Steel for hunting knife?
- This topic has 8 replies, 5 voices, and was last updated 02/09/2018 at 2:22 am by
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I would ask the knife maker what steel he uses for the hunting knife, or what choices he offers. Then let us know which steels he suggests. I don’t think I’d want him to use something he may be unfamiliar with.
Marc
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Hey Josh, I like S30V for any knife personally but if your buddy is forging his own you want to go with what he recommends. If they are making a knife from blanks he should be able to due what you want. Most high carbon steel works very nice for hunters and have for a long time. I would ask your buddy.
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The Loveless folks use CPM154 Stainless according to their web site. Once again the maker’s recommendation is probably best due to familiarity. Not too soon to ask to see the finished product once created, is it?
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I’ve made a few hunting knives and I use D2 exclusively, but only because I can harden it with a propane torch (using MAPP gas) without concerns for quenching, as it will harden when left to cool on its own. Performance-wise, it works beautifully for me. If I remember correctly, CPM154 requires cryogenic treatment. Usually, that means sending it out for heat-treating.
That said, I’ll vote with the others. Let your knifemaker decide what’s best for him. If he’s a good-enough friend to make a knife for you, I wouldn’t burden him with exceptions.
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How about that? The knife I’m making right now is a skinner, which looks a lot like the “SharpFinger.” It’s a design I came up with in 1982. As I recall, Old Timer came out with the SharpFinger a couple of years later. Today I made one of the dumbest mistakes I’ve ever pulled. I was so focused on how I’d manage the scale assembly that I epoxied the scales and pins into place, only to remember that I was supposed to harden the edge first. Doh! I have some old Calgon Thermo Trap paste and hopefully, it’ll protect the handle while I harden the edge. If not, then the scales will come loose and I’ll have to start over. This was also the first silver-soldering job (brass bolster on a full tang) I’d done in about 30 years, and it’s clear I’ve lost a big chunk of those skills. Best case, it won’t be one I’ll be showing off.
Here’s an old photo of the first one I did back in ’82:
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Nice knife Tom! D2 steel seems to be very popular with a lot of knife makers.
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Well, the hardening process was a bear, but yielded some success. With a water-soaked terry-cloth rag wrapped around the handle scales and a dam of Thermo-Trap around the blade next to the bolster, I had a really difficult time getting the edge up to the needed temp (yellow-orange); The Thermo-Trap acted like a massive heat sink, and there’s no sign of heat at the bolsters. I quenched with a blast of compressed air, thinking I probably didn’t reach critical temp, but the edge is clearly harder than before, maybe in the 57-58 range.
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