Smallshop
KNIFE MAKER
Samuraistuart thank you for the excellent reply...and you also Ken! Boss, I am indeed trying the RV antifreeze for my first go around...I was hoping that by racking the knives, putting the ice on a grill just above the top of the blades (edge up) and slowly pouring the antifreeze into the cooler to create a ramp (if the consensus is that ramping a cold treatment is necessary).
Samuraistuart...I do not think the science of the thing is subjective....I think the opinions and methods of guys making perfectly good knives are. things that I find subjective are things that are difficult to cross-examine with other techniques. I am not scientifically advanced enough to know which tip to reject in favor of another....that type of subjectivity is what you are pointing out in your post...400% improvement I can weed out!...lol. other stuff not so easy.
When selling a knife made of A2 do you differentiate between LN and dry ice if both are effective?... or do you say the knife has had a cryogenic treatment?
A few months back I saw an A2 recipe that went HT---temper 1---LN---warm to room---temper 2.(they were getting good results) Once again that is different than what I've learned recently (which makes more sense...cold after HT...keep them molecules a movin') I absolutely believe in the science behind it I just think different guys are hitting on a method that works that is different from other guys. So a noob like me is tempted to homogenize a bunch of different methods which is most likely unwise. It would probably be better to copy one persons HT/CT recipe and see if you can get similar results.
Also...on anything requiring testing...the human bias creeps in almost unnoticed. our ability to almost subconsciously skew results towards our favored outcome is amazing.
My notion now is to continue working with A2 as it seem to benefit from either method of cold treatment. I'll HT....cool to room/forced air? into dry ice/ RV antifreeze....soak for at least 8 hours. leisure warm to room temp...into temper 1...cold water quench and scrub.....temper 2....cool to room temp...do some grinding.(please pick this apart!) this would be for an edc not survival.
For an outdoor knife maybe skip the cold treatment because of : For A2 tool steel note they also say at bottom of page #5: "applied to A2 steel confirmed that cryogenic quenching results in a moderate improvement of wear resistance and hardness, at the cost of impact resistance"? A2 already has pretty good wear resistance and hardness so perhaps cold not needed? This is where determining yes/no feels subjective...HOW MUCH cost of impact resistance...was it worth a "moderate" increase in hardness and wear resistance that didn't really net a 400% increase...lol?
Thanks for all the help guys.
Sorry if I let too much frustration bleed through my earlier post.
Samuraistuart...I do not think the science of the thing is subjective....I think the opinions and methods of guys making perfectly good knives are. things that I find subjective are things that are difficult to cross-examine with other techniques. I am not scientifically advanced enough to know which tip to reject in favor of another....that type of subjectivity is what you are pointing out in your post...400% improvement I can weed out!...lol. other stuff not so easy.
When selling a knife made of A2 do you differentiate between LN and dry ice if both are effective?... or do you say the knife has had a cryogenic treatment?
A few months back I saw an A2 recipe that went HT---temper 1---LN---warm to room---temper 2.(they were getting good results) Once again that is different than what I've learned recently (which makes more sense...cold after HT...keep them molecules a movin') I absolutely believe in the science behind it I just think different guys are hitting on a method that works that is different from other guys. So a noob like me is tempted to homogenize a bunch of different methods which is most likely unwise. It would probably be better to copy one persons HT/CT recipe and see if you can get similar results.
Also...on anything requiring testing...the human bias creeps in almost unnoticed. our ability to almost subconsciously skew results towards our favored outcome is amazing.
My notion now is to continue working with A2 as it seem to benefit from either method of cold treatment. I'll HT....cool to room/forced air? into dry ice/ RV antifreeze....soak for at least 8 hours. leisure warm to room temp...into temper 1...cold water quench and scrub.....temper 2....cool to room temp...do some grinding.(please pick this apart!) this would be for an edc not survival.
For an outdoor knife maybe skip the cold treatment because of : For A2 tool steel note they also say at bottom of page #5: "applied to A2 steel confirmed that cryogenic quenching results in a moderate improvement of wear resistance and hardness, at the cost of impact resistance"? A2 already has pretty good wear resistance and hardness so perhaps cold not needed? This is where determining yes/no feels subjective...HOW MUCH cost of impact resistance...was it worth a "moderate" increase in hardness and wear resistance that didn't really net a 400% increase...lol?
Thanks for all the help guys.
Sorry if I let too much frustration bleed through my earlier post.
Last edited: