Opinions on Buck's 420HC

jackknife said:
In the real world, 420HC is not a bottom of the barrel by any means.

It's position may be seen by some as such, but views are often skewed by prejudice. For the steel snobs that absolutely have to have the very latest wonder steel of the month, 420HC may b e bottom of the barrel. But for the rest of the real world that only needs a sharp knife to cut something, it's a perfectly fine steel. As is plain old 1095, Case CV, and whatever some day laborer in some other part of the world issuing to cut up a goat for dinner, or a sack of something to use on the farm or ranch.

It's easy to get a slanted view on a forum like this, but in any bobbie field it gets a bit over blown. No matter cars or guns or whatever. The gun aficionado thinks he needs the latest greatest black rifle to go deer hunting, while some parts of the world they use beat up old single barrel shotguns for everything including dangerous game like Jaguar.,

Use 420HC for a while and you may be surprised at how ell it performs day to day. Truth is, most people wouldn't know the difference in what steel their knife is, on a day to day basis. The 420HC, 440A, 1095, CV, 12C27, AUS8, all do well for knife use.
Click to expand...

The only blade steel I've actually felt diminish in sharpness quickly - in about 2 weeks regular use -
was AUS8 aka 8A. The knife was a 1980's Beretta made in Seki Japan (so I assume the heat
treat was decent at least if not even better than that).

With some care and time, it does take a great super sharp edge initially. But as noted I felt that
edge wearing away too quickly with just normal daily use, nothing heavy or unusual at all.
 
420 HC at .46% C has a High Carbon content for a 420 steel. Normal 420 has a Carbon content of .15%. Most metallurgists consider steels with more than .8% Carbon to be high Carbon steel. 440C is a high Carbon stainless with .95-1.20% Carbon.
  • CPM S125V has a Carbon content of 3.25% or 7 times as much Carbon as 420HC. The reason for lowering the Carbon in Buck’s 440C steel to the 420HC level was to enable the use of the fine blanking process by which blade blanks could be stamped rather than cut.
 
Whatever Buck is using - I like it. It's fairly easy to get a very good edge and it holds it through a lot of work for me. I am not crazy about most of their designs but their steel is quite satisfactory IMO. I do think a lot of people seem to base their opinion on a type of steel from just one example that may have poor tempering work. Controlling the temper while mass producing blades on a huge scale is not easy.
 
This being a 4 1/2 year old topic, so, I'll make it short. Buck has used at least 12 different blade steels through the years but some only know about 420hc. Heck, even Camillus started using 420hc in the early 1990's. Right along with Buck. It was rare they used any other steel till the
time they closed their doors in mid 2005. Thus, if you want a better steel those are available. DM
 
Buck's 420HC is good stuff, tough, corrosion resistant, takes a very fine edge with little effort. I much prefer it to the 440C they used to use, which was a b*tch to sharpen.
 
I've had several Buck knives of 420 HC.

Never had one that would hold an edge worth a damn.

For the once a year deer hunter, I guess it's okay, but there are so many FAR better steels available, I see no point at all to 420HC.
 
Buck 420hc is good but nothing special,12c27 i like way better,buck makes some models in 13c26 though,or used to make,have a vantage in that steel but never use the knife,as its half serrated,knife is scary sharp.Buck hunting knives would be awesome in sandvik with good heat treat .They have some models in different steels like s30 v,d2,and 52100,get some of these,theyre theyre to find,but can be found.Had their d2 hunting knife and it was excellent in edge holding,gifted it to one of my friends that hunt,he still uses it.
 
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The major reason why Buck's 420HC gets compliments has more contribution from updating their edge geometry. Here's an old thread on it...

https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/buck’s-edge2xtm-blade-technology.740645/

They sharpen it twice. It doubles the bevel width exposing more carbides and provides a narrower edge angle. Use a Buck blade in 420HC made before 1999 and it performs half as good. There's a reason why that slogan in the ad and packaging back when Edge 2000 came out said "Sharper Longer".

This isn't to say Buck has a poor heat treatment. It's just that their edge work is a gimmick that can be done on a Worksharp or re-profiling on a silicon carbide stone. There's also a lot of good brands out there doing good edgework that don't market it because they consider it a labor standard. 57-59rc wasn't an uncommon hardness even 40 years ago. Western Cutlery was doing cryogenic soaks on their steels back in the 70's (see page 15)...

http://www.collectors-of-camillus.us/Western/1975-Western-Catalogs.pdf

The Paul Bos heat treatment became a marketing tool in the early 2000's. No one knew that Buck used 420HC in the 90's because Buck didn't say. On packaging they'd say "Buck Steel" and further in the decade "high carbon stainless hardened to 58rc". 420HC got a little negative attention as a softer switch out from 440A for cost efficiency. So Buck's tactic was to state they used 420HC and dress it with marketing.

I am surprised thought that they haven't turned to N680 or 4116 steel though. Something at caliber of their old 425M steel that still will give that sharpening ease,rust resistance, and a little bit better of performance.
 
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12c27 or any sandvik at 58-60rc would be better than 420hc by Buck.Sandvik steels are awesome and perform well especially when i. 59,60rc,while being easy to sharpen.
 
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