A2 or 80crv2

[Black Oak Bladeworks]

How much harder is 3v to sharpen with a water stone ? That’s my biggest hesitation.

I would say significantly harder but not impossible unless you have a diamond stone then not nearly as much difference. I have a fallkniven DC4 stone that works pretty well for touch up. But water stones work to, it just takes longer. 3v is my current personal favorite steel.

Yes, both A2 and 80crv2 will take a great edge.

 

[Rob_Angerer]

General camp more robust knife (5” to 5.25” blade 5/32 or 3/16” thick), used for general fire prep (batoning included), general meal prep, white tail hunting, etc... will be used as a primary blade
Bushcraft knife (3.5” to 4” blade at 1/8” thick and scandi grind). Uses include all of the above minus batoning and adding finer “carving type work”. Will be used as a backup blade 99% of the time.

Any time batoning is going to be considered, I think you go for a tougher blade steel. Remove batoning from the equation and a bigger realm of steel choices opens up.

At a given hardness, 80CRV2 will be tougher than A2 by a fair amount. Stay away from 1095 and O1, they simply do not make for anywhere near as tough a blade at a decent hardness level. 1084 is a much better choice than 1095 for tough.

You would have to reach for 5160 or 8670 to be tougher than 80CRV2 at a given hardness.

Do some searches for Dr. Larrin Thomas' work to get a good background in data-driven conclusions.

 

[TC]

Pulling up this thread because I think it's the closest to what I want to post. 80CrV2.

Picked up a small no-name maker puukko with a Lauri 80CrV2 blade some time ago and just got around to putting it to some real use. Wow.

I had thinned-out the scandi edge on DMT plates up to 8000 mesh to a really thin profile and stropped with green compound to finish - this edge should flutter in a strong breeze!

And then I spent an hour or so whittling away on semi-hard hazel, appr. 1" diameter, doing push-cuts with a little forward twist at the end to remove the shavings, at both ends of the piece to remove the original rough-chopped ends...then de-barking the 16" length...etc.

In summary, over one hour of putting some real stress into a very thin edge, fully expecting some serious rolling or chips.

Nothing.

Nothing at all. Nada. Nichts. Niente. 100% exactly the same edge I started out with. Amazing. A sub-$10 blade with a home shop handle.

 

[Alberta Ed]

Check out Utility Tool Knives in Portland (http://utilitytoolknives.com/). Lots of good information there.

 

[jaymondtaylor999]

Check out Utility Tool Knives in Portland (http://utilitytoolknives.com/). Lots of good information there.

Pulling up this thread because I think it's the closest to what I want to post. 80CrV2.

Picked up a small no-name maker puukko with a Lauri 80CrV2 blade some time ago and just got around to putting it to some real use. Wow.

I had thinned-out the scandi edge on DMT plates up to 8000 mesh to a really thin profile and stropped with green compound to finish - this edge should flutter in a strong breeze!

And then I spent an hour or so whittling away on semi-hard hazel, appr. 1" diameter, doing push-cuts with a little forward twist at the end to remove the shavings, at both ends of the piece to remove the original rough-chopped ends...then de-barking the 16" length...etc.

In summary, over one hour of putting some real stress into a very thin edge, fully expecting some serious rolling or chips.

Nothing.

Nothing at all. Nada. Nichts. Niente. 100% exactly the same edge I started out with. Amazing. A sub-$10 blade with a home shop handle.

that’s awesome i just bout the utility knife (winkler) and the 80crv2 steel is amazing. i love your thread. there isn’t a all around tougher steel out there that doesn’t chip or hard to sharpen compared 80crv2 is down right my kinda steel. ty for sharing that. everyone has an opinion but yours seemed so real and authentic and just matter factly! i love it!