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Which knife or knives have the top rockwell results? Or rather which one held up the longest.
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Knife with best Rockwell Results?
- Thread starter HeavyTakeMusic
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Held up the longest for what ? Cutting soft objects, deboning, chopping , etc...
A higher hardness is great for some things, and not so much for others.
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Yeah I understand thats why I wrote "rather which one has held up the longest." Meaning which has the most flexibility before it snaps i guess. Not a steel genius here. Sorry for the retarted question.
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I'd say from a production company (more midtech if yo ask me.) or any one for that matter, I'd have to say rockstead knives have some of the hardest they say some models are about 67 IIRC......simple amazing knives come out of that company, never so much as touched on though:grumpy:
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For most toughness/flexibility I'd look at something like 5160, it's used pretty commonly in machetes and such.
Bigfattyt
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This one's got a really high rockwell hardness.
It's probably been used the longest, too.
POW, response of the year! Seriously!
To the OP. There are some modern steels that are coming out at very high hardness.
High hardness does not necessarily equate to holding up the longest.
You can take a great steel like D2 and bump the hardness up too high, and suffer chipping, which will greatly reduce the longevity of the edge.
With most steels you can gain wear resistance by upping the RC a few points. Often, this is a trade off between longer edge retention, and durability.
If you are interested in high hardness and flexibility, your looking more at shock steels, like S7. You can run steels like that at 59-60 and still get great flexing before failure.
Infi is another flexible steel at decent hardness.
You can get steel at much much higher hardness, but I would not recommend flexing many steels at super high hardness.
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This one's got a really high rockwell hardness.
It's probably been used the longest, too.
And edge chipping is actually a desirable quality in these blades. You wouldn't be able to get 'em real sharp otherwise.
That has nothing to do with "hardness." The ability to withstand deformation is either "toughness" or "strength." I forget which, but it can be easily looked up.
And I find that word you used offensive.
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You probably want to research the most ductile steels then. There are a few things to keep in mind though. Flexibility is when somethings is deformed and then returns to the previous shape, like stretching a rubber band and then it returns to size. Bending is when you exceed the ability of the material to flex, like when the rubber band becomes larger from stretching. Then when it snaps, that is like brittle failure of your steel. Depending on the steel and its hardness, it can bend a little, a lot, or almost not at all between bending and snapping. Flexibility is going to be determined by how thick the steel is, the hardness doesn't matter at all.
Toughness is going to be resistance to fracture from impact. Hardness is a measure of strength, which is resistance to permanent deformation.
Bigfattyt
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That has nothing to do with "hardness." The ability to withstand deformation is either "toughness" or "strength." I forget which, but it can be easily looked up.
And I find that word you used offensive.
I was waiting for some one to say that.
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Steel does not "snap" when being Rockwell tested.
Rockwell testing measures the hardness of a material by making a small indentation in the surface and measuring how much indentation you get with a given amount of force. Rockwell hardness can be equated to strength, but not to toughness.
So, what is it you really want to know?
Are you looking for the hardest alloy?
Are you looking for the toughest alloy?
(If looking for the toughest, forget about Rockwell testing. It has nothing to do with toughness.)
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ZDP-189 is probably the most optimal at a high Rockwell Hardness anywhere from 64-67/8, Allegedly fragile... There is a youtube video of a Japanese fella waylaying on a Japanese Gyuto in ZDP-189 with a hammer with out any damage it is a wide blade surface so I could see that being an advantage compared to a narrower pocket knife.. But even then my Spyderco Endura ZDP-189 is a work horse of a knife I have however chipped a few carbides out of the edge over the course of its life, Of course its not a pry-bar nor is any other knife that is not labeled other wise. A Ceramic blade will out preform any steel, But that's more for a kitchen application and not field use. A well Tempered/made carbon steel blade is always a good bet being time/field proven, I cant count how many times my Ka-bar has been used as a leverage device. Takes a real nice edge too, Just my two bits.
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Farid's CPM REX121 is definitely the hardest. Faird's 17/4PH dive knives are some of the toughest I've ever seen (but primary edge holding is abysmal). I've seen one hammered through a brick with no damage and also seen a knife have 3 guys stand on it while wedged into a wall with no bending.