Temper: Knife Heat Treat

Cited heat-treat schedules for 20 knife steels, per-use-case HRC targets, named failure-mode warnings — all linking back to Knife Steel Nerds.

Temper is a shop-floor reference for knife heat-treatment. Every schedule cites a primary source — a Knife Steel Nerds article by Larrin Thomas or the steel manufacturer's datasheet — with a direct link, so you can verify the page that the recipe comes from.

WHAT'S INSIDE

• 20 steel schedules — simple carbon (1084, 80CrV2, 1095, 8670, 15N20), spring/tool (52100, 5160, O1, A2, D2), stainless (AEB-L, 14C28N, CPM-154, S35VN, S45VN), and PM super-steels (M390, CPM-3V, CPM MagnaCut, MagnaMax, ApexUltra).

• Per-use-case HRC targets — Kitchen, EDC, Hunter, hard-use chopper. Each steel maps to a hardness range that works for the use the blade actually sees.

• Named failure-mode warnings — six surfaced inline when they apply: 5160 grain growth past 1525°F, undersoaking, quench-to-cryo delay, retained austenite from over-austenitizing, one second past nonmagnetic in simple carbons, and wrong quench medium for stainless. Each cites the specific Larrin Thomas article it came from.

• Quench-medium guidance — primary, acceptable alternates, and a hard interlock for blocked media (never water-quench plain carbon; never oil-quench stainless or PM).

• Cryo decision matrix — per-steel-class retained-austenite framing with named cryo media (household freezer, dry ice + acetone, liquid nitrogen).

• HRC ↔ HV ↔ HB ↔ tensile conversions — from ASTM E140-12b Table 1.

• Source-version stamps — every schedule shows when the cited source was last updated, so you know if your reference has shifted.

FREE TIER

Three starter steels — 1084, 80CrV2, AEB-L — are free permanently with full citations and warnings. You can heat-treat a 1084 blade end-to-end on the free tier. The IAP is for breadth, not depth.

UNLOCK ($6.99, ONE-TIME)

The Temper Unlock IAP adds: • The other 17 steel schedules • Per-steel saved profile — persist the schedule you actually used and the HRC you actually measured • Multi-session log — every heat-treat run with date, austenitize, soak, quench, cryo, temper, measured HRC, and notes

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DISCLAIMER

Temper presents Knife Steel Nerds and steel-manufacturer guidance for educational purposes. Verify schedules against current Knife Steel Nerds articles and your steel supplier's spec sheet before heat-treating.

CITATIONS

Schedules reference Larrin Thomas's articles at knifesteelnerds.com and datasheets from New Jersey Steel Baron, Crucible Industries, and Bohler-Uddeholm. Hardness conversions are from ASTM E140-12b Table 1 (Non-Austenitic Steels).