Need to temper a leather crafting knife?

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Hoping to get a little insight,

Is there a need to temper a leather crafting blade? I can understand the need to temper a general purpose blade where you may encounter hard materials but for a leather crafting knife is it necessary? Furthermore, wouldn't you be able to get a sharper knife that stays sharp longer with a harder blade?

Much thanks!
 
Tempering is pretty much necessary on any hardened blade regardless of use. After the initial heat treat a temper is done to keep the blade from cracking or breaking as they are very brittle after heat treat. Tempering is done to make a blade tougher also... so that it can withstand shock better or prying, etc. I'm guessing that for a leather crafting knife you would want a temper up close to the max hardness.

Hope this helps.
 
In terms of a leather crafting knife, I would think that tempering would be especially important. A leather crafting knife is generally very thin in cross section, and is often flexed during use..... I would venture to say if it's not tempered, it would likely not survive more then a few uses.
 
assuming steel with low temperature tempering, a temper at 300F is usually only 1 or 2 points below quenched hardness and has relieved all the internal stresses that hardening causes. the few sites i have found for these kind of tools that talk about steel type and hardness, you usually find tools tempered to Rc60-63. Remember, it is geometry that cuts, not steel type or steel hardness.
 
Thank you for your quick responses! Understood.

Scott - Your point is well taken and would explain why my first design couldn't cut butter. After giggling my design a bit really helped. Learning the hard way!

Can you direct me to an article or forum thread that discusses the finer points of cutting geometry?
 
here is a small book to read, Experiments on Knife Sharpening, written by Dr. Verhoeven. https://archive.org/details/Experiments_on_Knife_Sharpening_John_Verhoeven he looks at different steels and different ways to sharpen. I have found, thru trial and error, a good combination for a slicing knife. at the edge, 0.005" or less, 0.02" or less 1/4" above the edge, 0.025" - 0.030" 1/2 inch above the edge. an edge like this is capable of cutting see-thru pieces of tomato or potato or cucumber, but will bend or chip if used to chop. it is easiest if you start with thin stock, 1/16" or less. I would also think there are situations where a single edge blade this thin would work well.
 
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