Knife Blades?

15 yrs ago i new a little more about the blades. i know a guy who would know. but IF my memory serves me correctly [ and i could EASILY be corrected on this] steel is meaured by Rockwell hardness. some knives that are hard to sharpen have a higher hardness #. some that are ver easy to sharpen, have a low rockwell hardness #. but on the oposite end- those hadr to shapen, harder steel blades will hold there edge longer and those with a smaller rockwell hardness , that are easy to sharpen dont hold their edge as long.

the trick is to find an in between that suits each person.

maybe someone with ALOT more info will chim in with better info, instead of going off an old memory ](*,) lol

My ancestors were blacksmiths in the late 1800's and my dad has most of their equipment. He has made knives for decades and I have apprenticed under him on a couple of knives. He does his own tempering in oil and he does it by the color of the heated steel. I don't know what the hardness would rate, but he says it is better to be a little on the soft side vs being too hard due to brittleness issues. He makes the edge harder than the main body to keep the blades from breaking. My two knives hold an edge real well. He prefers leaf springs out of certain vintage cars (50's-70's) as he says the newer ones have too much carbon.

I agree with both of you guys about using the high carbon steel and heat treating it so that it is usable but still durable. I also agree that it is better to be on the soft side than the hard and brittle side. Thanks for the feed back so far.

I’m NO knife expert; I do have a bit of experience with metals and hardness/stress and reliability of metals put under stress.
For a knife I look for hardness, between 57-60 with 59 being ideal, The knifes that I have, that perform the best for me have been tested and are 58’s and 59’s, they hold a edge, I can sharpen them without to much trouble and retain a bit of flex.
Only my 2 cents
M. Bird

Thanks a lot for all the feed back. I plan on puting it to very good use! :thumb

Carbon steel for me. Most of my knives' blades are made of that and it's better than stainless steel.