Production knife made from1095 past 60 hrc, can you name a brand ?

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stalag2

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Aug 12, 2012
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Hello

Is there any manufacturer selling 1095 knives hardened in the sixties ?

What kind of performance one could expect on a thin FFG blade made from it for regular edc, kitchen tasks and wood whitling ?


Thanx
 
are you expecting a knife to whittle, cook food and edc? If so, you'll end up with a knife that isn't particularly suited to any of those tasks.

Why do you want 1095 past 60? It does get quite brittle and is easy to chip out. At 58-59, it is VERY easy to sharpen and is relatively resistant to chip outs. Push it much past that and you risk a lot more chipping.

What is your reason for wanting a super hard tool steel?
 
Well i do own a RAT3 in 1095 that is around 57 i think, im quite pleased with the performance but i read somewhere about 1095 being able to reach 66 hrc yet remaining usable and in fact less chip prone than at 59 hrc.

I would like something quite simple, micarta/g10, ffg, around 4 inches of blade, and yes im aware that it wont be as good as a dedicated chef knife, i just want an all arounder.
 
The scrapyard scrapivor features a high carbon steel (SR-101) blade that is heat treated to 60-62HRC.
 
timbit said:
are you expecting a knife to whittle, cook food and edc? If so, you'll end up with a knife that isn't particularly suited to any of those tasks.

Why do you want 1095 past 60? It does get quite brittle and is easy to chip out. At 58-59, it is VERY easy to sharpen and is relatively resistant to chip outs. Push it much past that and you risk a lot more chipping.

What is your reason for wanting a super hard tool steel?
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Do you have any experience with that, or are you jus parroting something you've heard?

I've used a 1095 fixed blade at 65rc and had no chipping whatsoever. Matter of fact, it rolled when I cut cardboard instead of chipped. Two slides down a ceramic and it was good to go again. Really hard 1095 is awesome.

Check out custom makers to get your fix.
 
CrimsonTideShooter said:
Do you have any experience with that, or are you jus parroting something you've heard?

I've used a 1095 fixed blade at 65rc and had no chipping whatsoever. Matter of fact, it rolled when I cut cardboard instead of chipped. Two slides down a ceramic and it was good to go again. Really hard 1095 is awesome.

Check out custom makers to get your fix.
Click to expand...

I've got a wakizashi (Short sword) in 1095 at about 63-64 HRC. I can attest to this statement, it does NOT chip easy. And I am cutting green bamboo, not carboard.
I've got a Allan Davis 1095 custom, I would have to guess it is above 60 hrc since the sharpening stones that work for my 60 hrc hanwei, do not work very well for this custom knife and takes way longer to sharpen or touch up. This is so far the best performing 1095 blade I've had.

1095 can chip at those HRC but it isn't brittle like ceramic, that's for sure.
 
Thanks for inputs guys, just checked the scrapivore, i kind of like it even if its on the short side.
How does Sykco's 52100 compare to 1095 at 57?

Do you think we could see a manufacturer comes out with high hrc 1095 in the near future or do they find it is too difficult to heat treat it as hard as that compared to other higher alloyed tool steels ?

CTS : Can you tell me roughly how did your 65 hrc blade stacked against modern stainless steels ?

Thanks for your time guys!
 
It isn't the difficulty in tempering 1095 to above 60 hrc (hell powder steels are far more difficult and expensive), it's the practical use that gets in the way.
1095 above 60 hrc is very hard and is more prone to chipping which is something that no one wants in a knife. In abuse or even rare normal circumstances (cardboard can sometimes have hard materials inside) they don't want a knife to chip.
A knife edge failure should never be a chip, it is far far more preferable to roll. A chip requires grinding out the blade and re profiling at times. A roll requires simply bending the knife edge back.

By tempering it to below 60 hrc, the 1095 will roll before chipping.

My custom Alan Davis custom, performed well but compared to S30v, it did not keep a fine edge as long but it did keep a serviceable edge for just about the same time.
 
Luis G. said:
It isn't the difficulty in tempering 1095 to above 60 hrc (hell powder steels are far more difficult and expensive), it's the practical use that gets in the way.
1095 above 60 hrc is very hard and is more prone to chipping which is something that no one wants in a knife. In abuse or even rare normal circumstances (cardboard can sometimes have hard materials inside) they don't want a knife to chip.
A knife edge failure should never be a chip, it is far far more preferable to roll. A chip requires grinding out the blade and re profiling at times. A roll requires simply bending the knife edge back.

By tempering it to below 60 hrc, the 1095 will roll before chipping.

My custom Alan Davis custom, performed well but compared to S30v, it did not keep a fine edge as long but it did keep a serviceable edge for just about the same time.
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1095 is still 1095 at 55 HRC or 65 HRC, yes it will perform better at 65 than at 55, but it still won't compare to the high alloy steels because the alloy content just isn't there.

Now back in the 70's when the steel choices of production knives being what they where things were indeed different, things are much different these days.

That said, finding a maker that will take 1095 to that range isn't all that easy in general and there are other steel choices if that's what one wants.
 
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stalag2 said:
Hello

Is there any manufacturer selling 1095 knives hardened in the sixties ?

What kind of performance one could expect on a thin FFG blade made from it for regular edc, kitchen tasks and wood whitling ?


Thanx
Click to expand...

Kitchen knives should do OK due to blade geometry, other than the rust issues.

There are other options that aren't expensive in stainless that will give the same or better performance for that use.

Looks for kitchen knives in N690 as that steel is very popular over in your part of the world.
 
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Ankerson said:
1095 is still 1095 at 55 HRC or 65 HRC, yes it will perform better at 65 than at 55, but it still won't compare to the high alloy steels because the alloy content just isn't there.

Now back in the 70's when the steel choices of production knives being what they where things were indeed different, things are much different these days.

That said, finding a maker that will take 1095 to that range isn't all that easy in general and there are other steel choices if that's what one wants.
Click to expand...

1095 is 1095 however it behaves differently under different hardness levels, or heat treatment from my basic understanding.

I don't think it is difficult to find someone to hit that type of hardness, it's just the unwillingness of the smith to work with 1095 to that range when there are dozens of steels which can outperform it at lower HRC, for example M390 can far pass 1095 in edge retention.

Now that I reread the OP. 1095= terrible kitchen duty steel. I've used 1095, and stopped doing so immediately. Anything mildly acidic will rust 1095 unless you constantly wipe it clean.
 
Luis G. said:
1095 is 1095 however it behaves differently under different hardness levels, or heat treatment from my basic understanding.
Click to expand...

Same goes for any steel that I can think of.

I don't think it is difficult to find someone to hit that type of hardness, it's just the unwillingness of the smith to work with 1095 to that range when there are dozens of steels which can outperform it at lower HRC, for example M390 can far pass 1095 in edge retention.
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That and other reasons.

Now that I reread the OP. 1095= terrible kitchen duty steel. I've used 1095, and stopped doing so immediately. Anything mildly acidic will rust 1095 unless you constantly wipe it clean.
Click to expand...

Exactly, food acids are hard on steels.
 
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