- Joined
- Jan 22, 1999
- Messages
- 331
A while back someone asked about the steel history. It took me a little while to pin Chuck Sr down with all his travel, but here it is...
My grandfather and father did make knives out of files up to 1961 when we incorporated. Grandpa Hoyt died in 1949 and my father continued making the knives using Lignum Vitae wood for the handles. In the 40s he used Lucite and you know how that looks with the new Buck replica Hoyt Buck knife.
For the collectors, all of these wood handle and Lucite knives were made primarily out of files. Few were power hacksaw blades. You are correct that in 1961 we started using 440C, which is a very high-carbon, high chrome steel. I think the carbon is at 1.02 with a chrome of about 18%. It was an excellent steel but the carbides on the edge were very large and dulled reasonable quick. That is why we moved to the 425 modified (around 1985) so that the homogenized steel with the smaller carbides would not affect the edge so badly when they wore off the edge. (We went to 420hc in 1994)
True stainless is like tableware made with nickel and absolutely has no carbon whatsoever, and obviously would not hold an edge at all. This is not what we used. It was not a stainless, it was a rust-resistant material even today, of course.
You could tell when a knife was made and whether it was made of files. The files would be the ones with the wood and/or Lucite handles. We have made wooden handles and we are making them now, but these I think are a copy from the page out of our book that shows the different emblems next to the model numbers and would give him the actual year it was made. Any thing made from 1961 and forward is made out of a 400 series rust-resistant steel.
I hope this answers the question, let me know if we need more..
Jeff
------------------
Jeff "Without data it's just another opinion" Hubbard
Quality Supervisor
JeffH@buckknives.com
www.buckknives.com
Watch for Pete's Custom Knife Shoppe on www.buckknives.com
My grandfather and father did make knives out of files up to 1961 when we incorporated. Grandpa Hoyt died in 1949 and my father continued making the knives using Lignum Vitae wood for the handles. In the 40s he used Lucite and you know how that looks with the new Buck replica Hoyt Buck knife.
For the collectors, all of these wood handle and Lucite knives were made primarily out of files. Few were power hacksaw blades. You are correct that in 1961 we started using 440C, which is a very high-carbon, high chrome steel. I think the carbon is at 1.02 with a chrome of about 18%. It was an excellent steel but the carbides on the edge were very large and dulled reasonable quick. That is why we moved to the 425 modified (around 1985) so that the homogenized steel with the smaller carbides would not affect the edge so badly when they wore off the edge. (We went to 420hc in 1994)
True stainless is like tableware made with nickel and absolutely has no carbon whatsoever, and obviously would not hold an edge at all. This is not what we used. It was not a stainless, it was a rust-resistant material even today, of course.
You could tell when a knife was made and whether it was made of files. The files would be the ones with the wood and/or Lucite handles. We have made wooden handles and we are making them now, but these I think are a copy from the page out of our book that shows the different emblems next to the model numbers and would give him the actual year it was made. Any thing made from 1961 and forward is made out of a 400 series rust-resistant steel.
I hope this answers the question, let me know if we need more..
Jeff
------------------
Jeff "Without data it's just another opinion" Hubbard
Quality Supervisor
JeffH@buckknives.com
www.buckknives.com
Watch for Pete's Custom Knife Shoppe on www.buckknives.com
