Fishing knife stainless...

M

MCoughlin

Joined
Feb 1, 2005
Messages
471
I have a customer who wants me to try making a fishing knife (flexible and ss). I have not made one yet and explained this to her but she still wants me to try anyway so I agreed with no promises.

What have you guys used in the past for such a knife? Are the same SS such as ats34, 440c etc. good enough (with thinner stock for flexiblitiy) or is there something out there I don't know about that's better? Any tips are welcome. I will probably use ats34 if nothing else but thought I'd ask the around anyway.

P.S. Merry Christmas and stay safe on the roads!:D

Mike
 
Hi Mike, I use ATS 34 for my fillet knives. I buy 1/16th thick (.063") I send them to Paul Bos for the heat treating. I just profile them and do the drilling before sending them off. The flexability can be adjusted with the distal taper and edge grinding after the heat treating. Im told they hold a great edge. There is maybe better edge holder steels but I cant charge an arm and a leg for fillet knives so the ATS is a bargain.
 
The Microtech Black Marlin is made of S30V. IIRC someone on this forum has made one of S30V also.
 
....7" and 9" fillet knives?From all the rave reviews they seem to be superb.I found out all about them when I did a search on the common Rapala and other fillet knives.MikXX1:A custom 7"-9" fillet(with G-10 scales) is sounding very good to me and I may contact you for more information and details later.I live in Toronto ,Canada so i believe shipping will not be a problem.Thanks
 
Hi Mike, We have big fish out here and i use .125 stock with a distal taper 9 inch blade i use both sv30 and ats 34,the sv30 is the better of the two but at a heafty price difference, due to material cost and the extra time involved.Most of my customers prefer a stiffer blade.
 
I've made both ATS-34 and S30V fillets. From hands on experience using both to clean buckets of pan fish, the S30V held an edge a lot longer. It costs twice as much, $10 or $11 vs $5 or $6 for the raw steel but I think it's well worth extra IMHO.
 
Now I'm starting to think I should order some s30v. Hmmmmm. maybe I'll make this one from ats34 while I'm waiting for the s30v.

How is S30v to grind compared to S60V (AKA 440v)? I've used S60v and have found it extemely hard to grind compared to ATS34 or anything else I've tried for that matter. I guess you get what you give though eh?

Merrrry chrrristmas

Mike
 
S30V comes very soft from Crucible so it grinds easy, just as easy as 154CM. After heat treat is a different story. It's a slow slog when it's hard so you want it very close when you heat it.
 
Nobleforge said:
Spend the $$$ and use 440-V.

Everything else pales in comparison in actual use.
Click to expand...

From my limited experience with 440V I found that this steel was VERY prone to chipping at the edge and tip. I just can't get very excited with it and prefer not to work with it again.

Now S30V...that's whloe different story. It holds an edge very well and (for stainless) is a very tough steel. The only draw back to it is the difficulty in working with it after heat treatment.

-Mike-
 
I was informed awhile back that Crucible was going to stop making S60V,
(440V) and that there would be none abailable after their present stock ran out. A maker that I have corresponded with who uses nothing but S60V said that Timken makes a steel that is awful close to the S60V. When he found out that it would be no longer available, he ordered a very large amount of the S60V and said that he would check out the Timken steel before he runs out. (can't remember the # designation of the steel)
 
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