Stainless Steel Survival Knife

[MatthewSB]

Still, no reason not to enjoy the hunt for YOUR best knife.

Great point.

It takes lots of time and money and effort to find what works. Without owning all sorts of different knives, there's no way to know that you've found "the best", or are even close to it.

 

[craytab]

Nope. Ankerson's test aren't scientific either. Sorry to break it to you. There are way too many variables in his testing for it to be scientific. Anecdotal at best. You can get an idea for how the steels perform in general but there's NO hard data there really.

And you alluded I said something I didn't. Sorry to break it to you. Please don't put words in my mouth.

You're disproving something with nothing. Which is nothing.

And that would be my point. Some guy comes in and makes a wall of text using nothing for evidence. An unknown magazine article in an unknown magazine that sells knives from 20 years ago. I'll take Ankerson's tests any day over nothing.

On topic, for the best possible stainless knife I would look at spyderco's offerings in H1. They are not out yet but the Aqua salt looks very good. I know I'll be picking one up.

 

[Alberta Ed]

A simple stainless steel Mora might be the answer. Their Sandvik steel is excellent, highly stain resistant (left mine out on the wood pile all one winter and it never showed a rust spot), tough, takes a great edge and is easy to sharpen. Not to mention, cheap as dirt and light to carry.

 

[Angus McGunnigle]

Thanks to everyone for the answers. Im starting to understand. =)
I have searched all the knives you have suggested and the Fallkinven F1 seems to be the one that would fit me the best.
I don't understand steels types of steels, and the Fallkinven F1 has a Laminated VG10 blade. Is this corrosion resistant/stainless steel?

Thanks again

This is a good choice and I am confident you will like this knife.
My F1 in VG10 has had no corrosion issues. I have one with the leather sheath.
I fully expect it to be a knife that will be passed down to one of my sons. IMO, they are one of the best mid sized knives around.

 

[Gaston444]

I vaguely remember this test. It would be interesting to read it again. I have the Blade Magazine 1973-1997 DVD. Do you think the article was 1997 or earlier?

If the test was indeed performed under these strict guidelines, that does seem like the best way to get accurate results on the steel itself.

I think it probably was before 1997. I've never heard of another test making generic blades specifically for the test, so I am kind of surprised that just because it is 20+ years old it has completely vanished from memory (I do kick myself for not having kept it, but do you keep everything, or do you hope instead it can be found later?)... It should pop up some day, given it was in either one of the two most mainstream of knife mags of the period... To me the fact that 440C did so overwhelmingly well was a complete shock at the time... There was a huge deal made of ATS34 at the time, and I kind of never recovered my interest in "new" steels after that, especially after even the two early Crucible steels were badly beaten...

As for newer steels having more than 18% chrome, I did say I did not keep up with the newer steels...: That they exceed 440C in edge-holding is still unknown, even if I know more chrome is better UP to 18%, because I would not know if a curve of diminishing returns kicks in above 18%... Maybe 20% is better: I never said otherwise, or that newer steels were not better: I said a proper test was not made of those...

Only a test with purpose-made generic blades would do that...

And since I sometimes notice edge-holding performance differences between two of my sharpenings on the same knife (wire edge carefully excluded), I wonder how many would recognize correctly the relative performance of different steels in a blind test?

Gaston

 

[Thomas Linton]

As a matter is what is "known" vs "unknown," how does one know what this test, perhaps in 1997, said?

 

[Gaston444]

Well until someone comes up with the copy, feel free to consider that I entirely made up what I so vividly remembered...

Gaston

 

[PS23]

I always say that to myself when I read these worries about rust. I have many knives, but still have my Kabar I used for 4 years in the Army Infantry. Georgia, Germany, Iraq. It does have a natural patina. I can't remember ever oiling it or even wiping it down, but probably did wipe it down. I still have the stock leather sheath where it resides to this day with zero rust.

 

[Natlek]

On wear resistance, this tester sure doesn't agree with you:

http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/s...based-on-Edge-Retention-cutting-5-8-quot-rope

So the question becomes, demonstrated by who?

As for rust resistance, I've had no rust issues with either, so the quibbling about exact rust resistance becomes moot when both are pretty damn stainless.

But how you explain this ?

CPM 10V - 2400 - Phil Wilson Coyote Meadow - 64.5 RC -
CPM 10V - 1180 - Darrin Sanders Custom - 63 RC - .012" behind the edge
CPM 10V - 1100 - Spyderco/Farid K2 - 63 HRC - .020" behind the edge

or this ?

CPM S110V - 1080 - Spyderco Military - 63-64 RC - .020"
S110V - 720 - Manix 2 - 62 RC - .030" behind the edge

 

[bt93]

The Zombie has risen.