shobudonnie
Well-Known Member
Which smiths are known for doing good heat treatment with 52100?
52100
- Thread starter shobudonnie
- Start date
Help Support Kitchen Knife Forums:
Mert Tansu does a harder treatment on his that I’ve enjoyed a lot
Ryan Geiger’s recent 52100 protocol is truly excellent. Z Kramer 52100 is, obviously industrial, but very good.
Ian Rogers (Haburn Knives) and Bill Burke both do a phenomenal job with 52100.
My Kippington 52100 mono feels really nice in the short time I’ve had it.
parbaked
Senior Member
Shi.han
Tony LaSeur
Steelport
Tony LaSeur
Steelport
Great list so far, I'll throw Eddworks on the list.
Big second for Steelport, hands down best heat treat of 52100 I have seen, the edge lasts forever. The knife is tooooo thick but great HT
Big second for Steelport, hands down best heat treat of 52100 I have seen, the edge lasts forever. The knife is tooooo thick but great HT
Cruzeiro Facas/Raphael’s 52100 is pretty good
+1 on Shihan. Also, Bloodroot seems to fly under the radar on KKF but their 52100 from recycled roller bearing steel takes and holds a great edge.
Last edited:
Are there any smiths that make quality knives and use 52100 that are not doing it well at this point? I have to ask though what is considered a good heat treat of 52100? Just from the mentioned above there is a range, so what is considered bad?
Guess I would throw in a second for Kippington in that I really enjoyed sharpening and using all my knives from him. Want to put out the caveat that I’ve not used many other examples of 52100. Also curious what qualifies as a bad heat treat if this steel. Can’t think of any makers that is criticised for this
I tried one that I thought was likely run a bit soft for durability. It was part of batch knife drop at approachable prices. A number of makers are doing these type of things and I wouldn’t be surprised if running them softer and tougher is common in batch production.
Gummy on stone, edge loose tooth too quick.
I will go bit contrarian here, I don’t like ShiHan’s old treatment of 52100, it’s tough and takes an edge, but it loose tooth too quick and it’s not as crisp on stone as harder 52100 like Kippington’s. But his old and new A2 are both excellent, not sure about his new 52100
Cannot emphasize this enough
Matt runs his on the harder side too right? Can't remember where 65 HRC is sticking in my head from @MSicardCutlery
Rader.
He mentioned in an email he’s focused on refining the heat treat and that bears out in my experience. It holds a very fine edge a very long time (for a relatively simple carbon steel). It’s not very reactive (neither the steel itself nor towards other ingredients), doesn’t seem as prone to chipping or pitting as some other 52100 I’ve used.
I’ve also used Bloodroot, Tansu and ShiHan. I’d put ShiHan in second place, but I’m pretty happy with any of these. Tansu was probably the lowest edge life and Bloodroot the most reactive.
He mentioned in an email he’s focused on refining the heat treat and that bears out in my experience. It holds a very fine edge a very long time (for a relatively simple carbon steel). It’s not very reactive (neither the steel itself nor towards other ingredients), doesn’t seem as prone to chipping or pitting as some other 52100 I’ve used.
I’ve also used Bloodroot, Tansu and ShiHan. I’d put ShiHan in second place, but I’m pretty happy with any of these. Tansu was probably the lowest edge life and Bloodroot the most reactive.
Last edited:
I think so. That was I believe my first knife from him so I don't remember the details. I just know it performs very well for such a simple steel.
He lives in my home town and I doubt I'll ever be in a position to get one of his knives. He is my pinnacle, dream maker.
I am really very happy with my BloodrootBlades cheese & salami knife. I am yet to get a chip on it and it goes through some hard stuff while having 64 HRC (or so I was told).
Marko owns 52100.
Yeah, 65 is my usual target
DitmasPork
Senior Member
Tsourkan, and ShiHan.
- Joined
- Dec 15, 2011
- Messages
- 11,280
- Reaction score
- 7,603
I wonder if you had a single subpar Shihan knife or if you’ve sharpened a few and came away unimpressed.
I do agree it takes an edge and seems geared for toughness, retention likely not as nice as some others…but I was still satisfied.
It’s been stated he aims for hrc 61-62 by Jon. That might explain it?
I only got one of his production 52100, it’s not the edge retention but rather the tooth retention that got me off, might have something to do hardness.
It seems very unlikely that anyone would be able to tell the difference in toothiness or even edge retention between 52100 at 61.5 and 62.5. Most of the differences are more than likely due to different geometry among different knives. I think at this point pretty much every well known maker that uses 52100 has been mentioned as making good 52100. I'd go farther and claim that if the end user didn't know who made the blade he wouldn't be able to tell from use who it was. It is amazing to me that people can at the same time say that there is no detectable difference between low and high alloy steels and yet can tell the slightly different heat treats of the same steel
I don’t think anyone said no detectable difference between high and low alloy, it more like that doesn’t matter much when they are both good. Toothyness is pretty easy to detect when your knife are still paper towel sharp but skit on pepper skin, never happened my my ShiHan A2 with similar geomtry
