Great hunter steel

I had a nice post written up earlier, but lost wifi, and lost my entire post, so heres the short version. I just bought a custom made by Darrin Sanders, designed to my specs. Its a 5.5 inch blade, .20 inch thick and full flat ground, to around .020 behind the edge, made out of cts-pd1 steel, hardened by peters to around 61 rc. I was able to work a full bull elk this past weekend without touching up the blade, that's splitting the hide, caping , skinning and quartering the entire animal. This is the only knife I have ever used that held up this well. I know people like those flimsy little thin bladed knives, but I had the opportunity to work two elk this weekend, and I can tell you, you need a stout blade when your popping an elk hip socket at night in an awkward place. Besides, I like a beafy knife anyway. But this might be a steel you may want to look into in the future.
 
Glad to hear that the PD-1 is working out for you Ryan. Keep me posted on its performance.

Rusty, you're really gonna like the M390. It takes a nice crisp edge and holds it VERY well. Also, it finishes about the same as CPM-154. I'm still amazed that a steel that easy to finish has that much abrasion resistance. ELMAX doesn't hold an edge quite as long but if you need a tough stainless knife, that's the way to go.
 
rustyrazor said:
no... this one's not going to be a chopper, just a good hunter that will keep going. He lives in Newfoundland so I want to keep it on the stainless end since there is so much salt and humidity.
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I doubt he will have issues with M390. :thumbup:
 
Thanks, Darrin, I'll try to give you a call today, if I can find your number. David, not sure how to explain it, but when you make a cut, like say on the top of the hide about the middle of the elks body, i had to slice it up towards the head, under the skin. then split the hide down the side following the ribs, all the way around to the other side, then you skin up towards the head, to remove the cape, for mounting the head. but when you cut the hide like that, its full of dirt and mud from them rutting. its really tough on a knife blade.
 
Most people don't realize that all the dust, dirt, mud, & crud make the hair on a game animal extremely abrasive. Hogs are the absolute worst.
 
james terrio said:
Peters can make that work ;)

I think you're going to like the Elmax too. It's pretty dang remarkable at 58Rc. Brad has advised me to have it run at 60Rc for even greater edge-holding and still lots of toughness. I would ask him about running it (and M390) even higher if you're making more precise blades that don't have to chop wood and stuff.
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Run your M390 at 62 and watch it scream! Its a great steel at that hard. If you run it below 60, I think you lose a lot of your edge holding possibilities.
 
S30V would work just fine.My hunting knife is M390 and it serves me well.Some hunters really like D2, but it is considered semi-stainless.May I suggest Carpenter CTX-XPH which seems to hold an edge better than S30V and is close to D2 in toughness.Some consider it D2 on steroids and I have heard it described as stainless D2.Elmax would be an excellent choice also.Elmax or CTX-XPH would be my suggestions for a stainless with good toughness and edge retention.
 
Brian.Evans said:
Run your M390 at 62 and watch it scream! Its a great steel at that hard. If you run it below 60, I think you lose a lot of your edge holding possibilities.
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Yep, and you can run it really thin also. :thumbup:
 
salmonkiller said:
May I suggest Carpenter CTX-XPH which seems to hold an edge better than S30V and is close to D2 in toughness.
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I think you're referring to CTS-XHP. It's much tougher than D2 at the same hardness and holds an edge longer in my experience... which is exactly what it was designed for (replacing D2 for making dies and injection molds). Elmax is quite different from XHP in chemistry but very similar in performance... both are excellent alloys.
 
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