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Question about my Winchester FB

silenthunterstudios

silenthunterstudios

Slipjoint Addict
Joined
Feb 2, 2005
Messages
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My little brother gave me a Winchester FB with the wooden handle, one of the ones you buy at Walmart in the clampack. Before I relegate it to the tacklebox, any idea what steel it could be? SURGICAL STEEL is stamped on the blade, it's a fairly recent knife, made within the last year. Pretty good edge on it, is it 420 or 440? Is it only worth cutting bait?
 
No idea what the steel is but I've got one too. I've batoned lots of hardwood with it just to see what it could do. I was expecting it to break but never do. Cut right through. Also know of a friend who cut and pryed open lots of coconuts. Seems decent so far.
 
I "think" I read somewhere these are 440A or 420J, but I won't swear to it. These knives may not be the greatest, but I've seen some that did suprisingly well in just everyday normal cutting chores.

I recently bought one of the new "outdoor life" knives contracted through United Cutlery, it's 420J and since it was so cheap ($20.00), I really beat the crap out of it, batonning, throwing it into a stump, diggin in rocky soil...other than scratches and getting dull, it took it all and resharpened quickly.

Kinda suprised me that the tip wasn't damaged, since I threw it into a stump 50 times and the ground 50 times as well. Even the handles held up after all that hitting the tree stump.
 
That kind of thing is usually not actually steel. It's age-hardened cheese. They bake it in special ovens and it gets hard and shiny and it's almost like metal!

You're in a better position to judge the thing than we are, though. Sharpen it up and cut some stuff with it! See what the thing can do! Post your test results -- that kind of thing gives us a baseline to compare real knives to. :cool:
 
I had one of the winchester's. not a bad knife for knocking around. it was a little heavy but i got it off ebay for 5 bucks. i gave it to a friend who really likes it. best part was costing 5 bucks.
 
I had one that finally broke last year after loads of abuse. I chopped into wood, pryed wood apart, and eventually just started using it as a throwing knife and thats when it broke. After about 100-200 throws it snapped. I was surprised. It didn't take an edge all that well but was a good knife either way.
 
I can't remember where but i read a user test report on those and the guy tried everything in the world to kill it and it did pretty good. don't remember what the steel was but it really doesn't make any difference if the knife works. the really nice thing about a knife like this is you can use it hard and abuse it and if it gets broken or lost you won't beat yourself up about it. I've looked a those several times and always talked myself out of buying one, even though i thinks it's a pretty good looking knife. guess i'll have to give one a try for a beater. later, ahgar
 
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