Bohler Udderholm Caldie: an industrial hard use chopping/coldwork steel= Machetes?

B

BlackHands

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Feb 22, 2016
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Hey everybody!
So I am a huge fan of BU steels, I think they make amazing clean and quality stuff and have used a couple different ones. I'm looking to make some giant bowie/machete/sword knife/things (I don't know yet, but big, and cool ;) ) and have been looking at all kinds of numbers and steel charts etc. For big blades I have come upon what seems to be a modified s7 from BU that is speaking my language and saying all the right things, especially things like super tough, high hard, no chip, industrial plastic chopping knives and severe cold work. How could a machete possibly not be super duty if made out of it?
I want.
I'm talking to them now to try and get some, I'm not finding it anywhere else, the closest thing to an equivalent would be kinda like the crucible s7 XL, so my question is A) , what do you guys think of s7 in a "almost what I'm talking" way, B) anybody seen Caldie or used s7 XL? And what do you guys think about Caldie specifically, if you have heard of it or want to check out my links to it here. - http://www.bucorp.com/caldie_p.htm the PDF at the bottom has all the details. I love BU stuff, like I said, (might be the Swedish blood), but I think they have something for anything you could want to do, something awesome, it's just getting them to cater to us, so I am hoping to also get the word out when I find cool steels like this from them and maybe help get availability up.
Thanks guys for looking!
Happy safe smithin', keep those hands black and those blades sharp!!!
 
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It looks like it should hold up well, I think the problem is of course the availability, but you said you are getting your hands on some and I'd love to hear what you have to say about it and how much you paid to have like a literal ton of it bought from the manufacturer haha. I've heard very good things about S7 overall and I trust BU so good luck man!
 
It looks like a tough steel, if you manage to get some I would like to buy a slice off of you and shoot it out against some Cpm 3v, good luck!
 
Uddeholm offer many steel that seems to be super tough and suitable for large blade like Calmax, Caldie etc. but unfortunately they mostly came in super thick stock like over an inch which is the only real problem.
 
It looks like a great steel but it's unlikely it will be available in thin stock. i make a lot of machetes and use 52100 with a spring tempered spine. It's incredibly tough.
 
Also love B-U steels and they have an even tougher steel perfect for monster choppers: k600 steel. So my first choice would be k600, second Viking/Chipper steel, also from B-U (Fredrik Haakonsen uses it in his heavy duty knives, so must be really good) and third choice would be S7, Calmax or Caldie (I thought Caldie was hard to find in knife sizes).
 
redbate said:
It looks like it should hold up well, I think the problem is of course the availability, but you said you are getting your hands on some and I'd love to hear what you have to say about it and how much you paid to have like a literal ton of it bought from the manufacturer haha. I've heard very good things about S7 overall and I trust BU so good luck man!
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Hey guys, thanks for all the replies, I am super happy to hear I'm not crazy, lol! I got my local lovely BU lady find me some caldie, it's on to way from Illinois now, they didn't have what I was trying for on hand, but its a .208 x 2.5 x 24" that I am planning on going with a hybrid bowie/machete design. I really hope all these BU steels start coming in blade stock more often, and if people want to piggyback on my orders I'd be glad to try and figure it out, they won't sell to the public on a small time basis ( normally), but when I went in a explained my hopes of making something out of knife making and I registered with them as a business, so now, even though it's hard to find pieces sometimes and I certainly give them all the time in the world to find or cut, I'm just happy they will deal with me and I kiss a lot of butt! Sweet as sugar, lol, but the front end lady is super nice. The piece was 55$ , the .25 x 1.75?" x 12" piece of vanadis 4e was 58$ if I remember right and the .25 x 2.5 x 18" D2 (PM, too) was 42$, again if I remember right, it was early summer last time I bought, finished some stuff up and work over the fall and then holidays so you know it's time to re-up for the blade steel addiction.
 
I have the order on its way, didn't see this early enough but I'm going to be going in to pick it up, I'll give them the heads up I will be ordering more soon and give her the time to do it again, I'm at Larsonfam888@yahoo. com , shoot me a message and I'll talk to you about what I will ask her to be looking for. I can say it will be on her/their time until I ever start with large orders, definitely not trying to get em annoyed with me, can't be pushy when I'm a piddly piss to what they do, I had to be flexible on dimensions like on the D2, which I'm COMPLETELY happy to say oh yeah, whatever and that's kept it going to, just saying if anybody else hops on board they will have to be patient and flexible to what they can find me if it's a certain thing. Man I'd love get them doing blade stock, and when I signed on the idea was I would be doing more and more so I'm just treading lightly but they are aware I'm hoping to start bringing it to another level.
 
I have the order on its way, didn't see this early enough but I'm going to be going in to pick it up, I'll give them the heads up I will be ordering more soon and give her the time to do it again, I'm at Larsonfam888@yahoo. com , shoot me a message and I'll talk to you about what I will ask her to be looking for. I can say it will be on her/their time until I ever start with large orders, definitely not trying to get em annoyed with me, can't be pushy when I'm a piddly piss to what they do, I had to be flexible on dimensions like on the D2, which I'm COMPLETELY happy to say oh yeah, whatever and that's kept it going to, just saying if anybody else hops on board they will have to be patient and flexible to what they can find me if it's a certain thing. Man I'd love get them doing blade stock, and when I signed on the idea was I would be doing more and more so I'm just treading lightly but they are aware I'm hoping to start bringing it to another level.
 
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