7 Days 7 Knives All Carbon Challenge

yobbos1

yobbos1

Joined
Mar 29, 2002
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Not really a challenge, just thought I'd give it a go for a week. If anyone would like to play along, show your 7 (or five for a work week) and have some old fashioned carbon steel fun.

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At the end of the week I'll post some thoughts on the relative strengths and weaknesses of the knives and the uses they were put to.
 
Too late for an outdoor picture, but here are six.

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One is illegal in the company of carbon.
 
Also too late for an outdoor pic. Here are seven.
Five are alloy steel instead of carbon steel. But they will all patina so I hope they count.

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Easy enough for me as I always have a carbon steel knife either in a belt pouch or in a pocket. I do carry at least 2 knives daily however so I will pair pouch knife and pocket knife in carbon steel pairs...

Day 1 finds a Large Cold Steel Shinobu in the pouch and a Case Peanut in the pocket.
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Day 2 I will have a Medium Cold Steel Twistmaster Drop Point in the pouch and a Cold Steel Jr, Stockman in pocket.
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Day 3, another Cold Steel day with an Ozark Hunter in the pouch and a Muskrat in the pocket.
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Day 4 will find me with a Case CV Barehead in pouch and a Cold Steel Bird in pocket.
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Day 5 will be a Camillus (Carbon V) trapper in pouch and Large CS stockman in pocket.
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Day 6 Another Twistmaster, this one a Medium Bowie and an old Craftsman in the pocket.
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Day 7 last day...I will go with this custom Damascus folder in the pouch and a 1930's Remington Jack in my pocket.
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It is a rare day when I don't carry at least one carbon steel knife, they take such a razor edge I know even a medical emergency would find me with a sharp enough cutting instrument on hand. The pouch knives are for larger tougher chores but they too are all razor sharp. In this test I did stack things in Cold Steel, I could have easily gone with Fight'n Rooster, Case, Bulldog, etc...I really do prefer carbon steel for my knives.
 
I'll take that challenge! Let's see . . . first I'll use my SchradeUSA 8OT . . . oh, wait a minute. I carry that one a lot anyway. Maybe my Case large CV Stockman? But that one gets used a lot too. And my Remington (Camillus) Stockman . . .

Aw, never mind. I'll just carry what I usually do.

I'll edit in a pic later this AM.

thx - cpr
 
never found ss. steel out.cut carbon. best carbon beats best ss every time exception ss'steels liquid nitrogen quensh cardboard timed tests 35 years eye schliper 70s 90s fantastic best carbon i ever saw schmidt ziegler stockknive cut 13 minutes still shave leg .
 
hmmm, I wish I had 7 old school carbon folders :D I would be able to go four days on my Opinel 6, schrade 8OT, schrade 3OT, and my schrade 505SC.
 
Well after a week here's my thoroughly anecdotal and decidedly UNscientific analysis. These knives were all used alone as an EDC at work and at home. I work in a busy factory building woodstoves and gas fireplaces on an assembly line. The blades were all used for about what you'd expect in this line of work; cutting plastic wrap, nylon shipping straps, webbing, cardboard of every conceivable thickness and level of dirt, light prying, light scraping,. finer detail work like light carving on wood plastic foam etc. My main interest was in how each of these steels compared to each other in edge holding, how each knife was for carry and how each of the blade types performed on all tasks at hand.
To be brief carrying the single blades was easier- winners-Case Soddie, Opinel #7, Mercator. Edge holding-no contest- Eye brand won hands down followed by the Shcrades, with the Case and Opinel tied and Mercator VERY close behind. It can be an extremely dirty place where I work and this took it's toll on all of the knives with grit and tape residue all over everything- Mercator seemed to tolerate this the best.
Verdict: I thoroughly enjoyed using these somewhat unsung patterns of the past and was particularly impressed with the overall toughness of the Mercator and Soddie I guess because I expected the bolstered slippies to take some extra abuse and they did. For the next couple of days I think I'll try these two head-to-head and see what transpires.:)
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I should add that the little 12OT performed valiantly but nearly gave it's owner a heart attack when it went AWOL on a conveyor belt and was MIA for a while.
 
DennisStrickland said:
never found ss. steel out.cut carbon. best carbon beats best ss every time exception ss'steels liquid nitrogen quensh cardboard timed tests 35 years eye schliper 70s 90s fantastic best carbon i ever saw schmidt ziegler stockknive cut 13 minutes still shave leg .
Click to expand...
??

Could you please explain about 13 minutes of cardboard cutting and leg shaving, (details) is this a standardized test, or just breaking down cardboard boxes for 13 minutes as opposed to (for example) cutting 50 1 inch hemp ropes? Just trying to get my mind around this...


I always have a carbon steel blade with me in addition to my Sebenza...
usually a jr stockman or barlow or even a trapper. They sharpen up easily and take a razor edge. When I get stressed out in front of the computer crunching numbers and dealing with corporate stress I fondle my jr stockman like worry beads...and feel that connection to the past.
 
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+1 on using the handle as worry beads.
+1 also on "hard to read". As in, "What did you say?"
 
Come on guys, let's be better than this. If you have an issue with someone's grammar or writing style then let them know via email or PM. Let's not start ostracizing folks for their language and writing skills.

That said, it seems pretty clear to me that DennisStrickland said that he never found stainless steel to out cut carbon steel...best carbon steel beats stainless steel every time with the exception of stainless which has been cryo treated...in cardboard cutting tests over 35 years (and with Schlieper models from the 70's through 90's) it was the best carbon steel he ever saw. (I'm not familiar with Schmidt/Ziegler so I'll leave that one alone but I guess it cut cardboard for 13 minutes straight and would still shave.)

Okay, now...let's get back to discussing knives instead of this finger pointing. Thanks.
 
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I like this thread, should be kept open permanently:thumbup:

I've included users not loafers and different patterns. From left to right CASE Pen, Northwood's Stockman-Forum Knife 08,Bulldog Teardrop Jack, CASE Small Texas, Böker Copperhead, Weidmannsheil lockback, GEC liner lock.
 
Great selection willgoy, and let me say that since the Mercator in my last pic was part of the original selection and I was less than impressed with the performance of the Okapi, I'll have to wait till my new Case CV Stockman gets here so I can round up a fresh weeks worth of patina'd performers.:o The Okapi seved light duty well in the past so I put a more agressive edge on 'er and took it to work today. I start my day at 7am and by about 9:30 the Okapi was done and my Case Caribbean Blue Stockman had to save the day.
 
I don't even have seven knives right now, I've actually been selling them off recently. I just can't afford new knives right now.

:(
 
yobbos I use a CASE Medium Stockman in cv and ss a great deal(didn't include it in the pic as the Northwood's was representing the Stockman class)you won't be disappointed with it.Very versatile set of blades make it handy for most jobs I'd say.
 
After a month or so of figuring it out. I finally settled on the following set of 1095 and CV carbon knives for the 7 day challenge. I may switch out one of these with a Case chestnut bone CV peanut not shown but not sure.

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What a selection Fly! What are those Acorn shield knives? Brings out the squirrel in me....
 
Thanks y'all. The two with the acorn shields are the Cozy Glen SFO series made by Queen with 1095 steel blades. Not sure if there were other patterns made besides the Canoe and Mini Trapper. They are both exceptional for the price. Got them both from here.
 
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