Kershaw Wild Turkey Damascus: What's the steel made out of?

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KennyB

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Jan 19, 2010
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So I just ordered one of these beauites, I was just wondering what the steel was actually made of so far as the chemical composition, or like, what the different steels "layered" together are. Can't wait to get it, got a GREAT deal on it, look around if you've wanted one.
 
It's not Damascus technically; it's a VG-1 core that is pattern welded in alternating stainless then acid etched. Thomas corrected me recently on this, and upon close inspection it shows. Crazy sharp knife, great whittler.
 
Hmm, interesting. Any specs on the hardness? I think I notice a little dent in the blade from when they tested the hardness.

Also, with that being said, it showed up in the mail today. I'm very impressed and very happy.
 
Well for the vg-1 core, a 58-60 hardness is a reasonable expectation from kershaw. As for the damascus pattern itself, not a clue
 
The other metal is probably 420j steel, a flexible steel usually used in the liners of pocket knives.

I'm just guessing because the Shun series of knives made by KIA (The parent company of Kershaw and Shun and ZT) have kitchen knives which utilize a vg-10 core and 420j as the outside layers.

And just so you know, the proper term for this type of blade welding is called san mia, it is where a hard center steel has softer iron/low carbon steels welded to the outside of it to increase flexability of the blade while still keeping a high rockwell hardness on the cutting edge of the knife.

Here is a paragraph I directly copy and pasted from the Shun KAI website about one of their kitchen knives with this steel.

"Sora uses Shun's proprietary Composite Blade technology to bring together a VG10 san mai cutting edge with a Japanese 420J stainless steel upper. This technology puts high-performance material exactly where it's needed—on the edge. The two blade sections are laser cut, then fit together like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. Braze welding permanently joins them. The attractive wavy pattern at the joint is based on traditional Japanese sword hamon lines."
 
23698012 said:
The other metal is probably 420j steel, a flexible steel usually used in the liners of pocket knives.

I'm just guessing because the Shun series of knives made by KIA (The parent company of Kershaw and Shun and ZT) have kitchen knives which utilize a vg-10 core and 420j as the outside layers.

And just so you know, the proper term for this type of blade welding is called san mia, it is where a hard center steel has softer iron/low carbon steels welded to the outside of it to increase flexability of the blade while still keeping a high rockwell hardness on the cutting edge of the knife.

Here is a paragraph I directly copy and pasted from the Shun KAI website about one of their kitchen knives with this steel.

"Sora uses Shun's proprietary Composite Blade technology to bring together a VG10 san mai cutting edge with a Japanese 420J stainless steel upper. This technology puts high-performance material exactly where it's needed—on the edge. The two blade sections are laser cut, then fit together like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. Braze welding permanently joins them. The attractive wavy pattern at the joint is based on traditional Japanese sword hamon lines."
Click to expand...

I see, I was going to say it looked kind of similar to some of their composite blades, but a little more subtle.

@spyderco lover,

That's what I was thinking as well, seemed closer to the hard side. Loving this knife so far.


 
Here's the composition of VG-1 and 420J respectively. :)

Carbon: 0.95-1.05
Chromium: 13.00-15.00
Molybdenum: 0.20-0.40
Nickel: 0.25 (or lower)


Carbon: 0.15
Chromium: 12.00-14.00
Molybdenum: 1.00
Phosphorus: 0.04
Sulfur: 0.03
Silicon: 1.00
Copper: 0.09

Enjoy a great knife!
Kirby
 
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