420 steel blade performace

I

itajuba knifemaker

Joined
Oct 27, 2000
Messages
10
Dear Friends,

Basicly I have utility the 440-C and ATS-34 steels , with hardeness 58-60 RC respective for maker of my knives.
Some people have dificulty sharpen these steels.
Recently I made the knife and I utility the 420 steel with 55-56 RC hardeness.
I could observe that steel have good performace for utility knives, because it sharpen easy , resit very good the corosion and tenacity good.
My question is: Why the steel is not utility by custom maker?


Thanks a lot, Ricardo Romano Bernardes
www.cutromano.cjb.net

 
I think many people don't use 420 is because of it's low carbon content. It is a very tough and corosion resistant steel, but the edge holding is much lower than the other steels you mentioned. 420, 420J2 and 440a are used by many companies for their knives for the general consumer because of the qualities you mentioned, but for a custom knife, people think the quality of the steel is too low. Hope this helps!
 
Hello Recardo...

I have been pondering the role of 420 steel in knifemaking lately...

First of all I don't think it's widely available in North America...420J2 is made in Japan I think...I've never seen it for sale...And it's carbon content is between 0.1-0.3 % about the same as a butter knife...

It is very stain resistant and is very easy to sharpen both very good in a knife...Most of the Pakistani knives I've seen are too blunt to really take an edge...

With the proper blade geometry it could be very useful...Having said that, I think most custom makers are looking for more performance in their knives and I think their customers are willing to pay for it...Including the extra work to sharpen...

For the general knife user, ease of sharpening is very important...going with a lower Rc of 55-57 is a good idea...Like George said, use the better steel and your customers will come to like it in the long term...Save the 420 for camp knives and light duty kitchen knives...

Michael
Running Dog

------------------
Running Dog Knife Company

<A HREF="mailto:
runningdog@dog.com">
runningdog@dog.com</A>
www.runningdogknife.bigstep.com
 
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