Becker knives and winter

B

barber oregon

Joined
Nov 19, 2000
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234
Winter is coming and looking at my BK7 got me thinking: both the steel and blade are very hard --how do they hold up in sub-freezing temperatures? Do they get more brittle?

Who has had experience with these knives in winter and how have they fared?
 
Not so you'd notice, IMHO. It would have to get a LOT colder than it gets normally (-45 or so) to make knife steels brittle. There are stories about old-time loggers heating the hardened steel bits of their felling axes with candles before they got to work in sub-zero weather, but that may be myth. Maybe in Antarctica where it gests a lot colder.
 
Leonard Lee, of Lee Valley fame, wrote about folks heating up their axes in winter. He wrote that some would sit on the axe, which was in a blanket, while riding to a logging site.

Hope that helps!!!
 
I always wondered where the term "split tail" came from. Now I know the rest of the story.
 
There is a phenomina with steel called the "brittle transition temperature", a temperature where steel chages from ductile to brittle.That temp may be as high as 70F. It is one of the reasons (along with dirty steel and large grain size )that made the TITANIC sink. I have not heard of the problem with knife steels.
 
Originally posted by mete
It is one of the reasons (along with dirty steel and large grain size )that made the TITANIC sink. I have not heard of the problem with knife steels.
Click to expand...

Well yeah, that and running into an iceberg. :D
 
Gee, I think that a guy that lives in Whitehorse, Yukon would know something about the cold!

What's it like there in the dead of winter? How does it compare to the interior of Alaska (i.e. Delta Junction/Ft. Greely) area?

I need to know since I plan to take my BK-10 when I go to FTG next January.

Thanks,

Albin
 
Last couple winters here in Alaska have been pretty mild, very few sub zero days nonetheless, no probs with my own Beckers. Used 'em hard enough a couple times that there were several sparks flying from my blade in the night. (from chipping rocks and gravel) One thing I've always done is wear the knife right next to my body during real bad days. Seems to do well enough. To be honest though I'd never considered the darn blade breakin', I'd just done it casually and as an issue for comfort!:D Thing is though, that when the temps get THAT ugly I don't have fun outside, I'll get from point A to point B as fast as possible, then warm up with some Buttershots and hot cocoa. Rarely out in that kinda crap more than an hour or two at a crack. (So call me a wimp, at least I'm a warm one!)
 
Actually, Whitehorse is situated in a little micro-climate where we get the milder influence from the Pacific; we're also in a rain shadow so it's relatively dry here. But you don't have to go far to find deep snow and deeper temperatures (like, ten minutes up a snowmobile trail). And elsewhere in the Yukon it can get really bitter with high winds that combine for an unbelievable wind chill. I think a world record was set at Snag, Alaska, right on the border, a few decades ago, around -60. The Yukon Quest dogsled race from Whitehorse to Fairbanks is tougher than the Iditarod. We've lived all over the north in BC and Alberta and subzero temperatures, and I've never worried about steel getting brittle -- even a rifle barrel. But when it gets down to -40 and below, it's not fun out and Runs With Scissors has excellent advice.
 
All steels will get more brittle as it gets cold, but in general while -20 degrees or so is a large change for us, it is a very small change for a steel. What is usually a much bigger factor is the influence the cold has on what is being cut, and the method. Cutting frozen wood for example with a stiff swing and a less than optimal grip (heavy gloves), it a very different experience for a knife than cutting the same wood in temperate conditions when you don't have to wear bulky clothes. I have consistently seen blades take damage cutting wood in the winter and do so without care in the summer and fall.

-Cliff
 
OK, great, although now it looks like mid- Feb to early March. Several people I work with at FTG said that it was a pretty mild winter up there. As a result we got a lot done.

They'll probably want me to work 10-12 hour days, but I'm still going to find some time to see some of interior Alaska.

Anything good to see besides Donnelly Dome (I plan to hike it to hell with how cold it is), the buffalo and Pump Station #9 near the FTG/Delta Juntion area??

Thanks,

Albin
 
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