"Experts" demand premium blade steels until it comes to prime collectors knives from companies like Loveless and Randall?

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Larrin said:
Tool steels never used the Bessemer process. They used the Huntsman crucible process until that was replaced by electric arc furnace production. Tool steels needed to be higher quality.
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Ain't that a kick in the head! Thanks for the correction! 😉
 
Stahlmann said:
My undergrad school actually had a metallurgical engineering department that became a materials engineering department. When I took my first metallurgy class as a soph, there was this ancient, retired prof that would come back once a year to teach a class. His initial claim to fame in academia was escaping Nazi Germany intact and then proceeding to translate some German metallurgical texts into English. SMART man with a think Prussian accent...
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That's some great history! Did anyone get film or video of any of his lectures?

My tiny undergrad school only had the four major engineering disciplines (ME, ChemE, EE, Civil) plus Math, Physics, Chem, and Econ when I was there, but they have since expanded. No Materials E major yet, though.
 
shane45-1911 said:
I have never been a steel snob. The quality of the heat treatment usually trumps the quality of any given steel. I will take a mediocre steel with a spot-on heat treatment over a premium steel with suspect or inconsistent heat treatment any day.

And I have never been a brand name fanboy either, production OR custom. While I admire (and own) many custom knives from a variety of the usual suspects, I don't buy a knife because of the maker's mark, just as I don't buy a knife because it has the steel flavor of the week.

I think it comes down to want vs. need. Arguably, no one truly NEEDS a knife beyond a certain monetary threshold. Let's call it a 100 bucks for that argument's sake. There are dozens (hundreds?) of perfectly functional and decent quality knives at that price point. Yet many spend beyond - well beyond - that price point. Why? The reasons are many and varied.

Why does one buy a Porsche, when a Civic serves the same purpose? Pride of ownership? Part of being in a select club? Vanity??? And yes, performance may be a factor, but at what point do diminishing returns rear up? No different when it comes to "performance" steels. Many of us will never need the level of performance that a Porsche or (insert name of wonder-steel) offers - but we WANT it anyway.

For me to buy a knife now, there needs to be something that appeals to me on a much more basic, primal, functional and aesthetic level. I want a decent quality knife of course, but I want something that appeals to me beyond that. And that appeal has very little to do with who makes it, or what steel they make it with.

It is kind of the same intangible quality that makes art "good" or "bad". Does it need to be a Rembrandt, DaVinci, Monet, etc. to be a good painting? Not to me. I've seen some pretty good paintings done by local artists who will never be famous. But their work speaks to me in some intangible, unmeasurable way. Knives are no different.
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No offense, but oh man I guess you never owned a car with 450hp/500lbft of torque and some low gearing. There’s nothing like the feeling of getting thrown back into the seat from 50-100 in a few seconds. Feels like a roller coaster at first. Add the fact that you KNOW you can pass 99% of everything else on the street without even downshifting... 👍
Kind of like having some m390, M4 or 20cv. Just because. Like going to a nice restaurant instead of getting McDonald’s..? Idk it’s nice.
 
Arathol said:
Yes, there's nothing like a good Randall made knife.....and that is nothing like a good Randall made knife......
On that note, I bought a Ferrari once. It wouldn't go more than 110 mph before all 4 pistons fell out. What a piece of junk, I won't ever buy another Ferrari......
Hly4OjXm.jpg
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K.O.D. said:
It only had four pistons. Something sounds fishy here...
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GM made terrible Ferraris
 
tony281sc2 said:
No offense, but oh man I guess you never owned a car with 450hp/500lbft of torque and some low gearing. There’s nothing like the feeling of getting thrown back into the seat from 50-100 in a few seconds. Feels like a roller coaster at first. Add the fact that you KNOW you can pass 99% of everything else on the street without even downshifting... 👍
Kind of like having some m390, M4 or 20cv. Just because. Like going to a nice restaurant instead of getting McDonald’s..? Idk it’s nice.
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I do indeed know what it is like. I had a bored, stroked and supercharged 5.0L Mustang for years, with 3.55 rear gearing. It dyno'd at 470 HP.

And again, this just further emphasizes the "want vs. need" mentality. No one NEEDS a 500 HP car. Just like no one NEEDS M390.
 
JParanee said:
it means that Randall knives are in my opinion middle of the road production knives and people should not expect to much from them in quality such as fit, finish and materials used
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... well I mean, they can also expect really long wait times, so there's that.
 
tony281sc2 said:
No offense, but oh man I guess you never owned a car with 450hp/500lbft of torque and some low gearing. There’s nothing like the feeling of getting thrown back into the seat from 50-100 in a few seconds. Feels like a roller coaster at first. Add the fact that you KNOW you can pass 99% of everything else on the street without even downshifting... 👍
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Two wheels too many.

Speaking of which, what is a "Super-steel" anyways ? There're quite a few use scenarios where good old AEB-L, CPM 154 or Buck's 420HC will outperform, say, M390, especially with a fixed blade (the motorcycles of the knife world :) ).

Larrin Larrin did a great "review of steel reviewers" a while back, worth reading, tons of hype around.
 
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jlauffer said:
But it was no Quad 4 😁
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Very true. I never owned one (or any GM 4 cylinder) it was quite the big deal when I was a kid, especially after the Olds Aerotech prototype. I still have the Matchbox version with opening hood!
 
K.O.D. said:
Very true. I never owned one (or any GM 4 cylinder) it was quite the big deal when I was a kid, especially after the Olds Aerotech prototype. I still have the Matchbox version with opening hood!
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Love the Aerotech!:thumbsup:
 
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