I am a knife fancier more than user, and cannot get into the field any more to use them. However, I'm a big fan of SurviveKnives and have had three...two GSO 3.5's and one GSO 4.1. I gave the GSO 4.1 to one of my sons. Two of the three were in 3V. I do like the CPM 3V, and it appears as though Tom Krein likes it also.
I ran across this post by Tom Krein..several yrs old, but he is a superb custom knife-maker and sells a lot of his customs on Arizona Custom Knives... He achieved early fame due to his fine, thin grinds which made slicers out of pry-bars.
posted by Tom Krein
"05-05-2012, 08:53 AM
"I would like to point out that steel blades are a luxury! Bushcraft was done for thousands of years with shards of stone and pieces of rock! Most modern blades are a big improvement over stone implements!
With that said knife performance is like a three legged stool. The legs are steel, geometry, and heat treatment. You need all three for the best performance. In my opinion edge geometry is probably the most important followed by heat treatment! The steel actually makes the least difference in performance in my opinion!!
Your best steel choices for bushcraft are going to need toughness, edge holding, and ease of sharpening. It's up to you which of these to stress, and if stainless is desired. Increased wear resistance usually means more work sharpening. Increased stainless properties usually mean not as tough... Etc.
The reason 1095 is used so much is that it makes a good knife AND it is very very inexpensive! Is it the BEST steel? That is really up to you!
I personally feel most of the super steels are not suited well to bushcraft!! They make great utility, self defense, or hunting knives, and will work for bushcraft intermittently, but require too much effort to sharpen if they become dull. Especially if a Scandi grind as you have a LOT of material to remove. The super steels are usually too much of a good thing!
One thing I have not seen mentioned much is steel grain size. Heat treatment can effect this a LOT, but some steels have a much finer grain than others with optimum heat treatment. Why is this important? Bushcraft involves a LOT of carving! A finer grain knife will carve better and smoother for longer. An example would be D2... D2 WILL take a good edge contrary to some opinion IF you know what you are doing. It can be easily made to shave arm hair without touching your arm! It has a fairly coarse grain structure though and makes a much better hunting knife or utility or defensive knife than a bushcraft blade in my opinion.
What are some good steels for bushcraft? Most have been mentioned, but I'll list a few of my favorites. O1 (well balanced), 10--series steels (well balanced AND very inexpensive), 52100 (extremely fine grained), 5160 (good toughness), Sandvic 13C26 (stainless), A2 (one of my favorites), W2 (well balanced), L6(very tough) and CPM 3V (I consider this a super steel, but it is super tough with good edge retention and relatively easy to sharpen).
The above list is NOT all inclusive, but you can't go wrong with any of them in my opinion IF heat treated properly and good edge geometry is incorporated into the blade!
Of equal importance to what steel or knife to get is sharpening skills and equipment. A dual sided diamond hone that folds with coarse and fine sides along with a small ceramic dual sided stone with medium and fine will allow you to sharpen even the super steels in the field. If you don't know how to sharpen a knife even the best knife will soon be useless.
Stay sharp and remember the above is just my opinion/ experience. Yours may vary!"
Tom
