1085 German Surgical Steel - Z-Slayer series

U

Uthgrazfel

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May 30, 2014
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Hi guys, just recently started a bit of a collection and I had a few questions regarding a recent purchase of the type of steel and a specific item from the series mentioned in the title. I recently got my hands on a knife called the "Undead Gasher" in the Z Slayer series made by a company called Tiger-USA.

Now, on the blade itself, there is a stamp (not engraved/pressed into the steel) that looks exactly like this (line for line):
1085 German Surgical Steel
Designed in USA
Made By TIGER-USA in P.R.C

I've been trying to find out what exactly 1085 surgical steel is but all the results I've found so far come up for 1085 carbon steel or something around 400-440~ surgical steel but none of the results seem to match exactly. The knife itself seems rather light for its size (at least in comparison to a KA-Bar of comparable size), and the balance seems to be about 3/4s of an inch (1.5cm) into the blade even though it seems to be full tang (or at least made to look like it is).

I'd love to hear any details you guys can give me regarding what this so called 1085 surgical steel stamp means (or 1085 German surgical steel if the origin makes a difference), and also, if anyone knows the specific product or line I'd love some details regarding the knife (such as whether it is full tang or not, how well it takes/keeps an edge, and what would be a good way to sharpen it).

Thank you all in advance for any information you can provide :)
 
I call BS on that, german steels are usually named by DIN number, e.g. 1.2379 or 1.4116
My guess is that that they have no clue themselves, since its made in PRC, they are probably relaying what the manufacturer told them.
Could be 1085 carbon steel or could be something entirely different.

EDIT:But "surgical" would imply that its stainless, which 1085 by definition isn't.
EDIT2: Try cutting an apple and see if it has that carbon steel smell, that should at least tell you what kind of steel it is.
 
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SK5 is pretty close to our AISI 1085. It is used in Taiwan and the PRC on occasion.I'm not sure if PRC imports it, makes it under license, or just makes a steel and calls it that name. It could be any of the above. I agree it's probably someone trying to sound knowledgeable and high tech. Another guess is it's likely not targeted at the average Blade forum knife collector/user/accumulator that will actually research the product before purchase. :)
 
1085 is AISI designation. Not stainless.
German DIN standard names start with X for carbon and then the rest... E.g. X50CrMoV15. New EU standard EN follows the same naming convention.
W-Nr is another German standard which is the one having numbers like 1.xxxx (1.4116 is the same X50CrMoV15).

So, most likely someone screwed up or it's a deliberate BS.

On the other hand, there is a remote possibility, like very, very remote possibility, that 1085 is a custom stainless steel, with the name identical with AISI 1085, but different composition. I know of one case like that, Chroma knives uses steel called type 301, where 301 is matching AISI steel name 301, but in fact is a custom made steel similar to AUS-6. The only thing is, Chroma is German company, and they knew nothing about AISI 301 when naming their steel, and from what OP states Tiger is USA based company, so it is unlikely they'd have custom stainless steel with the same name as plain carbon alloy in US AISI standard.

Either way the term surgical stainless alone is enough to avoid it.
 
Gator97 said:
So, most likely someone screwed up or it's a deliberate BS.
Click to expand...

I would assume the later because I'm pretty sure tiger USA is the equivalent of tac-force and m-tech. Some guy showed me his knife with a brand of Wartech and it said "surgical 1065 steel". Its bs the company uses to deliberately fool people.

OP, your knife is likely poorly heat treated 420j2 or 440a.
 
The term "surgical" showed up on many European knives in the past,

...most notably the term "Surgical Stainless" on post-war knives from Germany and Italy,

...it was a fancy way to described the fairly low quality stainless steels then available.


I suspect much of the same thing is going on here,

...I would guess it is indeed a Chinese version of 1085 labeled to appeal to the western markets.


Just one knife user's opinion, YMMV.




Big Mike
 
Well that is certainly amusing, 1085 German Surgical Zombie Slayer Steel, DESIGNED IN THE USA MADE BY TIGER USA ᶦᶰ ᵖ⋅ʳ⋅ᶜ
 
Thanks for all the input guys. Like I said, fairly new to collecting. I've had a thing for knives since I was around 8-9 but didn't start looking into the technical aspects of knives until recently (and I'm still just a newbie at best). As for this particular knife, didn't pay too much for it so even if it's just a deco item it's fine.
 
Surgical Stainless was never an official term. I had a couple of German made knives in the 1970's that were stamped "surgical steel". They were decent SS for the time, nothing like todays offerings. I read later it unofficially meant a SS with a relatively hard HT.

I haven't seen it on a well made knife for decades.
 
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