Leatherman tool steel

[David Bowen]

Does anyone know anymore about the steel leatherman uses in their tools other than it being classified as 400 series stainless? I'm not taking chassis but The actual implements themselves. What steel are they and what do you think the Rockwell hardness is on them? 45Hrc?

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[sLaughterMed]

Does anyone know anymore about the steel leatherman uses in their tools other than it being classified as 400 series stainless? I'm not taking chassis but The actual implements themselves. What steel are they and what do you think the Rockwell hardness is on them? 45Hrc?

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They use 420HC for their knives, and 154CM for their wirecutters. The rest of the tools are mystery steel, probably also 420HC if I had to guess (otherwise their decision to go with that for their knife steel doesn't make much sense, since 440C seems to be a better knife steel, and is just as cheap).

As for the hardness, its important that a lower hardness is not necessarily a bad thing, as different implements need different properties (knives need to hold an edge, while screwdrivers are subjected to lots of torque. the higher the hardness, the more brittle the material, and brittle screwdrivers tend to snap easily). Ideally every tool will have a different hardness. the knives will be around 55-60HRC, as that is the area that makes for good edge retention. The screwdrivers are definitely lower on the Rockwell C scale, since they seem to deform rather than fracture when too much torque is applied, (and having them in the 55HRC range would make them chip and fracture quite easily). The awl is probably around the same hardness of the knife, as are the scissors and saws. If i had to guess, the bit drivers are the same, or slightly higher than the screwdrivers. The files are actually case hardened, which is a little weird, and can't be properly measured on the Rockwell scale (since with case hardening, the outside "casing" is very hard, but the inner core remains fairly soft).


I actually have access to a Rockwell hardness tester this semester. Want me to talk to my TA, and see if he will allow me to test some implements?

[Padre]

Yes its 420HC on tools and chassis.

[firiki]

... I actually have access to a Rockwell hardness tester this semester. Want me to talk to my TA, and see if he will allow me to test some implements?

Yes, he'd love that. That's very kind of you, thanks

[David Bowen]

Yes that sounds like a great idea! I know a lot a out knife steels, hardness, annealing, etc etc just didn't know about leatherman tools in particular. Tried searching our threads and did not see a thread started.

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[sLaughterMed]

Talked to the TA in carge of running the labs yesterday. There might be some time to run some hardness tests for fun in November. I'll keep you guys posted

[Kampfer]

LM web site clearly states knife blades and flathead drivers are made of 420HC.

But one of the service rep told me everything is 420HC as well.

From my modding experenice, the flatheads are much harder than other implements.
I can use hand files to work on the body or other implements but the flatheads will screw up my file.

[sLaughterMed]

LM web site clearly states knife blades and flathead drivers are made of 420HC.

But one of the service rep told me everything is 420HC as well.

From my modding experenice, the flatheads are much harder than other implements.
I can use hand files to work on the body or other implements but the flatheads will screw up my file.

Yeah, now that I think of it, the screwdrivers are probably higher (harder) than the knife blades....

In my defense, its been a very long week

[Kampfer]

When I built my PLSK, I have to file down the locking notch on both drivers with a file, the philip driver was easy but the flathead driver is so hard that it serious F*ed up the file.