Mail-In HRC Testing

   Heat treating is extremely important to steel as it significantly alters the metal's properties, allowing manufacturers to customize its strength, hardness, ductility, and wear resistance to suit specific applications, making it a critical process for ensuring the optimal performance of steel components in various industries like automotive, aerospace, and construction; essentially, it enables steel to be tailored for specific needs by manipulating its microstructure through controlled heating and cooling cycles.

   The purpose of this mail-in service is to cross-check advertised HRC to what is actually in your hand. The info obtained in this test will only give you the results for your part specifically, it should be known that heat treat cycles tend to be a batch of items, and actual HRC results will vary within a range that the manufacturer has approved in advance with the heat treat company or department. The ideal test results that we provide should give you the customer a number that is the same or within .5hrc of advertised hardness from the maker/mfg. 

   Our service includes three separate tests for one item in a non-descript or hidden area typically (for pocket knives: underneath the handles near the pivot area) and will leave three small round indentations approximately half a millimeter, they do not compromise the steels integrity or damage the knife in any way, strictly cosmetic. A print-out certificate will be sent back with your item letting you know the findings for your particular test results, three tests will be added together and averaged and SHOULD be within the range of your makers/manufacturers advertised hardness.

   This is a third party service provided locally by Century Sun Metal Treating. For over 40 years, Century Sun Metal Treating has been servicing the metal working industry with high quality heat treating services. Producing the optimum metallurgical properties including excellent distortion control and uniformity of hardness have been our goal. Century Sun offers a wide range of thermal processes to assist customers throughout the world. Many OEMs and steel suppliers to the industry now specify Century Sun Metal Treating as the vendor of choice. We stand by our results provided by Century Sun, any and all questions comments or concerns regarding test results are to be sent to Way of Knife & EDC Gear House directly.

   Please note: All test results will be shared to a public spreadsheet on this website for the knife communities reference, no exceptions, the public must know! The purpose of this form will be to track each test, categorize it by model alphabetically, along with date, material, and model tested. Once again, the purpose of this knowledge and service is only to know where the piece that you send in falls within the advertised range of hardness advertised. 

   Please be aware that this is a third party service with their own lead times, customers should expect a projected lead time of at least 7-10+/- business days once our batch minimums are met.