Cold Steel's New Steel

pootsythesamurai

pootsythesamurai

Joined
Aug 21, 2006
Messages
501
Just to let ya's know I think Cold Steel's New steel, well, I sort of know it is, SK-5 high carbon which means for me that a Laredo Bowie is no longer £200 pounds but £100 pounds :D

Any body any info on this Steel?


Pootsy
 
Looking at moteng.com and Cold Steel's site, the Carbon V Trail Master, Gurkha Kukri and Recon Scouts went down $40 MSRP. Doesn't look like the already affordable SRK and family went down though.

If the SK-5 is comparable, then those knives will be even better deals soon.
 
SK-5 is the steel used on the $25.00 Bushman and the Cold Steel spears. It is listed as a medium carbon steel.
 
According to the table toward the bottom of this page:
http://fernite.co.uk/fernite6.htm

SK5 is another name for 1085.


Composition of 1085

Carbon Manganese Silicon Phosphorus Sulphur Rockwell C

0.75-0.95 1.00 max 0.35 max 0.040 max 0.050 max 58-63 HRc
 
As well as I know this is SOG Bowie steel. I have this composition - I don't think that this is just another name, but rather just closest match:

C=0.8-0.9
Si=0.35
Mn=0.50
Ni=0.25
Cr=0.30
Cu=0.25

I think it is good that CS found some Japanese manufacturer which start making good knives from good steels like VG1 and SK5. Japanese knifemakers are pretty good.

Thanks, Vassili.
 
Hello Vasili,
With a bit more looking, I also found this site. It appears to be the Japanese company that makes the stuff:
http://www.jfe-steel.co.jp/en/products/sheets/catalog/b1e-005.pdf

Much better. Instead of giving a match to another spec, it gives the direct composition on page 7 of the brochure.

C 0.80-0.90
Si 0.10-0.35
Mn 0.10-0.50
P ≤0.030
S ≤0.030
Cu ≤0.25
Ni ≤0.25
Cr ≤0.30

Sorry, I should have looked harder. Although the composition is within the 1085 spec requirements, so you could call SK5 1085 and be correct.
 
I'd always heard SK-5 was another name for W2. Oh well, whichever of these is closer, it certainly has the potential to still make a very good blade. I would, of course, have preferred the manufacture to remain in the US rather than Japan, but that's due to purely patriotic reasons (and loyalty to Camillus)--I have no doubts in the abilities of the Japanese to produce high quality blades.
 
Yea the Bushman is sk-5 medium carbon steel, an I quite like it, easy to sharpen and holds a really good edge. But the new steel is sk-5 HIGH carbon steel, I've seen it used on some SOG Bowies and I think a Boker too (not sure on the boker one).

For me Cold Steel are lowering their prices I know because of a dealer I know told me :D , good for me.

What do you all think of this steel? I know it's quite a ambiguous question but hey, personal opinions are wanted :D
 
did some research and the natchez bowie will cost me $276, trailmaster $74, laredo bowie $92 wholesale.
 
Of course, it would help us to judge, at least a little, if Cold Steel had actually told us what Carbon V was. I remember a chemical analysis I saw done on it, and it had a little more carbon than SK5/1085 appears to have. I know a big chunk of it was the heat treating process they claimed to have perfected for the wonder that was Carbon V, but composition plays a big role. I like my trailmaster, but it was a bit brittle at the edge. I hope they do a little better on the SK5 (1085 with minute trace elements), though from a performance standpoint, the Carbon V will be a pretty tough act to follow.

But with the magic of Carbon 5 gone, I may have to go with a Camillus, Ontario or Ka-Bar bowie next time I'm in the market. Ka-Bar started making a good big bowie out of 1085 a few years back, and it is about half the price of the new trailmaster. What's your money worth?
 
It's been talked about here. Search the topic and you should find a few threads.

The Steel was used for years in SOG's Blued bowie. They also used it for awhile in their Tigershark bowie before changing to AUS 6A stainless. To me, that was a step down. I like my carbon steel SK-5 SOG Tigershark very much.

It's a decent knife steel, non stainless, somewhere around 1085 carbon steel. I've also heard it compared to W1 but I'm no metallurgist.

DEpending on whose making it, and heat treating it ( and how they heat treat it) it could be a very good or very mediocre steel.

I have no experience with Cold steel's version of SK5 heat treated for large knives, just the way they treated it for toughness at a lower RC for the Bushman, and the Assagi spear etc. Back then CS called it a "Medium carbon" steel, now they call it "High carbon".

Time will tell. Joe
 
Jamesh Bond said:
Why oh why must all these companies use crappy steel.
Click to expand...

I'm not sure that I would call SK5 "crappy". Depends on what you use it for. For large blades SK5 ought to be good and tough. Cold Steel makes a lot of large carbon steel blades. The Carbon % is 0.8-0.9 and the trace of vanadium could give it a pretty fine grain structure. A lot would depend on the heat treat, of course. Might be OK stuff.

I'll be really interested when some of the folks who have the older steel get blades made of SK5 and they give us some comparisons. Right now all we got is theory to talk about. I prefer data to theory.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top