440C as a bush knife

Macchina

Macchina

Joined
Apr 7, 2006
Messages
5,215
I just traded for a Benchmade River knife in 440C. I had a Mini Grip in 440C once, and seemed to take a nice edge and hold for a decent amount of time. How will this steel perform in a bigger knife? Should I be wary of a fragile blade. I do not intend to pry, just cut.
 
I wouldnt say too bad, but remember its a stainless, so treat it accordingly.
 
I wouldn't sweat it...I have quite a few knives and have yet to have a blade break when used it it's doing what it was meant to do.
 
Very good as a slicer, and holding an edge.

NOT good for prying or I would assume, batoning, but you already said you weren't going to use it like that.
 
With any better steel, it's not so much the steel itself as it is the blade geometry. Even the best steel with a badly designed and ground blade (or improper heat treat) will be worthless. It'll be fine as long as you don't abuse it.
 
I have a 7" 440C knife that I have batoned the daylights out of, and it is still kicking along just fine. It holds an edge pretty well, too. It is currently one of my favorite outdoor blades.
 
With all the new "wonder" stainless steels, 440C gets treated like the red headed step child. It's still a great, tough steel.
 
440C is an excellent steel, and compares favorably with most of the better stainless cutlery grades. Performance of 440C or any steel lies in the heat treatment stage, as well as the geometry of the blade.
 
I like what I'm hearing. I really liked the River Knife's design because of the sheepsfoot tip and the G-10 handles. I don't stab anything, so I don't really use an ultra pointy tip. I've heard that 440C can be brittle, but it looks like you guys dissagree. I know that many people prefer carbon steels in a woods knife because you can bend it without breaking it. I'd like to know how many people have actually broken a stainless knife. I use a Manix with S30V (supposed to be quite brittle) at work for over two years, and have yet to have the tiniest chip.
 
The myths about stainless steel keep being repeated [S30V is brittle ! ] There are many different stainless steels each with it's own properties and of course heat treatment is critical. I try to educate makers here on the proper HT of stainless because they want to do it like the carbon steels ! No wonder they get poor results. While 440C has served as a good knife steel for years there are better ones now. 440C,154CM, CPM154, VG-10, S30V and a few others all make great blades, you won't be unhappy with any of them.
 
If you are worried about stainless blades veing fragile check out the Buck nighthawk which is tested on knifetests.com....I believe these are only 420c !
 
michaelmcgo said:
I'd like to know how many people have actually broken a stainless knife.
Click to expand...

I have broken a 440C stainless blade. It was a cheap chinese made "survival knife" I got a kid. I put it in a vice and bent it until the blade snapped. Even though it was a POS knife it still took quite alot of force to snap the blade. Both hands and a foot pushing off the work bench and im 6'4", 270 lbs.....
If you use the blade as it was intended it should last you quite a long time.
 
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