Steve Elliott
The heat treatment recommended by Crucible Steel for 3V is intended to maximize its toughness. A knife maker named Jerry Hossum found that a different schedule that maximizes hardness gives a more suitable edge for knives. That's the way our batch of plane blades was treated.

At the time we made the blades Paul Bos would heat treat a single knife or plane blade for $30 and he was good at it. Our batch of plane blades went to him. He is retired now and sold his business, I believe, but I've heard the expertise left with Paul. No personal experience but I've heard of one customer who was disappointed.

Now that many good blades are available I don't see as much reason for trying new alloys. I still prefer my 3V blades but there was a learning curve to sharpening them.