[WNC Goater]

I don't much get into the discussion about blade testing for a couple of reasons. One being, I don't think I have enough experience to suggest anything. Another is, like a number of people, I have to decide what I expect in my knives or rather, what I expect out of my knives and find a process that produces that. I use tools as they are intended and thus, have no expectation that my knife should be able to saw through barbed wire or chop through the 6" hard black locust fence post that barbed wire is attached to nor hold an edge while using it to dig a hole in the dirt and rock for that fence post.

So...

I see regularly on here, in fact, all the time, the advice to newbies to "break a blade" as a test to look at grain and find out how good your heat treating is. Yet rarely, if ever, have I seen any real information as to why and what to look for or particularly, how to interpret what you see. Oh I know, you want a "fine" grain but fine compared to what? Is fine grain clearly defined or is it subjective? And what if? What if the grain is too, uh, "grainy" or not fine enough? What is one to do about that?

And how is a newbie to know how or what to do?

Additionally, what are the parameters of a "good" knife or rather, what test(s) does it have to pass to be considered good? Or just okay? Or servicable? Or excellent? How is a newbie to know?

Obviously a bit of research into heat treating a particular steel will show that there is some amount of latitude in heat treating process that still results in satisfactory results. So if we heat the blade of ___ steel to between 1450? and 1500? and then quench. Well, what if we don't get anticipated grain structure. How much difference with a change of 15?-40? make? Any? A lot?
And then there is also the question of what results are desired to produce a knife that meets X expectation?

I've seen people on YouTube hammer their knife through a concrete block to prove....What? That you can drive a piece of steel through a concrete block? That is no kind of test to prove anything as far as a knife is concerned in my opinion.

Anyway... I'm asking these questions retorically to make a point.

My point is if the breaking of a blade to read the grain is the be all-end all test then perhaps a sticky at the top of this forum with an explanation of what to look for to determine desirable heat treating and what to do about it if the results aren't desirable, would be helpful. I assume it has been covered as to what to look for and even perhaps what to do about it, but I really don't recall personally, seeing much beyond, "You need to break your blade or else you only have a knife shaped object." It just seems to me it would be helpful to newbs if they had a resource they could look at and see that if "this" happens then make "this" adjustment.

Just a thought