Heat treating AEB L

EdCaffreyMS said:
I can leave an unprotected carbon steel blade laying on the bench for literally weeks, and unless I splash water (or maybe coffee from my morning cup) on it...... it'll never tarnish or rust.)
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Love our Montana humidty...or lack thereof...!! (handles love it too...)

I run my A-2 blades at 60-61 RC...I use Ed's worn belt-then-buff method to sharpen(sharp in seconds...when I'm "on" lol...). Occasionally I will sharpen one on stones just to make sure i still can . I assume most customers are doing that or a sharpening system. A-2 seems pretty easy to keep sharp even though hard.
I think knives in the 1960s and 70s were typically in the mid 50s RC? So we're running 'em much harder...and much harder to sharpen....

I wonder how much we've gained by making 'em harder? Or what the trade-offs really are beyond the obvious toughness/hardness ones...
 
Smallshop said:
Love our Montana humidty...or lack thereof...!! (handles love it too...)

I run my A-2 blades at 60-61 RC...I use Ed's worn belt-then-buff method to sharpen(sharp in seconds...when I'm "on" lol...). Occasionally I will sharpen one on stones just to make sure i still can . I assume most customers are doing that or a sharpening system. A-2 seems pretty easy to keep sharp even though hard.
I think knives in the 1960s and 70s were typically in the mid 50s RC? So we're running 'em much harder...and much harder to sharpen....

I wonder how much we've gained by making 'em harder? Or what the trade-offs really are beyond the obvious toughness/hardness ones...
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Good point Ted.
When you read different articles I guess it all depends on the use and location. It's my opinion, and that doesn't account for much, that the more remote you are and the longer you are in a remote location a less hard steel blade would be an advantage. For those of you that watch the Alaska the last frontier, I've seen them on hunts where they harvest an animal, take out their knife and sharpen it before field dressing. Which leads me to believe the blades are on the soft side.
But this is purely speculation on my part. With the advantage of having the ceramic and diamond sharpeners we have now (in travel size) I guess a hard blade would be easy to touch up in the field as well.

Thoughts on this?
 
opaul said:
Thoughts on this?
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Yeah...when I was a kid dad would take us out camping and had a small axe and hatchet for gathering wood. He had files he kept with them for sharpening the two. ( I always liked sharpening more than using...lol) I can't think they were much more than 45 RC? We didn't sharpen them till out camping or hunting. Now, axe geometry being what it is...perhaps a fine grain steel like A-2 could be used dead soft? You'd be sharpening more but it'd still get the job done.

Not trying to thread jack here...just wondering....
 
opaul said:
For those of you that watch the Alaska the last frontier, I've seen them on hunts where they harvest an animal, take out their knife and sharpen it before field dressing. Which leads me to believe the blades are on the soft side.
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Maybe they just sharpened their knives in front of the camera to embellish the scene?
 
soundmind said:
Maybe they just sharpened their knives in front of the camera to embellish the scene?
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Maybe but I watched several seasons and it was a common practice. On one episode one of the brothers forged a knife so i’m thinking this was a standard prior to field dressing.
 
I don't think I've ever seen an episode of Alaska the last frontier, but if it's like most of other "semi-scripted" reality shows it might or might not be realistic.

Luke, have you seen the show? Would you care to comment since you live in the same situation as the show portrays?
 
KenH said:
I don't think I've ever seen an episode of Alaska the last frontier, but if it's like most of other "semi-scripted" reality shows it might or might not be realistic.

Luke, have you seen the show? Would you care to comment since you live in the same situation as the show portrays?
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I’m sure it’s semi scripted.
 
opaul said:
Maybe but I watched several seasons and it was a common practice. On one episode one of the brothers forged a knife so i’m thinking this was a standard prior to field dressing.
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KenH said:
I don't think I've ever seen an episode of Alaska the last frontier, but if it's like most of other "semi-scripted" reality shows it might or might not be realistic.

Luke, have you seen the show? Would you care to comment since you live in the same situation as the show portrays?
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I don't have a TV but I've watched different episodes while traveling. My comment was just a shorter way of saying it's hard to tell. People are separated geographically and culturally so much that even within similar ethnic groups people do things different.

I also didn't want to get off the topic of AEB-L. But I think my 80crv2 knives hold an edge and sharpen like a ulu knives ground out of a handsaw blade. That would have just created another question as to the sharpenability "plain carbon?" steels and stainless which I couldn't venture.

I realized later I might be saying since it might be semi scripted, then people on the show are fake, but I wasn't saying that at all. I know I sharpen my knives, etc, before I go out. But I carry a file and know people who dress edges with a file while processing. I don't know if it's that easy with stainless. But I'm sure its just as easy to carry a stone. For me a short file is lighter more versatile than the stones I have. Could you tell if the people were using stainless steel blades?

As a side note with all this covid-19 we planted a garden. I might need to get a dish so I can watch the show and learn how to really do it!
 
soundmind said:
People are separated geographically and culturally so much that even within similar ethnic groups people do things different.
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Luke, you are absolutely correct on that. I've watched some of a reality show and saw folks doing some of the dumbest things thinking "That's GOT to be scripted for the show", but in real life folks do things differently. AND not everybody does things the smartest way. That is true for the hill country I grew up in, and I'm sure it's just as true for Alaska or anywhere else.
 
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