425m

R

Robert Ptacel

Joined
Feb 1, 2007
Messages
314
I have been sharpening this friends 110 for quite a few years now and when he first brought it to me it had a noticeable bend to the tip. Having been wooed away from the Buck fold for quite a few years I thought this blade must be really soft to have survived such a bend. He was trying to split the pelvic bone with it and I admonished him there are better ways to do it. He had field dressed two deer with it and it still grudgingly sliced newspaper which surprised me because I thought it must be pretty soft steel. It is circa '93 110 according to the tang stamp so probably 425M. My question is does the molybdenum in the steel make it that much tougher than 420HC?
 
wh4f said:
Isn't 93 when buck switched from 425M to 420HC????????????
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:cool:...I'm thinkin' it was 1994 Jim. Lord knows that there might have been a few "trial" run 110's made up of 420HC in '93 though...:confused:
 
Hi Robert,

I can't answer your question as I am not an expert on steel...sorry. But, my cheat sheet shows that DarrylS is correct.....425M was 81-93. 420HC started in 94.

jb4570
 
Hmm, I have a 1995 110 that was my father's and when he gave it to me, it had a noticable bend to it as well. So I think 420HC is at least as tough as 425m. I don't have any scientific evidence, though.
 
:D...

I don't know, I thought that 93-94 were either or model years :D 425M or 420HC... My bad ;)

Either way I doubt you could notice much of a difference.
 
wh4f said:
:D...

I don't know, I thought that 93-94 were either or model years :D 425M or 420HC... My bad ;)

Either way I doubt you could notice much of a difference.
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BAD....Yes Jimbo you are bad!!!!! Showing us your new kitchen knife set was bad...VERY BAD:mad:.

As for when the 425M blade stock ran out:eek: who knows. Buck did a lot of work on their heat treating of the steel. So the 425M and 420HC edge holding ability is very similar...at least to me....I can't tell any difference. Bucks heat treating process has always set them apart from the competition:thumbup:.

jb4570
 
One more thing I forgot to mention is this year because of the many years of sharpening I needed to take the kick down. So I used a coarse bastard file that had only been used once before on an ax which it bit into quite well. Well that file just skated across the kick leaving nary a mark. I finally had to use a silicon carbide stone. I always thought files were 60+ on the rockwell scale but I must have got a soft one. I just thought it was weird that file skates on the kick and yet the blade is tough enough to bend.
 
Robert Ptacel said:
I just thought it was weird that file skates on the kick and yet the blade is tough enough to bend.
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I think that you are seeing the 'magic' of Buck's heat treatment, Robert. When I first saw your post, I did a bit of research on 425M and what I discovered on most sites, was that 425M was roughly equivalent to 440A. Now 440A will take a heck of a fine edge, but won't keep it for long. Another site suggested that 425M was roughly equivalent to 420HC. Now by inference, the conclusion would be that 440A is the equivalent of 420HC, but from my experience, that dog won't hunt. I have found that 420HC will take the fine edge of 440A, yet keep it considerably longer.

I believe that the common denominator is Buck's excellent heat treatment of the 425M and 420HC steel, a treatment that seems to bump them up to a higher performance category, IMO.
 
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