440c hardness?

Why do you assume that American manufacturers heat treat differently from foreign manufacturers? Heat treating methods differ from company to company, knife model to knife model, and HT batch to HT batch. American HT methods aren't any more similar to each other than they are to foreign manufacturers.
Anyway, as with any other steel, RC hardness varies between manufacturer and knife. Go to the manufacturer's website and see if they list it; if not, try sending them an email.
 
American steel, not Chinese steel, some mfg's use Chinese 440C steel.
I don't care about Chinese 440C.
 
Depends on whose working it. Ray Ennis of Entrek USA has his air quenched, subzero stabilized and double drawn to 57-58Rc, which makes it an absolute bitch to sharpen but it holds a great edge. My Ranger is a beast!
 
IIRC, when knife makers first started using 440C some 50 years ago, some of them took it to the 60+ range. There were some catastrophic failures and 440C developed a reputation for being brittle.

Nowadays, you mostly see well heat treated 440C in the 58-60 range.
 
Somewhere in the 56-60 range from what i've seen,i think its x10 more important that the steel has a good heat treatment,Buck's 420 vs anything gerber (not the old Gerber,the new crap),i'd trust any Buck knife to do its job well because their heat treatment is amazing.Have a look at INFI by Busse,the steel composition isnt space age,but their heat treatment I think is around those lines.
 
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