- Joined
- Sep 23, 1999
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I was looking through my knife magazines the other day and happened to read a letter to the editor of Tactical Knives (I forget which issue.) The person wrote in asking what steel SAKs were made of, because his SAK was the best cutter of his knives.
Steven Dick replied that the steel is likely some version of 440A. But, the real secret of why SAKs cut...
Maybe I should keep it to myself...
Can I trust the world with this knowledge?
ALRIGHT! SAK's cut awesome because they are thin!
Thin knives cut better than thick knives, all other things being equal. About half a year ago I bought my first SAK and I was amazed how much of a super cutter it is. But it didn't replace my Tac folders. Now, I use my SAK for many cutting chorses and my Tac folders get used for harder tasks.
This summer I designed 3 kitchen knives, an 8" chef's blade, a 4.5" wharncliffe utility and a 3" paring knife. All knives are 440-C, but the magic is that the latter 2 are 1/16" thick. That original set I gave to my sister as a wedding present. I made my mother a utility/paring set for her birthday and she loves the knives. If cutting performance is top on your list of wants, go with thinner blade stock.
One advantage of thin blade stock is that it is easier to sharpen too. One way to get a cool utility knife that is easy to sharpen and uses the super mega ultra steels is to get a custom knife made, say, from S30V. With the toughness of S30V, a maker can use thinner stock than he otherwise would and/or grind the knives thinner. That way you get a thin blade, all the advantages of the super steels and it makes it easier to sharpen.
That said, I too like the less exotic steels. SAK steel is soooooooo easy to sharpen! So is AUS-8. I find AUS-8 to be a great steel. It sharpens very fast and tages a very aggressive edge, thanks in part to the pinch of vanadium in it. My granny has a set of kitchen knives (I forget the brand at the moment) that are made of AUS-8 and they are thin blades too (1/16" thick, I think). It takes me 10 minutes to sharpen 5 knives on my bench stones!