If you ran Cold Steel, what steel would you use?

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gomipile

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Please take the question in this thread at face value, and try not to derail if you could.

If you were in charge of Cold Steel, what steel would you use in a knife like the Rajah II if your primary concerns were:

1.) I have to pick from steels of a similar price to AUS-8 to maintain profit margins.

2.) I want to see as few as possible knives return to the factory due to failures of the blade during the chopping type use this knife is designed for.

Would a steel like 13C26, or something else be superior in blade toughness under chopping? I really don't know. I'm asking you all.

Edit. FYI, if I were Cold Steel, I'd put out regular batches of Rajah II's with epoxy coated machete-temper 5160 blades (with the same grind and weight as the AUS8 blades.)
 
The problem is that picking a steel that is really better than AUS-8 will cost more and there is no way around that so if they make a change the price will go up.

the Steels like 13C26 ect are razor blade steels so they would not hold up anything like AUS-8 will. AUS-8 is very tough steel, and I mean very tough and that's why they use it.

So to have a steel that is that tough and hold an edge longer isn't exactly easy to do without raising the cost. The steel would have to be stainless also to that even limits the choices even more.

Whatever steel they would go to will eat into the bottom line and there just isn't any way around that.
 
Ankerson said:
The problem is that picking a steel that is really better than AUS-8 will cost more and there is no way around that so if they make a change the price will go up.

the Steels like 13C26 ect are razor blade steels so they would not hold up anything like AUS-8 will. AUS-8 is very tough steel, and I mean very tough and that's why they use it.

So to have a steel that is that tough and hold an edge longer isn't exactly easy to do without raising the cost. The steel would have to be stainless also to that even limits the choices even more.

Whatever steel they would go to will eat into the bottom line and there just isn't any way around that.
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That's pretty much what I was thinking.

Although, the idea of a Duracoated, convex edge 5160 blade on a Rajah II makes me smile.
 
I suspect even a coated 1095 blade would cost more due to the necessary heat treatment to make it tougher.

Actually if I were Cold Steel(or any other knife maker), I would choose a "flagship" or popular knife model, and offer it in a variety of steels in full production, so the customer can choose their flavor of ice cream that fits their budget and performance needs.

Imagine a Sebenza with S90V, or an American Lawman with Elmax, or a Bone Collector with M390:thumbup:. But full production now... Can anyone say "Kaching"?
 
Noctis3880 said:
I suspect even a coated 1095 blade would cost more due to the necessary heat treatment to make it tougher.

Actually if I were Cold Steel(or any other knife maker), I would choose a "flagship" or popular knife model, and offer it in a variety of steels in full production, so the customer can choose their flavor of ice cream that fits their budget and performance needs.

Imagine a Sebenza with S90V, or an American Lawman with Elmax, or a Bone Collector with M390:thumbup:. But full production now... Can anyone say "Kaching"?
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I'd make it the AK-47 line. I say this both because I really like the AK-47 for practicality and cool factor, and so as not to detract in even a tiny way from the value of Andrew Demko's custom Lawmans.
 
Noctis3880 said:
Can anyone say "Kaching"?
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Problem is that Cold Steel does not care about us (average Bladeforums member/ steel junkie). I don't mean that negatively either, it's just that a very, very small percentage of their sales are to people like us. Thus, Cold Steel wisely puts R&D money and time into making bigger and badder(in a good way) knives.
 
I'd keep using AUS8. It's a stainless that's easy to sharpen, takes impact well, doesn't cost a lot, and has middle-of-the-road edge retention. For the kind of models they produce it sounds pretty good actually. AUS8 gets a bad rap because it's not the latest and greatest, and as an inexpensive steel it sometimes gets used in crap knives. But guess what? The same thing happened with 440C and now it's becoming popular again as people wake up a little.

What I'd do if I was in charge of Cold Steel is start focusing on developing products to fill out the middle of the price spectrum. They swing a little too hard towards the expensive or cheap ends without enough in the center.
 
I'd have owned one by now if they didn't coat the AUS8 blade with that hideous CRKT Hissatsu Folder stuff :)
 
FortyTwoBlades said:
What I'd do if I was in charge of Cold Steel is start focusing on developing products to fill out the middle of the price spectrum. They swing a little too hard towards the expensive or cheap ends without enough in the center.
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Their 2011 line might well do this, with the Tri-Ad Voyagers, and the G10 Espadas. I might have to get an XL G10 Espada just to whip out in front of friends when they ask if I have a pocketknife :) And for the collection... yeah, that's it..

It helps that my state's knife laws let me carry pretty much anything as long as I'm not committing actual crimes. (I.E. if one has even a screwdriver when arrested for a real crime, they'll tack on a weapons charge, but its perfectly fine for a law abiding citizen to conceal a machete.)

Edit: Also, I might just buy a Mini Tuff Lite when they come down to $20 or so just to fool around with making a full-flat-grind 1095 or A2 blade for it.
 
If you're going to produce models with more expensive/lower markup steels, you can also limit the production run to increase demand. If you're lucky, the demand for the premium models will also increase exposure for the 'base' model and drive up demand overall.
 
no question at all.

440C

Better than AUS8 all the way around from my experience, and better priced (see Boker plus line AK101) sick steel, forgotten about due to too many idiots in the business mixing it up with lousy 440A or less lousy 440B ( I lied, Randall does a bang up job with 440B)...

Cold Steel will always go with the cheaper steel, then hype the poopy out of it, see SK5, it is in NO way the equal of Carbon V or even 1095.
 
gomipile said:
I'd make it the AK-47 line. I say this both because I really like the AK-47 for practicality and cool factor, and so as not to detract in even a tiny way from the value of Andrew Demko's custom Lawmans.
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i love my AK-47, if it were offered in VG-10 or something similar i would be so happy
 
Carbon steel, and do it back in america. It's a good time for that.

Could you imagine Lynn tompson with an automated CNC floor at his disposal?
 
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Zombie Zeke said:
Cold Steel will always go with the cheaper steel, then hype the poopy out of it, see SK5, it is in NO way the equal of Carbon V or even 1095.
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Actually you might recall the earliest Cold steel products were very respectable production knives. And they were made from Carbon V here in America.
 
440C would be a good choice that I would vote for. Benchmade has used it in several mid-range knives with very good results. Easy to sharpen to a crazy level and still tough.
 
Don't mind most of their steel I've come across. It's a lot of their designs that don't sit well with me.:(
 
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