What is heat treating and how does it affect a knife?
Heat treating is the process of heating steel to a specific temperature, for a specific duration, and then quenching (cooling) it in a specific manner. This makes the steel very hard but brittle. It must then be “tempered” by heating it again to a lower temperature and letting it cool slowly. This restores some of the flexibility so that it is not so brittle that it would break easily. Each different type of steel must be heat treated in a specific way to achieve maximum performance in terms of hardness and durability. Very hard steel is hard to sharpen but will hold an edge very well. Steel that is a little “softer” will be easier to sharpen to a very sharp edge but will need to be sharpened more often in use.
