Chip or dent?

M

Michael Bennett

Joined
Mar 2, 1999
Messages
666
Question for the more experienced makers out there.

Given your druthers, when making knives, would you rather that the steel chip or dent at the edge when stressed? Also is this dependant on the steel you use and the intended use for the knife?

Mike

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NEITHER, if you are chipping the blade is to hard, if denting to soft, this is the goldee locks syndrone, due more to the heat treatment than steel.

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Laurence Segal www.RHINOKNIVES.com
 
you should be able to work hard with a fixed blade, and be able to straighten the edge with a steel without the blade chipping or denting. what do you have going on?

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Laurence Segal www.RHINOKNIVES.com
 
I just realized that generalizing like this may sound like trolling. But I'm not.

I'm trying to work out a worst-case scenario for heat-treating. If a 3" 1095 hunter that I made is being used to skin a deer and it hits bone, what would you prefer happen?

Thanks for you help.

Mike

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Hey! I'm a One Stop Knife Shop Associate!
 
i make knives for hunters, so i would say a three inch blade shoud work fine on a deer without those problems, i tend to make them on the thick side, convex ground. (RHINO) i get comments back like" i have dressed out three deer without sharpening. as long as your heat treat is done well it shoud be fine. any others out there want to give a chip or dent answer ?

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Laurence Segal www.RHINOKNIVES.com
 
I used alot of 440-c in years past and they were all heat-treated by Paul Bos. I found that particular steel will chip if pushed hard against bone. I grind mine very thin. I also ground one too thin before heat-treat and it chiped on the edge with no abuse whatso ever. Its best to leave a bit fat and regrind after HT. The ATS 34 doesnt chip that I have experienced. Sometimes the tip will snap off but should be flex tested and if it breaks just reshape and its good to go forever. I got an ats 34 knife back with hammer marks on the spine but the edge was only slightly ever so bent but not enough to hardly notice. It was also still pretty sharp too. After sharpening it was straight again. I stopped using 440-c and now use ats, and 440-v I dont know if this answers your question.

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ABS Journeyman Smith, Bruce D Bump
 
Hey Michael, You've really awnsered your own question. In your post you ask: "Also is this dependant on the steel you use and the intended use for the knife?" Well, that's it in a nutshell really. You need to choose a steel that suits the knife's intended use and ditto the blade's hardness; for us ABS folks that's in reference to the cutting edge (the "depth" of which varies with the blade's length and width), as we selectively harden and temper our blades; i.e., the body and spine of our blades are a softer "draw"(temper) than the cutting edge. If I'm makeing a hunter of three inches or so I don't have much to worry about in terms of flexability, a 10 inch bowie blade is another story: destined for a multitude of chores the little three inch skinner would never be considered. So I'm going to have a bowie blade that's on the softer side of that skinner I mentioned... It's all a trade off, you just gotta be on the right side of the trade!

regards, mitch
 
The best thing I did was to abuse my knives. I would cut nails and bolts. Just hammer the blades through anything laying around. I use a hydraulic press to cut round mild steel in half. Ive cut other knives in half also and put them on my table at shows. That gets lots of attention. It also tells you how thin you can go before the edge breaks. I think the toughest combination is CPM 3v with Paul Bos heat-treatment about 59 RC hardness. It will cut through a 1/2" mild steel rod in a hydraulic press without chipping or bending. Of course the edge was pretty thick if used as a skinner. Lately I have been useing ball bearings and forging them to shape. They make great blades too.

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ABS Journeyman Smith, Bruce D Bump
 
As Bruce and my more learned pears have already stated every steel has a "proper" HT.
I have made a "few" knives from 1095. My question is that if you are going to leave it hard enough to worry about edge chipping when contacting bone during feild dressing or skinning deer "WHO" is going to be able to resharpen it when it eventually gets dull?
Grind it thin, do the proper HT and it will be a very servicable blade.

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Robert
Flat Land Knife Works
rdblad@telusplanet.net
http://members.tripod.com/knifeworks/index.html
 
Thanks for the input, all. Sounds like I need to make more knives, try a few different thicknesses and HT, test them to destruction and learn from that.

If it helps, I'm doing my own HT of 1095 in corn oil. Very unscientific.

Mike

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My Home Page
Hey! I'm a One Stop Knife Shop Associate!
 
Hey Michael. Two years ago at a hammer-in, I watched Harvey Dean make an abs test bowie from start to finish; he quenched the damn thing in olive oil... said it smelled better'n other stuff...so much for science.

regards, mitch
 
Robert -- I'm assuming then that once in the oil, the desire is for the most rapid cooling possible? Not the slowest?

How does peanut oil compare in cost with Texaco's quenching oil? How many times can the various types of oil be used?

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Asi es la vida

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