Recommendation? Lost, overloaded, need help

B

Bradley Robinson

Joined
Jul 19, 2019
Messages
11
Hey everyone.

Before writing this post, I've been reading for about a week all the various threads and topics on here in Hope's of answering my question before posting. But I'm overloaded and need help.

I am used to making knives from 1084 and 1095 steels, but wont work for what the fishermen require.

I was asked to make a series of Spining/fish knives for a group of fishermen in Nova Scotial/Newfoundland. They use a peculiar type of slightly bent, single beveled knives, and they dont take care of them at all.

So, I wanted to find a steel that was very corrosion resistent as it will be in salt air/water every day...all day, and these massive guys who look like modern Vikings bare down on the blades, they wont easily break...especially at the tang. The blades have a hidden tang that goes into a slightly hour glass wooden round handle.

I have a list of steels, but cant narrow it down. In order of importance:
Corrosion resistance
Toughness in terms of blade handling
Edge retention (they will hone regularly)

I'm thinking a steel that can harden and temper nicely to 58 rockwell with some flexibility and "spring back", but not 1095 due to its corrosion performance.

So, what would you all suggest? Do I go with a N steel, or use 440c? Perhaps a clad steel would be best? Or maybe just use 420j2+
I'm lost.

FLICKR LINK TO THE PHOTOS OF THE REFERENCE KNIFE...CLICK THIS
 
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post a picture of the knife, it'll help.

look up "fillet knife" on the search function and see what other people are using for that style of knife, it might help.
 
Z Finit, Vanax will give the corrosion resistance you are looking for but they are expensive and can be hard to grind.

You best bet may be 440 c with cryo quench. This will be more affordable and give very good performance
 
I would do it in S35VN.

The knife they want is sort of a modified unagisaki (eel knife and small fish boning).
unagisaki180.jpg
 
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Z-finit (lc200n) ticks all of your boxes. You won’t heat treat it without a kiln and LN though at home. If it’s too pricy, go with aeb-l.
 
With AEB-L you could probably get that bend right out of the quench. :p

But seriously, I'd like AEB-L for the toughness and you can get it in 1/16" all day long. I'd run it at 60-61Rc, since it's so tough. Good for knife-abusers, and takes a stupid-sharp edge at low angles.
But it won't be top of the corrosion-resistance heap.

I'd pick CPM154 over 440C all day long for better toughness and corrosion resistance and edge. 59-60Rc.
The fancier steels will be substantially more expensive.
Can't go wrong with S35VN either, but that's driving materials cost up quite a bit if that matters to you. I've made S35VN at 59Rc, and I think that's too soft. I'm not sure if you can get the hardness you'll really want in S35VN while also keeping it as tough as possible for those Vikings.
 
Also, do you think you could find out what they call them colloquially? Or maybe the aboriginal name (if there is one)?


edit: these are called "Splitting knives"
read http://nqonline.ca/article/codfish-splitting-machine/.

I am currently searching for more info.


edit 2: more info:
http://www.nzdl.org/gsdlmod?e=d-000...L1.91&d=HASH9e9f8f99212e7c3ee056a4.5.2.3&gt=1
https://outdoorpros.ca/product/wooden-handle-splitting-knife/
https://nygunforum.com/threads/someone-to-make-a-couple-of-knives.29949/ (This may be your post?)
 
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Lotmom said:
Also, do you think you could find out what they call them colloquially? Or maybe the aboriginal name (if there is one)?


edit: these are called "Splitting knives"
read http://nqonline.ca/article/codfish-splitting-machine/.

I am currently searching for more info.


edit 2: more info:
http://www.nzdl.org/gsdlmod?e=d-000...L1.91&d=HASH9e9f8f99212e7c3ee056a4.5.2.3&gt=1
https://outdoorpros.ca/product/wooden-handle-splitting-knife/
https://nygunforum.com/threads/someone-to-make-a-couple-of-knives.29949/ (This may be your post?)
Click to expand...
Yes, splitting knives is what I've always heard them referred to
 
Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith said:
I would do it in S35VN.

The knife they want is sort of a modified unagisaki (eel knife and small fish boning).
unagisaki180.jpg
Click to expand...
Yes, you're absolutely right! It is a hybrid of the unagisaki and a Leather/Shoe Makers knife. I would do S35VN, I might try AEB-L and s35vn and make a few demo blades to test...only concearn, AEB-L will be a good price for a bar, after all the work, i can definitely sell it and make a better (but humble) profit, S35VN might raise the cost a bit too high.
 
I use a lot of AEB-L but to be honest it does not have the best corrosion resistance in the environment you describe
 
Bradley Robinson said:
Yes, you're absolutely right! It is a hybrid of the unagisaki and a Leather/Shoe Makers knife. I would do S35VN, I might try AEB-L and s35vn and make a few demo blades to test...only concearn, AEB-L will be a good price for a bar, after all the work, i can definitely sell it and make a better (but humble) profit, S35VN might raise the cost a bit too high.
Click to expand...
Just to be the devil's advocate I'm going to guess that corrosion resistant might be on the low end of what you are looking for if these guys are hard on knives and are used to carbon steel. I'm not a huge fan of AEB-L but compared to carbon steel rust isn't a issue. It also sharpens a lot like carbon steel and compared to something like 1095 at 55-56Rc AEB-L in the low 60s holds a edge. Once you get into the 60 you are probably going to have to make sure that they aren't using steels to sharpen but with AEB-L you don't have to talk them into all using diamond stones at least. And its cheap.

If none of that is relevant then S35VN is great. And other steels can even be more rust and stain resistant.
 
Storm has a point... If these guys are used to carbon steel, why not just use something like 15N20, which is slightly less rust-prone than normal carbon steel?
 
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