About Hock Irons and Blades

Hock Handmade Plane Irons are made in a small metalworking cottage-industry located in the heart of California's Mendocino County's woodworking enclave.  These irons are hand crafted to exacting specifications to satisfy the needs of the most discriminating professional and are made from high-carbon tool steel.  A steel’s carbon content will determine its ability to harden with heat treatment.  That hardness determines a tool’s ability to hold a sharp cutting edge under abrasive pressure (wear).  Generally, the harder the metal the better its edge holding, but it will be more brittle.  Tempering reduces that brittleness, although it also reduces the tool’s hardness and wear resistance.  So a balance must be struck to decide how hard a blade should be.  Hock blades are hardened to Rc62 for long edge life. Vanadium and tungsten are often added to tool steels to make the steel resist softening when used in high-heat applications.  However, due to the large, hard carbide particles formed during hardening, they are difficult to sharpen and cannot be honed as sharply as a plain high-carbon steel blade.  Hock’s choice of high-carbon tool steel offers the finest, sharpest edge possible.

Ron Hock’s cryogenically treated A2 Tool Steel Plane Blades have earned an excellent reputation for increased edge-holding without sacrificing sharpening ability.  A2 differs from the usual tool steel with the addition of significant amounts of chromium and molybdenum.  While too much chromium makes the steel “gummy” and abrasion resistant (thus hard to sharpen), Ron uses A2 steel with only 5% chromium, and like high carbon steel, it will rust if appropriate care is not taken.  However, the unique feature of these blades is the cryogenic tempering process.  After quenching, each blade undergoes a 40 hour process of being cooled to -320°F and then brought back to ambient temperature before being slowly heated to +300F.  The blade is then slowly cooled to room temperature achieving a Rockwell C62 hardness.  This treatment increases the steel’s toughness and wear resistance without any increase in brittleness.  The result is a blade which will hold its edge longer, so you can keep working instead of sharpening.

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