Best steel for a hunting knife

LARRYZ10 said:
Laurence, About two years ago I got a deal on ATS-34 and bought a bunch. I made hunting knives out of it for a whole year. My customers loved the knives but had no clue what the steel was and did not care except to ask the name. Last year I made all my hunting style knives from 440 C and everyone is still happy. I now have a ton of CPM 154 and starting after Thanksgiving I will be profiling all my new designs from that steel. My customers prefer stainless 10 to one over anything else. The ones who know something about knife quality ask me what the Rockwell hardness is. I believe the heat treatment is the most important variable to quality along with edge geometry. I also sell Damascus knives but most just want to look at them and order a stainless knife for real work. These are western hunters for the most part. Maybe carbon steel is the most popular in another part of the country. I like them but no one asks for them around here. (Southern California). I want to try CPM S30V and CPM S35VN and will read up on that. Thanks, Larry
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For the most part, the stainless steels we are talking about for knife making are all sister steels of 440C the lineage is, 440C, ATS-34 then 154cm, CPM-154 the first powdered version then your CPN-S30V and S35VN then to on to the 390M etc.
I personally prefer stainless steels, That doesn't mean that many other carbon and tool steels can't be made into an excellent knife.

Here is a previous thread with some good chart comparisons to help us all get more info about the different stainless steels that are used b knife makers.
http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/s...-Steel-Chart-Comparison-EDC-Knife-Blades-v5-3

P.S. I am not a metallurgist. I just know what has made very functional and corrosion resistant knives in my experience.
 
I'm not an hunter, how sharp an hunting knife needs to be? what is the part of the dressing work that needs the most sharpness? i suppose it is hide cutting, instead for separate the skin from the meat i suppose the sharpness is somewhat less important, or not?
 
It needs to be very sharp and it also has to retain it's edge. I haven't hunted moose yet but it is the toughest animal on a knife due to the hide and the size of the animal. I talked to my buddy and he said 1 bull moose would be about the equivalent of doing 4 elk or about 8 deer.
 
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Frank, Many of my customers ask for a high polish blade which I like also for easy cleanup and smooth cutting. How do the three stainless steels you mention measure up to taking a polish? I know that they are popular steels from the comment on the forums. Where do you order your steel from? Thanks for the information. Larry Lehman
 
LARRYZ10 said:
Frank, Many of my customers ask for a high polish blade which I like also for easy cleanup and smooth cutting. How do the three stainless steels you mention measure up to taking a polish? I know that they are popular steels from the comment on the forums. Where do you order your steel from? Thanks for the information. Larry Lehman
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You might want to P.M. Frank with your questions, Not sure if he subscribes to threads?
 
Huntsman Knife Co. said:
On my personal hunting knives (one in m390, one in 3V) I like to leave a coarse edge- usually I sharpen on my 400 grit stone and then strop with green compound. But I think this kind of edge only works with high alloy steels that have lots of carbides. I mostly like this because it makes slicing cuts go easier for me and the edge lasts longer in most cases than a very fine 2000 grit+ edge.

But fine grained steels like 52100 or AEBL need as fine of an edge as possible to really get the best out of them. I like to sharpen my 52100 knives on ultra fine DMT stones and take advantage of the fine grain structure.
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Would you say 3V works better with a course edge? I am not really aware of where 3v stacks up as far as carbides. Thanks in advance.
 
That is a great question, concerning 3v and carbides. I always wondered about carbide formation in a steel that has a lot of alloying, but no extra carbon to form the carbides. I think Roman Landes at one time explained the carbide formation in a steel like 3V happens in the liquid phase of the steel, as it is being made, and there is little if anything a knife maker can do in heat treating for carbide formation. I think I have that correct. But definitely....CPM 3V will have definite carbide formation. And a good candidate for the coarse edge, of course!
 
samuraistuart said:
That is a great question, concerning 3v and carbides. I always wondered about carbide formation in a steel that has a lot of alloying, but no extra carbon to form the carbides. I think Roman Landes at one time explained the carbide formation in a steel like 3V happens in the liquid phase of the steel, as it is being made, and there is little if anything a knife maker can do in heat treating for carbide formation. I think I have that correct. But definitely....CPM 3V will have definite carbide formation. And a good candidate for the coarse edge, of course!
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I am seeking information. In addition I had posted a thread regarding cpm3v vs cpm4v and there was little posts. I understand because 4v is fairly new. In searching for tough steel I ran across Zwear and bought some. From the data sheet And what I was told by a couple people the difference between was basically 0.5% carbon and a addition of tungsten. Anyways I am trying some of this and I would say in the Annealed state it is harder then 3v. I am sure there are multiple reasons. So i am guessing that the zwear will have larger harder carbides?? At a higher RC leaving more material between? I would think regardless of size the zwear with tungsten will have harder carbides (tungsten carbides) am i totally wrong?
Thanks for the responce.
 
Sorry, I'm late coming back. I buy my stainless steels from AKS, USA knifemaker Supply,and Canadian Knife Maker Supply. I have used many, many feet of both 440C and ATS-34 all blades were heat treated and cryo treated in a vacuum chamber. I found that ATS-34 would maintain a definite better edge than 440C and have since found CPM154,M390, Elmax, and ABE-L does much better than those did.
They all will polish just as good as you would want or better. ABE-L has the advantage of being the easiest to grind, work, finish, and sharpen but maintains a great cutting edge. I know that seems like I'm making some contrary remarks but that is what I have found. My top pick is the M390 with Elmax next , but it is difficult trying to find good thicknesses to work with. That is when I became very involved with ABE-L as a very practical steel for hunting blades. By the way these have all been folding knives with blades about 3 3/4" to 4".

What most hunters learn soon is that it sure saves on the blade edge to always cut from the inside of the animal and not run your blade along the outside in the opening up procedure. Moose by the way have hollow hairs for their skin but I think it must be 100% sand.
I most often grind my blades to almost a zero angle with a slight convex on the actual edge. I have been doing this for about 35 years and for me it seems to give the best results for hunting blades. The Rockwells are 60- 61 for ABE-L and 61 - 62 for the M390 and Elmax.
If I can answer more of your questions please ask. I will try to respond sooner than I did on this one. By the way I believe in what Laurence puts up. His total involvement for many years has given him a good picture. Frank
 
Depends on what you're hunting!

Upland birds, rabbit, squirrel, and other small game require a different approach from large game.

I've never used any of the more exotic alloys, but absolutely love 10XX carbon steels for gutting/skinning/caping. I prefer a bit more beef to the blade at this point than some and will migrate to a thinner, flexible knife for actual butchering of larger game.
 
Yes, it seems we all must come up with our preferences through our own use and as the feedback that comes in. Certainly those smaller animals can require smaller knives to be handled on a regular basis. Caping knives can be very small and yet the best for that work. As a friend of mine said "not everyone can have the same, nor do they all want the same." Frank
 
I had a few hunters in CTS-XHP @ 61just run through hunting season. Guys were getting between two and four deer before needing strop. Very positive feedback.

As far as stainlesses go, that's my personal recommendation. I don't use XHP as my house steel because it's that much better than anything else, but because it's a good versatile steel that seems to work well in different situations, and is easy to maintain.
 
This pic was sent to me this past weekend from a customer. He said that my knife cut like a scalpel and held up beautifully through dressing this deer. I'm really happy to be hearing reports like this. The steel is 52100 btw. Pic quality is kinda crappy, but you get the idea.

20141118_125404.jpg
 
The best I have used - by far - is 10v @ Rc 66 from Phil Wilson. Next best is K294 @ 63 by Phil Wilson. Edge retention and edge retention are what matter.
 
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