I’m hoping to throw an elk carcass at it in October.
I can guarantee ya that AEB-L properly heat treated will take care of your elk. I run mine at 62-63RC. I use to run kitchen knives a hair harder but have backed off that. They're all the same these days. I've literally made and sold thousands of knives from AEB-L. I use it because it works very well in the environments that lots of my customers are in and what they do with their knives.. I sell many knives to cowboys, ranchers etc folks in the Ag and livestock industries. It just works. Are there steels that hold an edge better? Yes. Are there steels that are tougher? Yes (not many). Are there steels that are as easy to touch up or resharpen? Yes. Are there steels that are more stainless? Yes. Are there steels that do all these things as well? Hmm.......... that's why I use it its a good all round steel that makes a great knife that goes out and does things knives are suppose to do like,.... cut stuff.
I think AEB-L did get a bad rap some time ago as many makers were running it too soft and under 60 its kinda meh. 62-63 no meh.
I've repeated this story several times in these pages in the past but probably a good one to relate again here. I've never done a knife show. But we do set up a table or our booth now and then at places where our target market tends to gather, ropings, rodeos, horsemanship clinics etc. I've talked to enough folks about my knives at these events that I can tell if a person is coming at the knife interest from the cowboy side of things or more the hunter side of things. How? The cowboy always asks how easy it is to resharpen. Why? If you've got 150 calves to do before lunch I don't care what your knife is made of its gonna need touching up. A cowboy is looking for a blade he can strop on his chap leg, the top of a truck window or the bottom of a coffee mug and be back in business. As a recently retired rancher I understand this. Heck I've been to other folks HUGE brandings where I was asked to be a dedicated sharpener. Its a thing. Gonna need to touch up that blade or multiple blades at a big branding..
The hunter wants to know how well a knife holds an edge. Why? Well ya got that elk down. Its coming on to dark and the snow is starting to come in sideways. Your pack mules are getting jumpy cause they and you can hear that bear circling out there going humph, humph! Yep ya got things to do and lil time to get er done. Time to get back to camp or down the hill. Stopping and sharpening isn't top of the list.
AEB-L properly heat treated will handle both situations.
A couple of young Canadian cowboys down with their parents for a big ranch roping competition here in California. They're checking out my knives in our booth and older brother did buy one. If ya look close ya can see they are both already wearing small fixed blades:
Older brother sporting his new Horsewright knife in AEB-L.
Some old knife maker was competing too:
If I'm roping and the wife is taking pictures who's watching the store? Quien Sabe.
I make my own round knives for leather work too. I make them out of AEB-L. They cut and cut and cut and only need a quick stropping (or in a shop setting) a pass or two on a buffer to bring them back to hair splitting. This is 10-12 oz saddle leather. I expect these knives to cut this cleanly in one pass and do it for hours at a time sometimes. I recently made this roundknife for a friend who is wanting to learn how to be a saddle maker. Each roundknife cuts out its own sheath as a test to know its ready to work.
