S30V/S35VN heat treatment. Who does it the best? Who does it worst?

My Fiddleback Forge production knives are S35VN and are done by Peters HT, they seem to be holding up well.
 
SaltyVeteran said:
I've heard Strider has a phenomenal HT. Seems to me there lockup issues are prevalent and problematic.

That and I am a combat veteran. I take issue purchasing anything from someone with his past.
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Lock up was changed from the ski ramp type years ago. With that lock up the lock bar would not be able to travel in deeper with wear. Resulting in lock rock. The new lock up doesn't have the problem and my one SMF is tight as can be. I bought it out of curiosity to see if Strider was as badly made as some claim. It is very well made and locks up as tight as the day I received it.
 
I like s30v a lot
It is a good steel and it seems a lot of manufacturer HT is well
I have ZT and BM with very good s35v
I am less impressed with spyderco. I have a PM2 in s30v that chip frequently

I have s35v knives from ZT, Soithern grind and CRK.
They are all good.
I still need to train myself at sharpening do work them more easily
 
Grandmaster said:
Wouldnt Chris Reeve have one of the best of S35VN steel? , I understand he had to do with the steel development

My experience, I really like Hinderer and CRK S35VN
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I agree. Another knife I have with S35VN is a Kizer model and it is holding up very well after three years.
 
Paul Bos heat treat for sure. Loveless knives uses Paul boss ht always has always will. There is a reason for it..there the best. Also Bos does a lot of reheat treating for some of the companies mentioned because there customers just weren't happy with the results. Hardcore makers and users choose Paul Bos for a reason.
 
Even some past striders had paul bos heat treatment back in the day. Those were the good ol triders
 
Buck will likely do the best as Paul Bos did get them to where they are today. Although he's retired the man did give Paul Farner a ton of information to helkp him do the heat treat for Buck today.

Strider did have Peter's Heat Treat so they're probably 2nd.

Spyderco will probably land in 3rd for heat treat. Spyderco puts more attention into detail than most companies.
 
Bos heat treat for S30V is probably the best I've experienced (Strider, in my case). Benchmade is almost indistinguishably good as well.

For S35VN, I think the best I really experienced is from Hinderer. Chris Reeve and ZT are also really good, but could probably up the RC hardness a bit still.
 
Zt s35vn has showed poor edge retention In recent tests.
Skip to 4min into the video and see. They are running low hrc because too many of their buyers use them for prying.
Code: 
 https://youtu.be/5AWIOxsBZwI
It's yet to be determined if the whole line is like this or not. But certainly a few are as he tested two different knives and even tested the same one twice.

Keizer and crk are about the same and do really well.

Jim Ankersons testing shows custom heat treatment at 61+ excells.
 
Paul Farner runs BOS heattreating now but stays in close contact with Paul Bos on a regular basis. He also uses the exact same treatments .or formulas as Paul Bos did . Basically Farner is a clone of Paul. Great shop great guys and great service.
 
It would be great to hear a metallurgist's opinion. My understanding is that most blade makers would follow the heat treat guidelines from Crucible, which developed the steel.
 
It's worth remembering that heat treatment at the production knife level takes place in batches, and while some ovens are less subject to temperature variability from point to point, it's just not economically feasible to guarantee each and every blade undergoing heat treatment will turn out exactly the same its neighbor say, four rows over or two levels down. Statisticians like to say life's a bell-shaped curve. So it is for production knives. Most in a manufacturing run will turn out okay. A few may be sub-par. And some very few may be outstandingly good with all cosmetic and technical specifications exceeded.

Sometimes it just pays to be lucky.
 
This metallurgist says - Production knives will be HT'd according to the most common needs of the customers . So those for example who want higher hardness will have to go to custom HT. A two point difference in hardness will be noticed by many users .I want my knives at 60 HRc so if a production knife is 58 HRc I'll pick another knife. If you do go to a custom knife have some serious discussions with the maker.
The recipe for HT published by Crucible and other steel makers also is dependent on typical use .If most users need 1/2" thick material the published HT will be for that size. Then creating your own HT recipe for a 1/8" thick blade will probably be better !!!
 

ZT redeemed itself. What does this mean tho? Only zt can answer that, and they will most certainly not answer it. I am guessing on there more affordable knives that sell more they have a lower Rockwell since more people will be doing more abusive tasks like prying and such. At first I just thought they were using bd1 instead of s35vn at low hrc, but who really knows. It's too bad they don't publish more info about the knife steel. In any case my 0450cf has low edge retention but my 0452cf has a much higher edge retention in cutting cardboard at least. Oh yea zt elmax has been proven excellent in more than one of these cut tests unlike the rumor that has gone around.
 
I have feedback on ZT & a Spyderco. Totally anecdotal with no science.....

ZT S35VN on the Gen2 0550, and 0630 is chippy and doesn't retain a great edge.

The Gen3 0550 seems harder and less chippy. That thing has been beaten on.

0055 is somewhere between the Gen2/3 0550.

ZT Elmax 0562, 0620 hard as nails.

The M390 on the 0452G10 has been great so far.

Spyderco S30V Sage 2 has been meh.
 
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