Thread: How Hard Are The Vintage Blades

Yesterday was the best day to find another something to do...

Very interesting inquiry, Bill. I'm quite curious to know the results myself. What I think would be equally interesting is to have some sort of metalurgical analysis done on a few blades. So we can see exactly how much of each element when into the steel. Unfourtunently, as I understand it, such analysis would result in the destruction of the blade.

About the poll: Isn't a range of 10 HRC kind of wide? If I recall, when I was looking at some knifes, there were almost all within 5HRC of each other.

Yesterday was the best day to find another something to do...

I know nothing about metallurgy so I don't have any face to lose, but I've always assumed the vintage sheffield blades were 57-60, the pumas and swedes were 59-62, the americans were 60-62, and the friodurs were 61-63.

Edit: Some guys have PM'ed about this. This is just a guesstimate. Puma knives are hardened to 57-59 accd to info I've seen, and I've always heard that 65+ is essentially unhoneable due to hardness and brittleness. Since I use an arkansas stone on both my knives and razors, I'm interpolating between these two extremes based on how they feel on the hone -- this may or may not be reliable. Puma tests all their knives for hardness, at least all of mine have a little indentation from where the diamond pressed into the steel, and all of my Puma knives have a very consistent feel on the hone that is similar to how my best sheffields feel, so I really doubt that the vintage sheffields are much lower or higher than this.

I was thinking of the ballpark of 60 as someone mentioned it here earlier. I'm glad my assumption was correct. A better question would be "how hard would be too hard to hone with our gear, within a reasonable amount of time?"

Id say pretty soft, 45-55. But maybe even lower...

Nenad

I know I sent in three razors for testing some time ago.

1. an old Wade and Butcher
2. an old Case razor
3. a broken Puma razor

I thought it would be interesting to get some analysis on the blades of the vintage Sheffields, Case, which I consider one of the best Americans, and Puma - premium quality Solingen stuff.

I won't post the results yet but I'll send them to Bill via PM so he can add them to his testing list. This is an interesting poll.

I have a Rockwell machine in my shop. It's not milspec anymore, but will definitely give good results within a half point either side.

I'd much rather have broken pieces or blade flakes to test. The diamond point has been the source of fractures on blades that were too brittle.

Originally Posted by Mike Blue

The diamond point has been the source of fractures on blades that were too brittle.

Is it possible to test the tang/tail, or does the blade have to be tested? Is only the blade treated or the whole kit and kaboodle?

C utz

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