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Jim,
Wow, I wsn't aware that the Rockwell scale was exponential, that's a huge difference! Having majored in math and minored in physics in college I am well aware of the significant difference.
In many exponential scales, 1 point means 10x harder. So, a reading of 60 would be 20x harder than 58. I agree, it certainly would be nice to have a printed scale on this. A 50x hardness difference would be huge. However, it might require a different scale for different formulas of steel.
With the blades I just treated, my diamond files will bite into the metal, but not nearly as hard as before heat treating, my regular files just slide across without doing anything.
So Guys, I guess the moral of the story is that if you don't want to fork out big bucks or don't really need precise accuracy, than a expensive tester isn't necessary, BUT it then becomes necessary to precisely follow the heat treating instructions for the steel you are using and the purpose of the item you are making.
I may do some research into finding out if there are any scientific info on this.
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