Posted by: Kerry Olli on January 21, 2006 at 11:11:16:
In Reply to: Abrasive Ice posted by Steve Ryan on January 20, 2006 at 16:09:44:
Hi Steve,
A little info about Sarns Runners, Bill used to make them out of 1060 carbon steel, but found it to be too brittle.
He then went to using 1050 carbon steel, heat treated and temperd
to maximum possible hardness. (about mid to high 50's on the Rockwell
"C" scale) The hardness is only on the bottom of the plate extending
up about 3/4 of an inch. The rest of the plate is left "soft", including the nose. It could be if your runners are old and have been heavily used/sharpend, that they have run out of the hardend
edge. It is also possible that they were poorly heat treated....
I had to send MY last batch of runners(laid off May/June of 05) back to heat treat because they were still soft.(Dec. of 04) So you should look into those 2 possibilities.... It also could be that
as you stated the grit is very hard on the runners, and you will have to go to stainless.
Kerry Olli