Schrade Cutting Test

M

me2

Joined
Oct 11, 2003
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Any ideas what Schrade uses for steel? I just did a cutting test with a Schrade peanut clip point. Rockwell tested at 58 C and sharpened on a belt sander with a 320 grit belt then leather belt on loaded with white buffing compound. Just did 80 cuts on soda cans, and while it wont shave above the skin anymore, it still shaves and slices paper with disturbing ease. In between sets of cuts, I wiped the blade on my pants leg, to get the water off from rinsing out the cans. I cant really tell if it helps or not with cutting. It seems to, but then when I cut without wiping the blade, it feels about the same. I'm just amazed it still cuts hair at all, and the paper cuts are really smooth. I tested a Rada Cutlery paring knife the same way, and it only took about 15 cuts to stop shaving. I wanted to test it against my Benchmade TSEK, but I ran out of cans.
 
What do you consider as a "cut"? I've made several soda-can stoves using SAK's, and they don't suffer gross damage, so it doesn't appear to be too demanding.
 
Pierce with the point, and cut down the side with the full length of the ~2 inch blade. Cuts are about 3.5 inches long. I wondered if it was really that tough a test. I know how crappy the Rada blades are.
 
While I try to avoid cutting metal with my knife, I have cut the sides of cans before with little trouble. For a tougher test, I think that cutting the thicker top or bottom would give you more of a challenge. Be careful you don't fold the blade on your finger if you cut the can top out though!
 
The steel is definately not stainless. It turns blue after 1 apple. It also smells kinda funny afterward. I think I lucked out and got one of the 1095 ones, which makes me wonder how an Alvin style 1095 blade would work. I tried cutting cardboard for my edge retention tests, but I only have so much time, and after about an hour, I was tired of cutting.
 
What type of cardboard were you cutting and how? If you do perpendicular push cuts with a small section of edge you will see edge degredation very rapidly. The higher the standard of sharpness you set the quicker your end point will be reached as well.

-Cliff
 
Schrade+ stainless that was used in the uncle henry line was 440c when they first started using stainless in uncle henry knives, but they changed to 420hc as is used in Buck 110's. Toward the end of Schrade even the old timer line was 420hc stainless. The new Taylor Schrades are chinese 440 no a or c because they are never sure what is in the steel which is defined as junk in my book.
 
I don't believe Schrade ever used 440c. Prior to using 420hc they used 440a.
 
If you will go to the Schrade forum and request the info you desire from Codger 64 he can i'm sure answer any questions you may have regarding Schrade knives. You might not want to mistake a Taylor schrade for a real one though as this seems to get him upset. Really though he has done a lot of research with Schrade knives and the steels they used.
 
It only really comes up because I was thinking of replacing the blade w/ something that would hold an edge longer, but this seems quite adequate.
 
If it's a Schrade peanut, it's probably the 12OT which would have a 1095 carbon steel blade. Old Timers had pretty good blades for the price.
 
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