Cryogenic quenching question

[Kevin R. Cashen]

Here's the thing. Published data is typically intended for industrial applications, not knife making. The only ways to find good information is to scour forums and learn from the testing that others have done (and take that with grain of salt) and the second way is to test it yourself. Make little coupons the same thickness as the knives you intend to make. Try a few different recipes. Break them, study them, test whatever trait it is that you are trying to get. Then make a couple of blades and test them the way the knife is intended to be used, because at the end of the day that is ALL that matters.

Some industrial numbers need adjusting a little for knives, others work quite well. What folks need to remember is that they are all good and proven numbers, just not for knives. The trick in sorting it out is to pay attention to what industry uses that steel for. If the steel was created for making bearings, the industrial treatments will be designed to bring out the optimum properties for bearings, which can be very different from properties that you want to bring out in a knife. If you find a steel that was intended mostly for cutting or slitting operations, you can probably use the industrial recommendations as is.