HRC for bone cleaver

C

Cristian Hickcox

Joined
May 4, 2020
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4
Hey, new guy here. Ive been a butcher for 17 years. Its just been in the past couple years that ive been getting into higher quality knives, and stopped useing the cheap victorinox knives the company supplies. The amount of cutting i do, they have to put on the stone practically everyday. Im looking to get a good cleaver. I would mainly use it for chopping chicken bones, splitting larger pieces of oxtail, and some occasional femur bones. I want something i dont have sharpen all the time but i also dont want it to chip when i have to use it for some heavier chopping when need be. What hrc and weight would you recommend? Is there a particular knife you would recommend?
 
Yeah, the trouble is that edge holding and brittleness tend to go hand in hand. If you want something to cut through bone with any amount of regularity, it will have to be pretty soft to keep from breaking or getting tons of chips in the edge. Unless you used something that was extremely thick, but at that point, you might as well use a hatchet or something.

The recommendation of CPM 3V is a really good one actually, as it holds an edge pretty well (at least as well as most kitchen knives I think) while still being famously tough and edge stable.
Trouble is, something like that would have to be a custom knife, and would probably be fairly expensive.

Another alternative would be to get somethjng made out of AEB-L with an HRC in the low 50's. It's very tough because of it's fine grain structure in the steel, and also very stainless (which 3V isn't). You'll have to be prepared to have a fairly thick and heavy knife though in order to sustain the use you're expecting without breakage.
 
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Halador said:
Another alternative would be to get somethjng made out of AEB-L with an HRC in the low 50's. It's very tough because of it's fine grain structure in the steel, and also very stainless (which 3V isn't). You'll have to be prepared to have a fairly thick and heavy knife though in order to sustain the use you're expecting without breakage.
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Yeah, AEB-L is a good choice, but thick knife with stout edge might not have very good cuttting performance. And will still need to get sharpened a bit more frequently.
AEB-L is known to have toughness and edge retention of 52100 while being stainless which makes it a very good choice.

At the other hand CPM-3V is a lot tougher, around twice as tough as AEB-L, but the downside is that while it has some stain resistance - it's not completley stainless.

And another benefit for AEB-L is that there are probably production AEB-L cleavers, which might keep the price a bit down.
DocJD said:
Just something I found on the net . I have no association with or knowledge of this maker .

https://www.redforgeworks.com/produ...-tool-steel-with-north-carolina-locust-handle
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This looks good though. Good find :)
 
Halador said:
Yeah, the trouble is that edge holding and brittleness tend to go hand in hand. If you want something to cut through bone with any amount of regularity, it will have to be pretty soft to keep from breaking or getting tons of chips in the edge. Unless you used something that was extremely thick, but at that point, you might as well use a hatchet or something.

The recommendation of CPM 3V is a really good one actually, as it holds an edge pretty well (at least as well as most kitchen knives I think) while still being famously tough and edge stable.
Trouble is, something like that would have to be a custom knife, and would probably be fairly expensive.

Another alternative would be to get somethjng made out of AEB-L with an HRC in the low 50's. It's very tough because of it's fine grain structure in the steel, and also very stainless (which 3V isn't). You'll have to be prepared to have a fairly thick and heavy knife though in order to sustain the use you're expecting without breakage.
Click to expand...
Do you have any recommendations as to who would be a good smith to make a knife like this for me? I know it wont be cheap, but you get what you pay for.
 
Cristian Hickcox said:
Do you have any recommendations as to who would be a good smith to make a knife like this for me? I know it wont be cheap, but you get what you pay for.
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I know that there are tons of talented smiths who sell here on the forum. I'd recommend have a look at some of their work first as it helps support the community. There is a whole sub forum for makers who make kitchen knives and I've seen some wonderful stuff there.
 
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