The BladeForums.com 2024 Traditional Knife is ready to order! See this thread for details:
https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/bladeforums-2024-traditional-knife.2003187/
Price is $300 $250 ea (shipped within CONUS). If you live outside the US, I will contact you after your order for extra shipping charges.
Order here: https://www.bladeforums.com/help/2024-traditional/ - Order as many as you like, we have plenty.
It's hardly any different forging stainless than it is 3V or D2.
Interesting that you mention D2. I have heard smiths refer to it as the "almost stainless steel". I saw the specs and it has like 8 times the chrome that 52100 has. How much chrome does steel have to have to be considered "true" stainless? To me, 12% seems like an awful lot and the 18% that CPM60 has is just a HUGE amount to my mind. Is the Crucible stuff easier sharpen? I have never done any sharpening on my McWillaims other than just a quick straightening of the edge on a crock stick because I got out of the reserves right after I got the knife and never used it much. It was my going replace an SOG Tigershark to be my large field knife
It doesn't really matter (within reason) how much chromium you add, you have to balance the carbon and the chromium. After heat treatment, D2 has something like 5-8% chromium in solution, depending on heat treatment and chemical makeup of the D2. You want 10% or more (the number varies depending on who you ask) for corrosion resistance. As for people saying that D2 has the best of both worlds, being nearly stainless and being a carbon tool steel, it's all nonsense. D2 has all of the disadvantages of a typical stainless steel (large carbides, fairly low toughness, hard to finish, etc.) while not having the benefit of actually being stainless. I would argue that AEB-L, a stainless steel, actually shares more similarities to carbon steel than D2 does.
that raises another interesting question. When I think of a lot of stock removal blades, i think hollow grind like Bob Loveless, et al. Some are`what imight call a hybrid of the hollow and sabre grind....hollow ground but with a bit of flat toward the spine. Now i know that you can taper the center ridge of a hollow ground dagger but can you fully taper a hollow ground single edge blade and still have it come out looking right?I care more about the finished product than how it was made,as I collect & own both types of knives. If I see a Forged Bowie or Fighter that I Really like,and a Stock Removal Bowie or Fighter that I kinda like-The forged knife is the one I'll end up getting(or Visa-Versa).Maybe I'm wrong about THIS Part,but Forged knives DO seem to be lighter and quicker than stock removal knives.I don't know alot about steel,RC hardness or most of the other technical aspects of knife making discussed in this thread-But I do know what I Like.Great Thread Bailey,I've learned alot from this one & Steven's CNC thread.
P.S. Matt you keep on Forging away-I Really Love your Bowies & Fighters.
Amen! :thumbup:
A2 is even tougher, if you need it.
I agree. My Moran Airman has a slight taper (nothing like the full taper of his later knives) that "hybrid grind i was talking about kinda like a Randall, a deeply ground clip, a slightly hollow main bevel grind AND a convex edge.....the complete entertainment package.
But I think you might have a bit more trouble doing a bowie full hollow grind all the wway tp the spine like a Loveless hunter, with a fully tapered blade and the deep clip. Maybe not, but maybe the past makers have kinda trianed my eye to expect a certain type of knife to have particular grind characteristics. Now I will say this. I was talking to a MS (the guy from London who used to work at the Tower...can't remember his name) and he said that one of either his JS or MS knives was hollow ground. When it was being judged, he told me that B.R. Hughes said that " this is a very fine knife, but I just don't like hollow grinds on forged knives". Obviously it passed muster, but it was interesting to hear about some of these preconceieved notions and preferences/prejudices. That may not be an commmon one in the ABS if you look at what most of the smiths are producing.
This occurred to me. I have seen a lot of very fine stock removal knives that were much thicker than I thought they needed to be, particularly tactical knives. i wonder if the forgers have such an absolute faith in the inherent strength not only of the forged blade using the differential heat treat techniques, but also the characterisics of the distal taper that they are more willing to taper those blades out to where they are pretty thin on the tip and as a result, feel really light out front? I took one of my early knives to the local knife show and one guy who handled it was very surprised at how light it felt in his hand. Now admittedly, My poor grinding skills had led me to leave it a bit thinner overall than I wanted for an 8 1/2 bowie, but it was tapered all the way out and this guy noticed it after handling equal sized stock removal blades. And he didn't comment on the fact that it might have been a bit thin, so maybe that was more me being slightly dissapointed that it din't turn out exactly the way I wanted.I care more about the finished product than how it was made,as I collect & own both types of knives. If I see a Forged Bowie or Fighter that I Really like,and a Stock Removal Bowie or Fighter that I kinda like-The forged knife is the one I'll end up getting(or Visa-Versa).Maybe I'm wrong about THIS Part,but Forged knives DO seem to be lighter and quicker than stock removal knives.I don't know alot about steel,RC hardness or most of the other technical aspects of knife making discussed in this thread-But I do know what I Like.Great Thread Bailey,I've learned alot from this one & Steven's CNC thread.
P.S. Matt you keep on Forging away-I Really Love your Bowies & Fighters.
And in repsonse to the ease of sharpening comments, it was made from 1080 and was incredibly easy to sharpen to a very nasty and durable edge (it would have passed the ABs 2 x 4 chop and shaving afterwards test requirements because i tried it) even with my bad heat treating, sharpening and grinding skills at the time (they still aren't anything to write home about, mind you...lol). I still have that knife. One guy asked me what I wanted for it but I refused to sell it because it was flawed in the fit and finish department in my opinion and had my name on it...lol. The primary reason was it was one of those serendipitous knives that all of us have made early on where we can't figure out how we did it, but it works! Another thing that has been mentioned here is that you can do the sole authorship route, including all of the heat treatment, much more easily and more cheaply with forging when you are getting started. i built the infamous Goddard one brick forge like a lot of guys.:thumbup: Unfortunately, that whole "$50 Knife Shop" vibe morphed into "shop worth more than you current automobile'" fairly quickly.....and I still not that good...LMAO
Tactical guys are out in their own little world sometimes, but again you're just making generalizations. Phil Wilson is a good example of a stock removal maker that makes thin, flat ground, distal tapered knives. If I were a tactical maker I'd be worried about guys ramming the tip through car doors and chopping through cinder blocks, so I'd probably make them pretty thick too.
true dat.....or "testing" fully hardened blades by using them as tree stand "ladder rungs" There is a guy in Sarasota who CNC mills integral tac knives from L6 I think and they look like bricks. Tough as hell i'm sure, but they have to weigh a TON!!!!! The WORST offenders are the guys who sell hundreds of pretty shiny swords at the Ren fairs out of a booth the size of a mobile home...lol. All you have to do is go over to the table where the lone maker has a couple of REAL swords, be they forged or properly stock removed and pick one up to tell the difference.