Buck's 440A...How is it?

[fedaykincmndr]

I'm looking at the Buck Nobleman (B E A Utiful knife and the price ) and was wondering how Buck's 440A was as compared to their 420HC which I love. Now, I know that 440A is a moderately higher quality steel but how does their heat treat do with their 440A? Thanks in advance.

 

[Hair]

Comparing my American-made Buck slipjoint (420HC) to my Chinese-made Buck slipjoint (440A), the 420HC is much sharper out of the box and looks nicer... meaning it looks more like real knife steel while the Chinese slipjoint has that 'flea market' look to it that a lot of ultra-low-end knives have... sort of like a coated polish.

I am not so sure that 440A is a higher-quality steel than 420HC. I certainly would put my bet on 420HC treated by Paul Bos over some 440A that has been God-knows-where.

But I have used both steels in Bucks and they both work well enough.

 

[buckg]

440A isn't as bad as people make it out to be as long as it is heat treated properly. The problem is that many 440A blades aren't heat treated properly (one has to ask if some of them are heat treated at all). I don't have many 440A knives, but I do have a couple. They're fine for knives that are carried a lot and used a little (your average EDC, for example). They're very rust resistant and can be neglected without ill effect. I don't see much difference between Buck's 420HC and 440A that's done right. Poorly done 440A is much worse than 420HC. I don't own any of Buck's 440A, so I can't comment on its quality.