Kind of disappointed in the 420 HC

L

longbow

Joined
Jan 9, 1999
Messages
4,350
Well I have had my 889 for about 3 wks or so. I noticed today when I cut some packing strap, the plasic stuff that is wrapped around periodicals. The blade chipped out towards the backend. Took a bit to cut the strap but nothing unusual. I can fix the chipping as it is right along the cantle only one side. Anyone experience this with this particular knife? Other than this one anomaly I am quite happy with this knife. Like it as much if not better than the ATS34 pse police model I have. It seems the liner lock on the 889 is a bit more robust although it hasn't ever failed on the other. keepem sharp
 
420 HC steel is considered the bottom end of Stainless Steel by many knowledgable people.
You can enhance the performance by proper heat treating but it is still low grade cutlery steel.
If you try the higher end steels like VG10 you will find their performance is way better then 420 HC steel.
IMHO AUS8 or 440 C steel should be your bottom steel to use on a user blade that is used for the task you described.

just my 2 cents
 
Mongo-man said:
420 HC steel is considered the bottom end of Stainless Steel by many knowledgable people.
Click to expand...

Any steel will chip along the edge. 420HC as treated by Buck is a good cutlery steel. Certainly it is outclassed by other steels, but for ease of sharpening and toughness, it's not a bad steel. It doesn't hold an edge exceptionally long, but there are trade-offs no matter what steel you choose.

IMHO AUS8 or 440 C steel should be your bottom steel to use on a user blade that is used for the task you described.
Click to expand...

Don't knock 440c, it's far from a bottom dollar steel. It's a completely different animal from the 420 series. HT'd properly, it'll take a wicked edge and hold it. Look at Buck's 440c from the 70s. My old 110 is one of the sharpest knives I own.

Why did Longbow's 889 chip? Who knows? It's possible that if the knife was finished on a buffer the friction built up along the edge could have effected the heat treat (at the edge only). This would cause the edge to be weak and crumble with any heavy cutting. If that's what caused the problem, sharpening will eliminate the brittle steel along the edge and the knife should be free of problems after that.

It's also possible that it was just the lemon of the batch. If sharpening out the chip doesn't help any, send the knife back to Buck, they'll make it right.
 
i agree with Psychopomp
ive seen this type of thing happen alot on new edges most of the time you wont get the edges full benefits till you have sharpened it once or twice.

sharpen it good past the chip and if you still dont like the way it preforms send it back to buck so thay can take a look at it.

or you could try to swap the blade out for the police model's ats34 blade.
from what i can tell thay have the same dimentions unless the pivots are different sizes.


.....justin
 
I think that what Psychopomp is saying is probably what happened here.

I have a Benchmade 556 Mini-Grip in 440C and when new its original factory edge chipped on plain cardboard (no, I didn't hit a staple). After a thorough sharpening, I haven't had any more chipping.

I don't think it was the result of your blade being made from 420HC. If anything, 420HC is tougher than a lot of the other stainless out there.
 
I'm not to worried about it. If all else I can send it back and have them look at it. It sure is smooth opening though. I just picked up a Buck/Mayo titanium folder with the S30v blade and integral lock. Now this is a nice knife. Not on a par with my moonsong sebbie but pretty darn nice for a whole lot less money. It could end up being my favorite carry blade. Very non threatening but could be if it had to be. keepem sharp
 
From the numbers, 420HC looks like it will be squat, but it works a lot better than I would expect. I like 420HC at rc58 much more than 440a or AUS6 at 56, which is often a bottom-end choice for cheap knives (or worse).

I can get my 110 very sharp very fast. AUS6 and 440a tend to have a burr on the edge that doesn't go away easily.

But I have one complaint, not to be blamed on the steel itself. As impressive as it is for a low cost, easily shaped steel, I think Buck is slightly to quick to use it on more expensive knives. Anything over $50 should probably have something a little better.
 
Been working on the edge of the 889OD. It is wierd. I am one that likes symmetry on my edges. You know the same width of cantle on either side. For the life of me this one is harder than hell to get that way. Frustrating as I grind away the edge. What I did find is that I needed to sharpen one side at 15deg's on the left side and the other at 25 deg. to make them appear even. How wierd is that. Ended up taking a bit of the edge off but did tend to get rid of that sharp type of burr on the edge, and made it more of a harder edge. I guess what I am saying is that the edge now is a harder type of sharp as compared to the way it was before. Not as fine an edge but sharp as hell regardless. Took out the chips but again lost a bit of the size of the blade in doing so.

This brings me back to my point here. This is a helluva put together knife. I just wished they had used a better grade steel of which I would have paid gladly for. I compare it to the Buck/Mayo I have owned all of 2 days and like the design of the 889 better as you know you have something in your hand. A well designed cutting tool. It's just the steel sucks. The B/M on the other hand is a classy chasis so to speak. A true gentlemans cutting tool that could be used in a pinch for defense. The 889 on the other hand is just that much more heavier duty and substantial. Why the heck not put a PE ATS34 blade in it or the S30v, now that would sell like hot cakes imho. Maybe a thicker liner lock on it, charge a decent price for it and see how many BUCK would sell. I bet they couldn't make them fast enough. Kind of like what I have said for years about the CS MasterHunter. Put G10 scales on it or make an upscale stag version and use the original Carbon V(which was 01), and they couldn't make them fast enough. Done with my rant. keepem sharp
 
I own an original police model with the pse. ATS34 is the nuts on this knife. keepem sharp
 
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