Question for the Pros. Can AUS8 really withstand lots of abuse?

Kodiak PA

Kodiak PA

Gold Member
Joined
Dec 3, 1998
Messages
2,447
I was reading in the 11/2000 TK and they were reporting on Tom Johanning's TAC-11 survival knife. You may remember this knife from the cover of Knives2000.

Anyway, the knife is able to withstand lots of abuse. There are countless pics of Tom's knife going through diamond steel plates and car doors and such. The knife looks really tough which surprised me since it is made from AUS8.

Am I missing something here? In my experience as a user, A8 is very easy to sharpen but its edgeholding is less than desirable. So can a knife that dulls easily be able to withstand the pressures of repeated abuses like Johanning's TAC series knives. Perhaps the molybdenum and vanadium help this. If so, can I expect other steels like BG42 to hold up to the abuses/uses the TAC knife goes through?

The knife is obviously legit. What do you guys (and gals..in case Audra's here) think of A8 and a memeber of the SERE school class?

TIA.

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~Greg Mete~
Kodiak Alaska
 
greg, i dont think i'm a pro! but if you go to www.agrussel.com you will see on the steel chart that there is a bit more carbon in aus8 than 440c. so its a decent stainless steel, i prefer ats-34 for my knives. no disrespect inpled to the maker you mentioned but personaly myself being able to pierce a car door is a moot point. i am 42 years old and i have never heard of someone having to stab a car to survive. as far as the toughness of the steel, if it is not heat treated properly it does not matter what kind of steel it is.

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Laurence Segal www.RHINOKNIVES.com
 
being able to pierce a car door is a moot point. i am 42 years old and i have never heard of someone having to stab a car to survive.
Click to expand...

Good point Laurence....I'm just asking in the spirit of discussion. I was just surprised to see that A8 was that tough.

Could 440A properly heat treated do the same thing? Or AUS6?

Just food for thought from a user who respects the makers.

Thanks for answering.

Greg
 
This might well be the flip side of the "brittle bad steel" rap, often hung on ATS-34. A well designed knife blade will get the best out of the steel used, and even a mediocre steel can be made to look pretty good if the blade is carefully designed around the steel and the intended application (in this case punching holes in steel sheet). Conversely, a poorly designed and executed blade will not be worth a darn regardless of the steel used.

I think the knife you're talking about is mostly machined. Using AUS8 is probably a compromise between edge strength/utility and machineablility. Apparently, they got it right.

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Jerry Hossom
www.hossom.com
The Tom & Jerry Show
 
Thank you Jerrry.

I knew from the reports that Tom's knife was tough and for some reason was really surprised that the steel was A8. It has reconfirmed that any steel, properly made and in this case machined and of course properly heat treated can perform as good or better than any of the exotic steels out there.

Kind of puts things into perspective.

To paraphrase a certain impeached president's '96 campain solgan...."It's the heat treatment stupid"

Stupid being me of course.
smile.gif


Still, I was surprised to see that tough knife was A8. Now if only production A8 was this good.

Would still like to hear more opinions.

Thanks,

Greg
 
I was under the impression that A-8 is a high carbon tool steel along the lines of A-2, and is not to be confused with AUS8. Been wrong before though.
 
Originally posted by Kodiak PA:

...It has reconfirmed that any steel, properly made and in this case machined and of course properly heat treated can perform as good or better than any of the exotic steels out there.
Click to expand...

Unless of course the "exotic" steel, like maybe a CPM, is also properly made and heat treated, in which case AUS8 will likely come in second.

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Jerry Hossom
www.hossom.com
The Tom & Jerry Show
 
I was under the impression that A-8 is a high carbon tool steel along the lines of A-2, and is not to be confused with AUS8.
Click to expand...

Is this the case? I would like to hear about this. Maybe I confused A8 with AUS8?

Thanks for the great responses.

Greg
 
I think there is a misunderstanding here. A8 is not anywhere near the same steel as 8A. Those big, ugly survival knives are made from A8, which is a variation of A2, a pretty tough steel. 8A is the Japanese steel used by a lot of factorys. I like 8A, and find it a good compromise between toughness and edgeholding(for a stainless)and its a lot cheaper than the other more hyped stainless steels.

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Danbo, soul brother of Rambo
 
Ok, now I'm confused. Is 8A another name for AUS8?

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Oz

"I went to one of those so-called 'All you can eat' buffets last night, and I'm on to their little game.
They stop filling up the thousand island bucket after you empty it three or four times."
http://www.freespeech.org/oz/
 
Okay, you guys got me all curious about stabbing cars. Since I'm in a real onery mood today I took my Syderco endura AUS-8 blade and stabbed a hole in my Pickup.
No damage to the tip.
I have used this endura for the past 3 yrs. as a work knife, cutting copper wire, insulation, cardboard and the worse thing I have found to kill an edge is cutting open paper sacks of welding flux. ( basically formulated sand)
The knife holds up pretty fair to this treatment, yeah I have to put an edge on it to cut something a little more delicate like leather, flesh or tomatoes, but it holds an edge well for the abuse it goes through, edge geometry is hollow ground, though not deep, the distal taper is all in the last 3/8" of the tip.

I'd be a little happier if it would hold an edge longer, but if I wouldn't cut rocks it probably would.



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Sola Fide
 
Oh, I forgot, I did cut a fender of S-10 one time,after a wreck, wasn't survival, but it did allow me drive the car away without paying for a wrecker.
The knife I used was one made by my friends father, he cut the blade from an old buzz saw blade with a torch, ground past the blued part of the steel and put a handle and edge on it. Great knife!

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Sola Fide
 
I wonder, I post, I learn.

Thanks for ed-u-mi-cating me.

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~Greg Mete~
Kodiak Alaska
 
Alert!Alert! mike is on a rampage,everyone get you vehice off the street! OKAY. is it a8 or aus8 8a or A.A. that were are disscuss? LOL,

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Laurence Segal www.RHINOKNIVES.com
 
As others have mentioned A8 is not AUS-8. Also, pretty much most steels can be made tough as long as they're not hardened too much, but many won't offer a good combination of toughness and hardness for tasks like driving a knife tip thru steel plate and not being damaged. I'll guess my center punches and cold chisels are made from a shock resistant tool steel or something like 6150 chrome-vanadium steel, both of which are medium carbon steels that are nice and tough, both of which sound similar to the A8 that someone mentioned.
 
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