heat treat questions

[harrydog]

Does Spyderco heat treat their steel in house or do they sub it out? If they sub it out is it always to the same contractor? Just curious about this since the heat treatment of the steel is tremendously important to the qualities of the steel. A good heat treat is everything.
Also, for knives made in Taiwan, is the steel heat treated there or is it done here and then shipped to Taiwan?

[bh49]

Blades of the knives, made in Taiwan heat-treated over there. Looks like job is well done, I didn't see any complains here or on BF. No knowledge if Spyderco heat-treat in-house or use outside services.

[The Deacon]

Blades of the knives, made in Taiwan heat-treated over there. Looks like job is well done, I didn't see any complains here or on BF. No knowledge if Spyderco heat-treat in-house or use outside services.

Considering the number of exotic steels they use for Golden built knives, there's even the possibility they do both.

[HistoricalMan]

This is an educated guess of sorts as I'm no steels expert, but I think in a lot of cases it depends on the origin of the steel more so than the location of the build.

For example, ZDP-189 is a proprietary Japanese steel and is heat-treated by Hitachi in Japan, where as Carpenter steels like CTS-XHP are American and are more than likely heat-treated in the States.

I think Sal or maybe Ed Schempp could give you a clearer answer as both are well educated when it comes to steel.

[Ed Schempp]

Cowry X, ZDP 189 and SG2 are all proprietary heat treatments and should be done by an approved Hitachi vendor.

Spyderco has used different heat treaters over the years. Spyderco always checks random samples at the factory to make sure that the steel is to specified hardness.

Many times when a heat treater-subcontractor changes personnel the standards will change. Sometimes the person is better and sometimes they are worse....Take Care...Ed

[buckthorn]

Isn't heat treating done AFTER the blades are blanked (or otherwise cut out of strip) and ground?

[Ed Schempp]

Most of the USA made blades I believe are laser cut, then ground, then heat treated. I sure there are exceptions. Many of the materials used in special runs of blades are extremely hard to grind and almost if not impossible to fine blank or stamp.

Spyderco has some of the finest quality control processes in the business. They reject product that many other manufactures are happy to sell.

I've heard Sal say more than once, "no more than necessary, no less than perfect."...Take care...Ed

[harrydog]

Thanks everyone.
It's good to know that Spyderco does random quality checks.
From what I understand a good heat treatment requires attention to detail with some steels requiring a very precise sequence of heat treatment steps in order to get the best from the steel. I can see how a bad batch could slip through now and then.

[suedeface]

The good thing about spyderco is that if you do get a knife with a bum heat treat, most likely they will send you a properly heat treated knife under warranty. No worries.