milkbaby
Well-Known Doofus
Inspired by one of the threads in the sharpening sub, I was wondering how people decide on what hardness to temper to and how much you adjust that to accommodate edge geometry and sharpening angles.
I don't have a hardness tester, but I'm working with simple eutectoid (or almost) carbon steels 1084 and 15N20, and I do my own heat treat in a small two brick forge with canola oil quench. I'm guessing that I'm probably getting close to listed "as quenched" hardness for these two steels and use internet info (like Kevin Cashen's site and Alpha Knife Supply) to choose tempering temps. I will probably try some 1095 in the future too as in the thin cross sections used for kitchen knives, it seems people have decent results quenching in medium fast quenchant like canola oil.
Will much more acute sharpening angles always be more chippy even at lower hardness? 15N20 is supposed to be very tough like L6, so can it be left at higher hardness than 1084 or 1095 and be less chippy? Also, since these steels are relatively simple carbon steels without a lot of alloying elements, they should be less wear resistant yet suffer less microchipping from carbide tear out, right?
I don't have a hardness tester, but I'm working with simple eutectoid (or almost) carbon steels 1084 and 15N20, and I do my own heat treat in a small two brick forge with canola oil quench. I'm guessing that I'm probably getting close to listed "as quenched" hardness for these two steels and use internet info (like Kevin Cashen's site and Alpha Knife Supply) to choose tempering temps. I will probably try some 1095 in the future too as in the thin cross sections used for kitchen knives, it seems people have decent results quenching in medium fast quenchant like canola oil.
Will much more acute sharpening angles always be more chippy even at lower hardness? 15N20 is supposed to be very tough like L6, so can it be left at higher hardness than 1084 or 1095 and be less chippy? Also, since these steels are relatively simple carbon steels without a lot of alloying elements, they should be less wear resistant yet suffer less microchipping from carbide tear out, right?