Puukko Knife steel - what would be your "Go to" steel.

Diomedes Industries

Diomedes Industries

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Mar 19, 2007
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I am taking a small impromptu poll and getting feedback from as many makers as I can on what steel you would chose for a Puukko style blade.

Here are the perameters:

1) total knife length would be around 9 inches.
2) Knife would be made with stock removal primarily.
3) Knife would have a hidden tang with a pentagonal (or diamond) cross section.
3) Blade thickness would be about 3/16" or 1/8" at the start.
4) Totally open to stainless or non stain resistant steel.

So - here are the questions I would love to get your opinion on.

A) What knife steel would you use for the perameters above?
B)If you were going to forge weld two steels (inner core being hard - outer core being soft) what two steels would you chose for the perameters above?

Thank you all so much for your knowledge and help.

Dio
 
For stainless option, I would go with something like AEB-L/13c26, 14c28N, or Nitro V. I don't see the need for high wear resistant steels in a pukko. Those knives benefit greatly from steels with high "apex stability". Mora and others like them use a lot of 12c27, which is very akin to the steels listed above.

Any of the lower alloy stuff like 52100, 1095, O1, 80CrV2 would be fine, leaning towards 52100 myself for a carbon steel.

If I were to make my own, it would probably be AEB-L.
 
Thank you Stuart. A friend who I trust uses 80Crv2 as it allows him to get the tang annealed at the pommel in order to peen it over cleanly.
Dio
 
80CrV, 1084, 5160 will all work.

Personally, I use laminated san-mai with a high carbon core. Usually it is Shiro #2 (White steel) suminagashi, White (Shirogami) #2 laminate, or Blue (Aogami)#2 laminate. I order them from Dictum or Workshop Heaven. The white and blue laminates are similar to what the Nordic knives are often made from.
 
Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith said:
80CrV, 1084, 5160 will all work.

Personally, I use laminated san-mai with a high carbon core. Usually it is Shiro #2 (White steel) suminagashi, White (Shirogami) #2 laminate, or Blue (Aogami)#2 laminate. I order them from Dictum or Workshop Heaven. The white and blue laminates are similar to what the Nordic knives are often made from.
Click to expand...
Stacy - Do you still live in Norfolk? I live in Yorktown. Do you order these from overseas (Both sites are in the UK) - or do you have an American source?

Dio
 
Equally important to steel selection, is the heat treat protocol.

I've had a fair amount of AEB-L that was run a bit too soft and ended up being pretty lackluster.
 
I've done a few sloyds (similar use case scandi ground blade) I like a nice fine grain high toughness steel. Nitro V and W2 is what I use, run fairly hard at around 62
 
If stainless I'd go with something simple like AEB-L, otherwise carbon I'd go with anything that has good toughness at pretty high hardness, like 52100 or 26c3, but for real any high carbon steel can work well if done right.

If you don't mind spending a bit more dough for premium steel, look for vanadis 4e (cpm 4v) or magnacut, they are a league ahead of carbon (and most other stainless) steels for that kind of blade IMHO.
 
Just want to get back to this, as one factor that is of utmost importance hasn't been mentionned, what do you want to favor in your blade, edge quality wise? Does this puukko needs above all else tremendous toughness or edge retention for push cuts? I

In Finland there are two steels mainly used for puukkos, and althought they have somewhat overlapping qualities metallurgically wise, there is one mostly used for tougher use stuff and the other one for more delicate work where edge retention is favored. The tougher one is 80crv2, and the more long lasting edge is 1.2210 silver steel. This one has a good bit more carbon (1.1-1.2% vs 0.75-0.8%) and a bit more chromium, but for the rest they are quite similar. Both are tough, but 80crv2 by its chemistry has more potential for toughness. Again, both can get a quite long-lasting edge (relatively speaking for lower alloyed carbon steels) but 1.2210 has the edge there by its chemistry.

But then If you want the cake and eat it too you'll have to spend some more dough on different, more alloyed steels and proper equipment to get the most out of these, and a good bit of testing and learning.

Thing to consider is also how easy they are to work with, and there the simpler stuff can be worth it. IMHO every steel deserves to dedicate a good deal of knowledge, attention and practice to get the good stuff out of it, but some are easier to get there than others, and that is something to consider for you, and that will be paramount for making nice and reliable blades in the long run.

Some steels in my own experience that do have very balanced qualities that would fit the bill very well for puukos are slightly higher alloy carbon steels in the hypereutectoid range, but not too high.
They have very decent toughness if heat treatment is done right and the extra small carbides do make a small difference for edge retention.

Stuff like 52100 with its chrome enhanced cementite or even more carbide formers like Cruforge V and the german and japanese tungsten steels that are between 1% and 1.2%. Look for vtoku2, aogami 2, and the new wolfram special. I'd say Apex Ultra seems like a top candidate too, but i don't have experience with it yet so I can't comment.
Have fun
 
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