

Thanks to the new Knife Steel Nerds Patreon supporters! Hunter Chen, Claas, Curtis Fowler, Saptak Dutta, Tracker Dan, Paul Pedrazzi, 150LAT10N, James Kane, Vincent Franchino, and Jack Bashear.

I also have some Patreon-exclusive bonus content related to this article such as Nitrobe 77, Nitro-V, and 14C28N steel hardness data and experiments on the effects of the high temperature temper on nitrogen steel hardness. read more

Austenitizing, Cryo, Edge Retention, Edge Stability, Hardness, Heat Treating and Processing, Tempering, Toughness

What is the Best Hardness for MagnaCut Knives?

Larrin

Thanks to the new members of our Knife Steel Nerds Patreon community:

Chris Hancock, Chad Morris, Edward Voss, Liam Gogley, Erik Turner, Nathan Raptis, Nick Dunham, Joe Busic, Will Red Five Forge, Dmitry Kiyatkin, Edward Edmonds, Asinelli, Mattew Reagan, Nate, Dan Barrett, Malachi Chou-Green, Nats Spawnee, McKenzie Kelsay, Jantz Supply, Adam Webb, Brian Baley, Blade HQ, and Mark Demshock. read more

Austenitizing, Cryo, Hardness, Heat Treating and Processing, Nitrogen-alloyed, Tempering

Heat Treating Vanax – How Hard Does it Get?

Larrin

Thanks to David Suitor, Drakopoulos Stelios, and Maxim Bellehumeur for becoming Knife Steel Nerds Patreon supporters!

Vanax

Vanax is an interesting steel because of its good combination of toughness, wear resistance, and corrosion resistance. I wrote about Vanax along with other nitrogen-alloyed steels in this article, to describe how the steel is designed. While the datasheet shows it being capable of 59-61 Rc, I was curious about how hard the steel can go. The steel may be good for kitchen knives, for example, where very thin edges and high hardness is common. And kitchen knife users may appreciate the excellent corrosion resistance of Vanax in the presence of water, salt, and acidic foods. read more

Cryo, Hardness, Heat Treating and Processing

Cryogenic Processing of Steel Part 1 – Maximizing Hardness

Larrin

Thanks to Hiroaki Misono and Robert Venable for becoming Knife Steel Nerds Patreon supporters!

Heat Treating and Austenitizing

During heat treatment of steel, the steel is heated to a high temperature called the “austenitizing” temperature where a phase called austenite is formed. Steel has different phases which refer to different arrangements of iron atoms within the steel. Austenite has a different set of properties from the typical room temperature phase of steel. One example of the different properties of austenite is that it is non-magnetic unlike the room temperature ferrite or martensite. read more

Hardness, Metallurgy Principles, Steel and Knife Properties

Rockwell Hardness is the Megapixels of Knife Steel Specs

Larrin

Thanks to Michael Drinkwine for becoming a Knife Steel Nerds Patreon supporter!

Hardness and Megapixels

In the early-to-mid 2000’s with digital cameras and somewhat more recently with smartphone cameras we had the battle of megapixels. The number of megapixels is simply the number of pixels that are captured by a digital camera. When we had 0.3 megapixel cameras the pictures were quite blurry and jumping up to 2 or 3 megapixels made a big difference. However, when comparing 5 to 7 megapixels the quality of the image was much more likely to be controlled by the quality of the lens and sensor than simply the number of megapixels. Despite that, megapixels became an easy marketing point because it is a simple number to present to the public. We haven’t seen rockwell hardness climbing for no reason other than marketing, but it is one of the few simple numbers that are used to advertise for a knife. Therefore it is often misunderstood by knife buyers, and yes, even some knife makers. In this article I cover some simple reasons why hardness is not as important as other factors for predicting most steel properties. And then we get into the nitty gritty with why hardness is not always the same as strength and how heat treatment can affect strength independent of hardness. read more