1080 Drop Point Hunter in Lignum Vitae

T.Saslow

T.Saslow

Periodic Thinker
Joined
Jun 12, 2013
Messages
479
This is a drop point hunter for my Uncle that I just finished up Wednesday. It has taken me a while to finally finish it but here it is in all its glory ;)

Specs:
-1080 High Carbon Steel
-Heat treated in my shop to around 56-57 RC
-high flat grind
-400 grit Satin Finish
-20 TPI jiimping
-Lignum Vitae handles taken to 1000 grit and finished with a coat of Boiled Linseed Oil
-3/16" pins and 1/4" lanyard tube
-Nice "CC" contouring as shown in the pictures-very comfortable IMHO
-Will come with a chocolate brown leather sheath with brass hardware.

*Note, knife is not yet sharpened for safety reasons-getting cut making a sheath was not fun...not gonna make that mistake again*






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15 year old hands make this knife look big huh ;)
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Thank you for looking, I appreciate and feedback and advice!
 
Looks quite functional with good durable materials.

I'm curious as to why you tempered it back to 56 or 57 Rc. ? Seems on the soft side for that steel. I would think somewhere around 60-61 would be perfectly suitable for that blade.

Anyway, good work. Just curious.
 
looks good, I see your getting better with your photography. The handles look nice and comfy.
 
J. Doyle said:
Looks quite functional with good durable materials.

I'm curious as to why you tempered it back to 56 or 57 Rc. ? Seems on the soft side for that steel. I would think somewhere around 60-61 would be perfectly suitable for that blade.

Anyway, good work. Just curious.
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In my experiences anything above 58-59rc causes edge chipping and deformation in 1080. Again this is just my experience but 56-58rc seems nearly indestructible. you can hammer it through mild steel without deformation at 56-58.

What's your experience with higher Rockwell and 1080?
 
What he said :D i was advised to take it to 56-57 RC but I haven't really done much testing as I don't have the money at the time to really do extensive testing with it. once I save up enough, I may experiment with different steel types and harnesses. This works for now.

Thank you for the compliments, it is much appreciated :)
 
There are quite a few steels that will perform VERY well above 60 Rc. W2, 1095, O1, 80CrV2, 1084 and even 1080 and 1075 just to name a few. I have quite a bit of experience with 1075 and 80CrV2 above 60 Rc. And more recently some experience with w2.

I don't pound my blades through steel so that's kind of an irrelevant aspect of a knife to me. What would you be doing with blades that's not considered abuse that would cause a good blade over 58 or 59 to chip?

Small knives especially are cutting and slicing tools only and the edge will last much longer at higher hardness.

Remember hardness is only one part of the equation. Edge geometry and thermal treatments for refined grain also play a HUGE role in edge stability.

To more directly answer your question, I've left my 1075 blades at around 60-61 for quite some time and I take my edges on small knives THIN. They will slice cardboard and sisal rope all day with no chipping whatsoever. And those two materials are about as abrasive and abusive as any material a small knife should be used on anyway. For the record, those same blades also hold up to chopping pine knots and antler. Both of which, I would consider abuse by the user, for the record.

It's one thing to do it as a test to see what a blade will take, (it also helps us makers protect ourselves when someone brings a damaged blade back claiming all they did was slice some paper ;) ) it's totally another to take a knife and intentionally hack pine knots or antler or cut mild steel just for the heck of it. A knife is not the proper tool for those jobs in reality.
 
Thank you for the information, as soon as i can get tome spare steel, i'll try experimenting with some harder heat treatments!
 
J. Doyle said:
There are quite a few steels that will perform VERY well above 60 Rc. W2, 1095, O1, 80CrV2, 1084 and even 1080 and 1075 just to name a few. I have quite a bit of experience with 1075 and 80CrV2 above 60 Rc. And more recently some experience with w2.

I don't pound my blades through steel so that's kind of an irrelevant aspect of a knife to me. What would you be doing with blades that's not considered abuse that would cause a good blade over 58 or 59 to chip?

Small knives especially are cutting and slicing tools only and the edge will last much longer at higher hardness.

Remember hardness is only one part of the equation. Edge geometry and thermal treatments for refined grain also play a HUGE role in edge stability.

To more directly answer your question, I've left my 1075 blades at around 60-61 for quite some time and I take my edges on small knives THIN. They will slice cardboard and sisal rope all day with no chipping whatsoever. And those two materials are about as abrasive and abusive as any material a small knife should be used on anyway. For the record, those same blades also hold up to chopping pine knots and antler. Both of which, I would consider abuse by the user, for the record.

It's one thing to do it as a test to see what a blade will take, (it also helps us makers protect ourselves when someone brings a damaged blade back claiming all they did was slice some paper ;) ) it's totally another to take a knife and intentionally hack pine knots or antler or cut mild steel just for the heck of it. A knife is not the proper tool for those jobs in reality.
Click to expand...

I'll agree with some points you have made. However through my extensive testing (15+ blades ht'd at different Rockwells), the blades that held up to the most use were blades between 56-59. This use included battoning hard wood, cutting cardboard, hammering through mild steel (just for tests, obviously its gross abuse),cutting rope,zipties etc.

Any higher than 59rc I ran into edge chipping and broken blades. While when ht'd lower than 56 it sacrificed too much edge retention, wear resistance and led to edge deformation when battoning.

I want to be clear, there is no one perfect ht for any steel but if it is done right at 56-59, you will have a very durable knife with great edge retention.

Kind regards,

Ryan
 
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Ryan, if those same blades would hold up to cardboard, rope and batoning wood at a higher hardness of 60-62, then you have the same scenario only with the added wear resistance of a harder blade. It's a no brainer to me.

If you have extensive experience (I don't know that I personally can call 15+ blades 'extensive' ;) ) with blades that don't hold up over a rockwell of 58, then you (or whoever the maker was) need to use better steel or get more control over your heating treating or work on your edge geometry or a combination of all of the above.
 
good photos dude :)

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