What exactly is 420HC?

[boissu]

Hello my friends,

Please, could you help me?

What is the specifications of 420HC steel?(composition, hardness)
Is the 420HC the same 425M?
Why this steel is applied by BUCK? I mean, this is not a usual steel like 440, ATS34 or AUS.
Has 420HC a good performance?

Thank you.

Claudio.

 

[mschwoeb]

A few things:

1. Run a search in this forum, specifing the Buck knives forum, with 420HC as the search term.

2. Find a good steel FAQ

 

[Cosmic Superchunk]

420HC is a higher carbon version of 420 steel which the folks at Buck use as well as Camillus and Kershaw. It's a good working steel that can be heat treated to to a Rockwell hardness of 59. The advantage of this steel is that it can be easliy fine blanked for mass produced knives and offers good corrosion resistance and edge retention while keeping their prices affordable.

 

[SALTY]

Not trying ot muddy the waters here, but I though the the "HC" in 420HC was for "High Chromium."

I'm no metallurgist, but the 420HC acts like it has a lot of chromium in it and doesn't really act like it has bunch of carbon it it, ... but what do I know?

 

[Manji]

imo 420 is crappy steel, pretty much on the lowest end of the metal spectrum

 

[WrayH]

This is the first of two identical threads with slightly different titles. The other thread was started on 7/19/02 and on 7/21/02 boissu posted his acknowledgement of the replies that he received.