kel_aa said:
Do you know why he does this?
"I personally prefer a softer draw on my knives for several reasons. On my personal knife I draw the temper back to about a 52. I like the more aggressive edge and it holds for me longer. It is also tougher and will take more abuse. When I go off hunting for a week at a time I do not want to carry a bunch of stones to sharpen it with nor do I want to worry about what ever I put it through. This just holds up better in the way I personally use a knife. I sure would not have to worry about stresses from bends. To me toughness is more important than hardness."
Why do carpenters use stainless steel?
There are a few reasons why in general they will look to it mainly because of the perception that it is directly better and 440 stainless is really good. In particular to the above I was speaking more of a choice between the more brittle high carbon stainless vs the tougher medium carbon stainless. However, construction workers are in the rain a lot, so rust is a real concern.
Finish carpenters who work inside have very different tools and have far less demands on toughness. They can prefer the japanese style chisels for example but they are very rare for framing.
Assuming it is a Aus6A mutlipurpose knife, after they tear through wood/cardboard with metal inclusions, how can well can you expect it to perform the tasks which actually need/want a stainless steel, like cutting food?
They have little fine cutting ability until it is sharpened, but generally they are more utility tools and don't see tasks which demand the ability to push cut fine paper for example. When fine cutting is required the knife is just resharpened. The softer blades can readily be filed which allows for aggressive sharpening rapidly, on a shingle for example.
Wouldn't more specialized blades be more important?
Yeah, in general shingles are far more readily cut with small hook knives and fibreglass insulation with a very long and very thin blade, however in small construction companies it is common for people to move around a lot because you don't have enough people to independently run each job. My brother used to carry standard carpentry knives, and he still does, a extra heavy duty Olfa, but it gets a lot less use due to the Pacific and Alantic Salt. You also are not going back to the tool back every time you need to cut something just like the claws on the hammer get a lot more use than pulling nails because often it is much faster to use them than to actually get the right tool.
And how far are you willing to support the increase in toughness argument?
Again in the above I was speaking more of a choice between two steels rather than saying it was an optimal steel in general. But I think the arguement Fisk outlined in the above would have value for many.
meshmdz said:
so AUS6m high carbon blades are not durable?
They are more resistant to impacts and can bend more but are not as strong or as wear resistant than the higher carbon stainless steels.
-Cliff
