Tough Steel For Use On Hardwod

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_Wraith

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Sep 30, 2015
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I purchased a Bark River Bravo EDC about a month ago but just get around to testing it out in the bush. After some micro-bevel troubles I fixed it up and got it razor sharp. However after carving some sticks about 1/4 inch in diameter my knife got chipping all over the blade. I'm now thinking that A2 steel may not have been the best choice for use on Australian hardwood. Would CPM-3v be tougher and less prone to chipping? What other steel would you recommend?
 
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Ooo, that Australian hard wood is a woodsmans nightmare. Hard, hard stuff.

Alot of folks really dig the 3v steel.

I have no first hand accounts of the steel but everyone consistently states it incredible prowless for toughness and resistance to chipping.

Just curious, what's your edge look like? Any Pics?
 
Here is the edge

2mrimi9.jpg
 
Shhhssh ouch!

I feel your pain.



Guess it's time for another micro bevel in the meantime time. Also maybe try a 20° per side convex edge and blend it into the primary grind.
 
Man, A2 is pretty darn tough stuff. I could certainly be wrong, but I would guess either edge geometry or heat treat is the culprit more than steel choice. I would try playing with the geometry a bit, maybe thicken the edge some, and see if that helps.
 
A2 is pretty tough stuff. But like anything it has it's High Rc limits and I wonder if that one is high in Rc causing that. Before you do anything. put a new edge on it again and give it a second chance. It may be that the original edge came weakened and maybe even slightly burned. Grinding away the old material when you resharpen it may give you different and better results. If it does this again after the second sharpening then you have either to hard at the edge or bad HT.
 
Before I do anything I will put a new edge on it but I don't think it is that the edge is weakened or burned, because when I first got the knife I removed quite a bit of metal to get rid of a micro-bevel that it came with.
 
_Wraith said:
Before I do anything I will put a new edge on it but I don't think it is that the edge is weakened or burned, because when I first got the knife I removed quite a bit of metal to get rid of a micro-bevel that it came with.
Click to expand...

You are probably right. To bad because I have had plenty of A2 and it has always been very tough. I think most of the knives I had where right at 58. Yours might be a lot harder.
 
Nice, I would definitely make the angle steeper. Just hold the knife at a steeper angle (approx 20°) when stroping on sand paper. When you have set both sides it looks like a normal secondary bevel. Then blend it in by holding the knife at a shallower angle the remove the line that distinguishes the two bevels.
 
I haven't used my mini-bushcrafter on any hard stuff yet, and its in 3V. so far its laughed at my green strop so far. I think I've got an hour of stropping on it, and its barely gotten rid of the sharpening scratches on the edge, nevermind the bevel.

Last knife I carved into some ironbark with was my RC-3 and it stripped the edge within minutes. might as well have been chipping rocks with it.
 
all I have in my yard is wattles, so not too serious stuff. Of course I could go split a cinderblock for funsies.
 
I think that maybe the steel isn't the problem so much as the angle on that edge. It's also possible that the RC is a little high. I've never used anything in A2, but it's supposedly pretty tough stuff.
 
I have woodworking chisels made out of A2, and they chiped out routinely until I reground the edges to a higher angle.
 
Maybe Bark River just didn't do that one that well. A2's properties are well known and it should be more than enough to handle woodworking, even at lower edge angles. If it's not performing well there's a reason and is probably not the edge angle or the type of steel.
 
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