I recently tried my hand at making a couple of knives, and had a lot of fun, and was surprised by the results. I want to make more! I'm looking to make around 10 blades to take advantage of the bulk pricing at Peters Heat Treat. That means, as much as it pains me, I have to make them all out of one type of steel. I am not a paid member here, so I won't be selling any here. Maybe if they turn out nice, I'll try that in the future. But I wouldn't want to sell something here until I was confident in my product. I am not close to that point. So for now, I'll likely keep 2-3 and sell/give as testers/gifts the rest to friends and family for just over the cost of materials/heat treat to break even, or come close. I will, at least, post pictures and all for you fellow knife nuts to see how it's going.
My question is which steel would you guys prefer? I want to make sure I'm using something that the friends and family that end up with these knives will like. I have narrowed it down to CPM 4V and CPM 20CV. Personally, I really want to go with the 4V, but I worry about giving/selling a non-stainless knife to a friend that won't take care of it, and they end up unhappy because it's rusted to hell. Of course, I would tell them how to take care of it, but that doesn't mean they actually would. That makes me think that I should stick to stainless.
These knives will mostly be 3.25-4.00" (blade length) fixed blades, of various shapes that I've drawn out. I might also try my hand at a folder for myself, but it just depends. My cousin also wants me to make him something similar to a USMC Ka-bar, but slightly smaller. I'm not TOTALLY against other steels, but I'm pretty set with these two. If you think I should use something else, and make a good argument for it, I'm willing to consider your opinion. I know several of you will likely tell me to start with something easier to grind, but the two steels I've already used were pre-hardened M2 and CPM 10V, neither of which was terribly hard to work with (except drilling that M2!), so I'm ok with tough grinding. I'm only making about 10 knives, after all.
So what say you? If you were my friend or cousin, would you rather have 4V or 20CV, and why?
My question is which steel would you guys prefer? I want to make sure I'm using something that the friends and family that end up with these knives will like. I have narrowed it down to CPM 4V and CPM 20CV. Personally, I really want to go with the 4V, but I worry about giving/selling a non-stainless knife to a friend that won't take care of it, and they end up unhappy because it's rusted to hell. Of course, I would tell them how to take care of it, but that doesn't mean they actually would. That makes me think that I should stick to stainless.
These knives will mostly be 3.25-4.00" (blade length) fixed blades, of various shapes that I've drawn out. I might also try my hand at a folder for myself, but it just depends. My cousin also wants me to make him something similar to a USMC Ka-bar, but slightly smaller. I'm not TOTALLY against other steels, but I'm pretty set with these two. If you think I should use something else, and make a good argument for it, I'm willing to consider your opinion. I know several of you will likely tell me to start with something easier to grind, but the two steels I've already used were pre-hardened M2 and CPM 10V, neither of which was terribly hard to work with (except drilling that M2!), so I'm ok with tough grinding. I'm only making about 10 knives, after all.
So what say you? If you were my friend or cousin, would you rather have 4V or 20CV, and why?
