Ever buy a knife to use and abuse and test a blade in a certain steel or by a certain maker?
Well, I did that about a year and a half ago, bought a second hand Blind Horse Knives Tiger Knapp. I planned on just testing the little fixed blade for a couple of weeks and then either toss it after it failed or just forget about it at the bottom of a box and getting one of BHK's nicer knives. After using this little tiger knapp however, i just couldn't let it go! The saw blade steel impressed me far beyond how I thought it was going to be, I was pretty worried about its performance and wanted to see how it was going to be before spending more. The steel is "soft" with the HRC at low to mid 50s but you wouldn't be able to tell from using it! Their saw blade steel is now tied for #1 as my favorite steel; BHK's steel holds an edge, is really tough, seems to be somewhat corrosion resistant (more so than my white/blue steel knives anyways) and is ridiculously easy to sharpen. The steel is soft enough that you can use a file to set the edge bevel and after that a minute of stropping on sandpaper followed by some black and green on leather gets it to shaving. I can literally go from "concrete cutting board" dull to hair popping sharp in 4 minutes. On top of that the steel is so strong and tough that I can bring the edge down to super thin (8-10 degrees per side, then a little convexing) without worry of chipping or rolling even if I abuse it a little.
Nowadays the Tiger Knapp is still my go-to fixed blade, though I've epoxy'd some leather scales on it to makes it more comfortable to hold now.
Well, I did that about a year and a half ago, bought a second hand Blind Horse Knives Tiger Knapp. I planned on just testing the little fixed blade for a couple of weeks and then either toss it after it failed or just forget about it at the bottom of a box and getting one of BHK's nicer knives. After using this little tiger knapp however, i just couldn't let it go! The saw blade steel impressed me far beyond how I thought it was going to be, I was pretty worried about its performance and wanted to see how it was going to be before spending more. The steel is "soft" with the HRC at low to mid 50s but you wouldn't be able to tell from using it! Their saw blade steel is now tied for #1 as my favorite steel; BHK's steel holds an edge, is really tough, seems to be somewhat corrosion resistant (more so than my white/blue steel knives anyways) and is ridiculously easy to sharpen. The steel is soft enough that you can use a file to set the edge bevel and after that a minute of stropping on sandpaper followed by some black and green on leather gets it to shaving. I can literally go from "concrete cutting board" dull to hair popping sharp in 4 minutes. On top of that the steel is so strong and tough that I can bring the edge down to super thin (8-10 degrees per side, then a little convexing) without worry of chipping or rolling even if I abuse it a little.
Nowadays the Tiger Knapp is still my go-to fixed blade, though I've epoxy'd some leather scales on it to makes it more comfortable to hold now.
