Ideal Steel for a Survival Knife

A

Ang_Panday

Joined
Jan 10, 2006
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Hi Guys, I'am gong to make my first survival knife ( around 12inches overall ) and I need your opinion on which steel would do good for the job ( cutting, chopping and not so expensive material ). I was thinking of using D2 ( which I have experience working with ), but maybe you folks have better suggestions :confused:
 
1084 with the salt pot system makes a fine knife too.
One of the few people I've found who nail the D2 heat treat are DiamondBlade knives, though I am sure there are others.
 
I have to say 5160 for larger knife that will see chopping and slicing duties is IMO the best choice. It's cheap, It takes a great edge and holds it. the heat treat is amazingly simple.

Jason
 
Consider that if you had any visions of actually USING this knife in a survival situation, you would want it heat treated to SURVIVE lots of different tasks, as well as re-sharpen easily, like on a rock or the top edge of your truck window, etc.
That begins to limit the choice list.
 
D2 isn't the toughest steel around, nor the easiest to sharpen. O1 and 5160 are both much better in that regard, but they're not very corrosion resistant. It's a trade-off.
 
Survival situations call for non-breaking blades IMO... D-2 is pretty far from tough (I've personally had pretty good luck with it but no longer use it for choppers) and as you can see from the above it's difficult to sharpen especially with a rock.

Personally I'd go with A2, O1, maybe 5160... mmmmn wait, L6 but it rarely is available to me (never, actually). If you need toughness go S7 (there are tougher S series but 7 is easy to find and your heat treater will likely be able to do it right), if you are heat treating yourself without digital control get 1080, inferior to all the alloys I listed for the job but simple to harden
 
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