It is in this process that the very soul of a blade's performance will be born. It can also be the most expensive process involved in the making of a fine blade. Sadly, the knife buying public has been led to believe that Rockwell Hardness is some sort of gauge by which to determine performance. This is ridiculous. Following standard ASTM heat treating and tempering protocols, a blade made from a standard tool steel can be "properly" heat treated and tempered in less than 1-1/2 hours and brought to a hardness of 57-59 Rc. Take one of our blades that has received our proprietary heat treat and tempering protocol of over 40 hrs. and it will also test out at 57-59 Rc. The fact is that one of our transversion wave tempered blades that tests out at 57-59 Rc will drastically outperform a standard heat treated knife blade out of the same material that also has a 57-59 Rc hardness.
Grain structure and carbide distribution, are the keys to great performance NOT Rockwell hardness.