Is the Becker Extreme worth nearly 5 Becker BK-7s?

[Blackhearted]

Blackhearted....where oh where please please please did you find a Becker for 50 CDN ?

i got mine a bit cheaper from an outdoor store owner in TO that owed me a favor. his regular sticker price was significantly higher...
but you can get them for $56 here any time, as as well as the brute. this is, actually, cheaper than US prices (in fact many of their knives are just about the cheapest you can get them in canada) - especially when you factor in customs fees and shipping/brokerage fees which are near impossible to avoid on a package this size.
http://www.lebaron.ca/pdf_fall_pgr/outdoors/camillus.pdf
you can walk into one of their stores and pick it up, or order them by phone - their shipping is usually very reasonable. their PDF catalogues are a little annoying to browse but overall it is highly worth it. check the prices on their other knives - its just about the only place in canada that you can get US pricing on things, as opposed to the usual double US MSRP prices everyone else charges.

cheers,
-gabriel

 

[Blackhearted]

What I will be interested to see when these knives come out, is how the steel reacts. Considering the problems reported with S30V in various small folders, it will be interesting to see how how a large blade behaves.

-Cliff

yeah, thats what i was worried about. i am nowhere near a knife expert, but i am aware that certain things are, ATM, largely popular due to industry hype and just current fads. sure, on paper these materials may have superior characteristics - but there are two questions to be asked:
1. although the material has some superior qualities, are they superior for the intended use? if the material is different then there will often be drawbacks - and are those relevant to the intended use?
2. will the customer actually notice this 'superiority' in the realm of possible daily use, or does it exist only on paper/extreme fantasy testing.

so im not disputing how good S30V steel is, but if some people are saying that it exhibits brittleness in a 3" pocket knife blade, wont this brittleness be even more of a factor in a 7" or 9" blade?

also, how much is heat treat a factor? if it exhibits superior qualities in custom knives (such as the Raven), how were those knives heat-treated? is a factory run of a few thousand knives going to exhibit these same qualities? so could the test results of the 'Raven' have been influenced primarily not by the 'superior' steel, but by the fact that it was painstakingly crafted and heat treated by hand by a professional? if so, how would just a standard knife made of S30V and churned out of a factory perform? a maker can properly heat treat an 'inferior' steel and get a much better knife than a poorly heat treated one of super steel.

also, if these superior properties exist both on paper and in testing, willl the average customer actually gain a noteworthy benefit from said materials?

cheers,
-gabriel

 

[Cliff Stamp]

There is a lot of hype on steels, it is however to very easily cut through it completely, all you have to do is ask a few questions and apply a little logic.

although the material has some superior qualities, are they superior for the intended use?

Look at the massive range of blades S30V is used for, now ask yourself is it anyway possible that the steel could be optimal for all of those blades at the same time, considering they are so varied in scope and range of use?

will the customer actually notice this 'superiority' in the realm of possible daily use, or does it exist only on paper/extreme fantasy testing.

When ever a maker offers a steel "upgrade", ask them specifically how the performance has changed and how has the design of the blades evolved to best use the new characteristics. Assuming they are using it because it works and not just because it is in vogue they will have done extensive R&D including field trials and be able to spell out the answer in some detail.

...so could the test results...

Any time you see makers talk about the capabilities of their knives, tests done, performance statements, ask them the following questions :

1) What steel in that same knife would have failed?
2) What geometry in that steel would have failed?

These are necessary to judge the meaning of the test. Unless you have done the exact same work yourself it is hard to judge if the performance is actually high. Cold Steel used to promote the tip toughness of their knives by stabbing car doors. When people tried it they found it was trivial even with very slim and pointy tips. That test actually sets a very low standard for tip strength.

2) How much further would you have to go to break/damage it?

I took an AUS-8A Deerhunter and stabbed it into a concrete block five times with no effect on the blade (took pieces out of the block each time). On the six'th impact the tip bent, on the 18'th impact the tip broke. Those additional points are fairly informative. Without the first one a lot of people would assume there is no effect on the blade at all, when in fact after the fifth stab the blade was at a failure point. So many times when things are done and "the knife was not effected", you should ask yourself "yeah and what would happen if you did it again".

3) Do you guarantee that performance?

For obvious reasons.

-Cliff