Heat treating survival knife best steel.

S

SpookStrickland

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Sep 27, 2012
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I had a thought the other day that in a survival situation you might have to heat up your blade to cauterize a wound or maybe you accidentally drop it in the fire. What type of steel would still be tough enough to sustain you in a survival situation after it has lost it's heat treat? which steel would be the worst?
 
You have to reach the temper temp to effect the HT.

Most blades take limited exposure to campfire temps without damage.

If you get it hotter then the temper temp it will start loosing some hardness, but it won't just loose it's HT.



Big Mike
 
Just don't heat it for a long time, or stick it in the coals. Pretty much any steel can sustain a little heat, but you really don't want to get them red hot or anything.
 
Use something else that is metal to cauterize a wound, I think the temp would be too high to not affect heat treat on a blade.
 
Cauterization is absolutely a last ditch way of stopping bleeding, and should only be done in extreme circumstances when direct pressure or a pressure dressing fail. Burning your skin to close a wound might stop the wound from bleeding, but now you have a burn instead of an open wound, and burns carry a much higher risk of infection than lacerations do.
 
pachiderm said:
Cauterization is absolutely a last ditch way of stopping bleeding, and should only be done in extreme circumstances when direct pressure or a pressure dressing fail. Burning your skin to close a wound might stop the wound from bleeding, but now you have a burn instead of an open wound, and burns carry a much higher risk of infection than lacerations do.
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Clotting compounds and compression bandages are readily available these days, and I carry both when doing work that requires axes, machetes, chainsaws, and such.

As stated, cauterization is really a last ditch effort, at that point the final state of the knife would be of minimal concern to me.



Big Mike
 
Rambo used gunpowder instead of a hot knife.

The advice you have been given is spot on, but to answer your question- hot work tool steel.
These are steels that take a HT, & hold it at relatively high temps. Most knives are made from cold work steels.
 
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T-type and M-type tool steels are safe up to or exceeding 760 °C (1,400 °F).
 
Big Mike said:
You have to reach the temper temp to effect the HT.

Most blades take limited exposure to campfire temps without damage.

If you get it hotter then the temper temp it will start loosing some hardness, but it won't just loose it's HT.



Big Mike
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LOSE is spelled with 1 "O"
I know this is a dickheaded way of trying to help you, but maybe next time you attempt to spell LOSE, you'll remember this comment.
Maybe.
 
oh and how much could a buck 110 take heat wise and how bad would it be after. I'm asking this because it is know that the heat treat is very important to the importance of buck steels great performance. Kind of hypothetical doomsday type questions but something that could happen or need to be done in a survival situation.
 
It's a question about a "problem" that doesn't really exist. You're going to have to try pretty hard and spend a good deal of time to seriously temper back an entire blade in a campfire/"survival situation". You'd likely burn/melt the handle off before that happens.

Do you really want to be cauterizing a wound with red-hot steel anyway? Even if it worked to stop the bleeding, you realize you'd end up with one helluva burn, right? ... and burns are about the easiest thing to get infected in the boonies.

So the short answer is, don't worry about it. The slightly longer answer is, don't leave your knife in the fire.
 
pachiderm said:
Cauterization is absolutely a last ditch way of stopping bleeding, and should only be done in extreme circumstances when direct pressure or a pressure dressing fail. Burning your skin to close a wound might stop the wound from bleeding, but now you have a burn instead of an open wound, and burns carry a much higher risk of infection than lacerations do.
Click to expand...

Right
 
james terrio said:
It's a question about a "problem" that doesn't really exist. You're going to have to try pretty hard and spend a good deal of time to seriously temper back an entire blade in a campfire/"survival situation". You'd likely burn/melt the handle off before that happens.

Do you really want to be cauterizing a wound with red-hot steel anyway? Even if it worked to stop the bleeding, you realize you'd end up with one helluva burn, right? ... and burns are about the easiest thing to get infected in the boonies.

So the short answer is, don't worry about it. The slightly longer answer is, don't leave your knife in the fire.
Click to expand...

I know it's just hypothetical and cauterization was just what came to my mind first. I'm just wondering what steel is naturally stronger and holds an edge better when you take the heat treat out of the equation. I was thinking that steel might make the best "long term" survival knife.
 
High speed steels like M2 or CPM-M4 that have a high amount of W (Tungsten) in it should hold the temper at high heat, but with high amounts of W or V, sharpening in the woods w/o some kind of decent stone would be a challenge in itself.

But I'm sleep deprived so better take it with a dash of salt.
 
On second thought, if the wound is bad enough that have to be cauterized, chances are you'll likely going to bleed out before collecting the mats needed for a fire, start a fire and put your knife in the fire long enough to effect the HT.
 
If it is that bad use your belt buckle. Your likely to bleed out before you get the fire started anyway.
 
Rasco said:
LOSE is spelled with 1 "O"
I know this is a dickheaded way of trying to help you, but maybe next time you attempt to spell LOSE, you'll remember this comment.
Maybe.
Click to expand...



Thanks, that really added a lot to this discussion. :rolleyes:

And YES, I agree with your assessment of your actions. :eek:



Big Mike
 
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