Every 4116 Krupp Knife...

D

dogstar

Joined
Jan 23, 2011
Messages
4,399
...has been razor sharp and earned my respect. This is either out of the box, or after sharpening with my basic tools. I base this on paper slicing and feather stick carving. I own 4 blades in this "cheap" steel: PMII, PMIII, ProLite, Kudu. All of them glided through paper out of the box. I reprofiled a good section of the ProLite Tanto with a file, coarse/fine stone, pocket diamond hone, and ceramic rod. I was able to get it razor sharp again. Edge retention is nice, but I'd rather have a blade I can sharpen easily in the field. I don't mind touching up a blade as long it is no fuss.
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To carve a feather stick, the blade has to be sharp enough to give you control. The blade should make a curl with consistent thickness, not skip along or gouge. The two Peace Makers make this task effortless with their Scandi grind. I tried out the Kudu tonight. Boy, was I pleasantly surprised, because it carved like a carpenter's plane. It's common to lose a few of your curls, but the Kudu lost nary a one. Considering the sub $10 price tag, the blade length, lock strength, and yes, the steel, the Kudu might be the all time best value in a folder.
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Even though people literally call 4116 "crap," I think it is an awesome budget steel. If you gave it to an 18th century frontiersman, they would have thought it a marvel beyond imagination. I've watched edge retention tests on Youtube. 4116 exceeds most expectations and performs on par with 8Cr18MoV. Literally millions of Swiss Army knives have been made with 4116, and Victorinox sells a $200 bushcraft knife with this same steel! It seems like CS maybe slowly moving on from 4116, so I'm glad I got these knives while I still could.
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I ordered in Pendleton Light Hunter in this steel for $12, but haven't received it yet. I have very high hopes! I've used a Mora Bushcraft Orange for field dressing deer and I don't like the way the scandi grind performs. It wants to dig into any material it touches, as opposed to slide along it. If the steel on these is as good as everyone is saying, then these blades are a steal.
 
My CS 4116 knives have been used hard and perform better than I expected. An older model kobun, some pro-lites, and a paring knife have performed well. It helps that some are hollow ground. I have a roach belly on the way and plan to use it in the kitchen.
 
I'm kinda more into carbon steels personally.
Carbon steels are cheap, tough, hold edge decentlu and are easy to sharpen. But you have to maintain them.

But I'm also kinda paradoxical.
Me: *Buys budget knives in SK-5, D2 and 52100 and is perfectly happy with them*
Also me: *Gifts one knife to his GF and loses another knife*
Also me: *Buys CPM-3V knife, and plans to buy a second knife in CPM-3V*

I kinda see D2 and 3V as stainless. They really are somewhere in the middle though.
 
Agree about carbon steel. That is a good baseline in performance, and they don't require as much maintenance as people think.
 
dogstar said:
Agree about carbon steel. That is a good baseline in performance, and they don't require as much maintenance as people think.
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It's more natural type of steel, not very far from simple Iron.

There's nothing wrong with stainless and there's plenty of good stainless steels like here mentioned 4116, especially when done right. Like CS did a good job heat treating it.

I gotta say that you made a very good discovery in these 4116 knives. They are a real bargain for performance they offer. And true benefit of stainless is that you won't care about your EDC each time you sweat, you won't need to remind yourself to wipe your knives if they're wet, and you can just toss them in a drawer and forget about them - and they'll still be fine.

All people are different, when it comes to steels, for some reason I'm kinda attracted to carbon. You could say it has a character, it requires some care, develops patina with use so looks is also unique.
But I do have to admit that I sometimes do worry about corrosion.

Edit: Sorry for the long post :D
 
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