We manufacture and resharpen blades for the carpet tile industry. They are made of ASTM-A2 and heat treated to R52C.
I designed a machine about ten years ago that used some of our A2 drops for a wear surface exposed to sand and glass beads. The wear block seems to last about the same whether heat treated or not. Thus we now deliver them without hardening to save money.
If you can locate A2 steel in 0.12 to 0.18 thickness you could try making bolt-on wear tips. In the unhardened condition it takes quite a beating.
I have tried to scrounge some A2 to make mower blade tips but everything we manufacture here is either 10MM or 7/16". Some OSB plants use 5/32 inserts for their chipper knives. We've never made them though.
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