EXTREME WEATHER STEEL

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u.p.man52

Joined
Feb 1, 2018
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21
I am new to knife making. I am looking for suggestions on a blade steel for an Alaskan moose hunt that can withstand the weather, sea salt in the air, yet retain an edge for skinning and cutting up a moose. Thank You
 
Any of the modern stainless steels with proper heat treat will suit you fine. All will require some degree of care around salt water and blood, and of course edge maintenance after or during heavy use. Posing this question you should expect quite a few options because everyone will have different experiences and opinions. Me personally I have had great success with CPM154. While I haven't had much use around saltwater, my knives have been exposed to their fair share of different creatures blood, both two and four legged. Properly heat treated and cryo'd, edge retention has been excellent. I know of one in particular that has gutted, skinned, and boned out three whitetail in one evening, then it was forgotten about for two days before it was washed. No noticeable blood staining and would still shave arm hair.
 
There is a knife company near me that uses mainly A2 and D2, neither of which hold up. I've been leaning towards S30V or possibly M390
 
gunfixrjoe said:
Both are excellent choices. Of the two, I personally favor M390
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Thats kinda what i was thinking also. Have done lots of reading. I know it has a lot to do with the knife maker, but the steel you start with has to have the potential for a quality knife.
 
I am getting a bar of z-finit from AKS to test. It uses nitrogen to replace much of the carbon making it very stain resistant. From what I’ve read, performance is about the same as aeb-l or 52100. Do you need that level of corrosion resistance? Probably not. M390 is a great steel, and with cryo/low temper, it’s got good corrosion resistance.
 
Willie71 said:
I am getting a bar of z-finit from AKS to test. It uses nitrogen to replace much of the carbon making it very stain resistant. From what I’ve read, performance is about the same as aeb-l or 52100. Do you need that level of corrosion resistance? Probably not. M390 is a great steel, and with cryo/low temper, it’s got good corrosion resistance.
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Let us know how that turns out
 
gunfixrjoe said:
Let us know how that turns out
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I’ll do a thread on it. I’ll test different heat treats and see if we can get it above Rc61. It seems Rc59/60 is about what we can expect from it from the little I’ve read.
 
Vanax is more wear resistance than zfinit and not difficult to produce 60.5-61rc working hardness. AKS carries Vanax (price is about 2x over zfinit). Limited to 3 tested vanax blades (~60,60.5,61.5rc), their wear resistant were similar to s30v at 60-61rc. 60rc is the highest hardness I managed to ht zfinit. Well, I've one last zfinit blank to give it another ht shot.
 
I would use M390 at Rc 60. One of my customers used one to skin a partly frozen deer and he said it was as sharp when he finished as when he started. Of course, that was mostly due to my superb design and craftsmanship.
Tim
 
Do not drop your steel knife on a hard surface when the temperature is well below zero. It can shatter. Titanium has more resistance to cold cracking. See Mission Knives.
 
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