A Real Good Knife

[Martyn4802]

Look, The Tourist makes very good points here. There are a whole lot of guys on those knife forums who are typewiter knife professionals, who have never made a knife, and have not the experience to be making statements that are of value. Some guys are very knowledeable who never made a knife, and you should be paying attention to what they say. Tourists point is be careful in who you listen to. Good advice.
I started making knives in 1980, and have made 500 so far. I have a shop full of all the machines required to make high class knives, which I make. This was an after hours endeavour as I had a full time job. But, there are other non-makers who know a whole lot more about knives that are available to us users than I do. I respect their comments about knives. They know what steels are used in what brand of knife, and that info is valuable when selecting a knife.
Incidentally, I've made a bunch of knives out of CPM 440V, and have not had any problems with brittleness, and blade chipping. I use Paul Bos for all of my heat treating, so maybe the blade hardness is the problem with chipping, I don't know. Also, CPM 440V steel is now S60V.

Martyn

[azsixshooter]

Hey Martyn, I see you're from Grayling. I'm from Michigan too, I always wished I could have visited the Fred Bear museum when it was in Grayling. I heard Papa Bear carried a Puma of some kind, you wouldn't happen to know which model he preferred would you?

[The Tourist]

Originally Posted by Martyn4802

I've made a bunch of knives out of CPM 440V, and have not had any problems with brittleness, and blade chipping. I use Paul Bos for all of my heat treating

This is a very important aspect of steel and knife making.

The Graham brother knife I dsiplayed is one of Paul's (S30V), as are my Striders. My wife has a two-inch Buck mini-Alpha Hunter heat treated by Paul, and they are all excellent, serviceable knives that produce keen edges.

Now, you also mention CPM-440V and the good luck you have with it. That proves the point. My example is my wife's Boa, an early example. Rumor has it that those blades had a Rc hardness in the low to mid 60's. I doubt Paul had a hand in that.

(BTW, I had concoidal fracture in the bevel, itself.)

But as Martyn4802 underlines, we have to do research.

[tegemu]

Why not get the original - the Ka-Bar, it's agreat knife and relatively inexpensive. I carried one in the NAVY and have one now. After that I am Partial to a Buck knife.

[The Tourist]

Originally Posted by tegemu

Why not get the original - the Ka-Bar

Within its limits, there's nothing wrong with it at all. The issue is that since it's known as The Marine Knife, and famous for the fighting in the Pacific during WWII, many people view it as "a super knife."

It is a useful sheath knife made from moderately hard 1084 or 1095 non-chromium steel. Nothing more, nothing less.

Personally, I will never spend several years storming hostile foreign beaches. If I need a fixed blade, there are several (numerous models, in fact) that do the job better.

For example, one of the cars famous for "rum running" during Depression era times was the quintessential "flathead Ford." It was fast for its time, durable and a part of our history. In real life, that same car would be dusted within a blink by a modern WRX STi. Time marches on.