buck cadet said:
I have had several Buck pocket knives with both 440C and 420HC? The pocket knife I now have is 420HC and it holds an edge like no other knife I ever had and also seems to be "hardest" steel. When sharpened and honed the steel literally shines and cuts like the ever popular "hot knive through butter" continually with only an occassional hone on leather or crocus cloth.
Of the two, for ease of sharpening and ability to take a razor edge, the 420HC is better. In terms of edge retention, 440C is leaps and bounds above it though.
People bash 420 and in reality it's not a horrible steel. 420HC is a fine blade steel for a user knife as it's very shock resistant and tough. It won't hold an edge long, but it's not hard to touch up in the field. Other incarnations of 420 are pretty worthless as a blade steel though (420j2 makes great liners, but a poor blade).
440C is good stuff though, and it gets bashed often too. It can be a bear to sharpen, especially the 440C Buck used to use, but it's a fine blade steel.
There are better steels, of course, and there always will be. People praised S30V, then ZDP-189 came along... something better will always come along, but 440C, 1095 and others have worked this long, so there's nothing wrong with them.
