stainless?

D

davebolton

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Jun 25, 2001
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Just thought i would put to you good people a debate, high carbon (o1) or stainless (ats-34)?

We,Corey Smith and myself Dave Bolton will shortly be making a small run of 5 swinging blades. These blades will be styled with ti-6al4v liners, micarta scales and ti bolsters. We are leaning toward a high carbon blade and wish to collect your opinions.

These ain't bendy butter knives.
 
I guess I would choose stainless, too.

Less maintenance. Not that I wouldn't be excited to see something in high carbon...
 
Thanks for your input folks the response is educating. I am shocked that there aren't any hi-carbon supporters. Feel free to also comment on your favorite blade styles and handle styles. In the mean time purveyors of high carbon pieces please speak up.

To stain or not to stain, that is the question.
 
I'm an avid fan of carbon steels. I prefer differential hardening to the single hardness obtained with the stainless steels. Since I forge knives, I don't have the desire nor the proper equipment to properly forge and heat-treat stainless. I'll take a good ol' 5160 blade any day!!! ;)
 
Dave,
As far as the handle design goes, I definitely like the looks, although from the picture it seems as though they are milled from a rectangular piece of metal. I’m not sure how much balisong manipulation you have done, but squared off handles, and especially squared off ends, can be very hard on the hands during a prolonged manipulation session. I guess what I’m saying is that if you round off the sharp corners it will become a much more user-friendly knife. Also, I’m not sure about everyone else on the board, but I have pretty much grown up with a Batangas style latch. Overall I am a bigger fan of that style because of the fact that the latch doesn’t get stuck on your palm while doing your moves. You might want to think about offering both latch variations. If worse comes to worse, you can always send me a proto and I will be glad to test it out for you.;)
 
High Carbon for me. I love how it holds its edge so well. The only bad thing about them is that they rust way to easy.:rolleyes:
 
Well I thank-you kindly for your continued input about bali's, I always want to know more. To further information on this discusion, i certainly would be interested in the most functional latching systems. The above posted pic (top of page), is by no means a modle for the new, it is solid 304 handles (admittedly squarish) ats-34 blade & 304 nested pins, brass washers. It was modled after the bali i always played with as a child, and the first one i ever made.
The new run of bali's will not have a skeletonized handle but solid scales with single or double ti bolsters. We are still considering the latch and blade steel so nothing is writen in stone.

So please keep the information flowing.

Swing on my brothers.
 
52100 or 5160 and sign me up!!! :)

"Hunters seek what they [WANT].., Seekers hunt what they [NEED]"
 
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