Who's tired of waiting on ESEE's stainless line?

[archieblue]

My ESEE-3 is my "toolbox" or kept in the truck knife but it pretty much never gets used. The main things I like about the knife are the price, the size and the weight. The biggest reason I don't use it is because the 1095 is a rust magnet! ...and I spend pretty much all of my time around 15% humidity. I've found that in my homesteading tasks I prefer a knife's blade profile to have less "belly." I also find the handle a little cramped. Most of my knives are super modern steels but one of my favs is a Boye Basic 3 in Dendritic 440C. I dont have much other experience with 440C and I don't know if Boye's process is magical but the knife holds an edge waaaay better than I expected.

Recently entered to my selection is a Phil Rose Midtech PSK 2. This is a cool knife and one that could be considered for the particular niche that a stainless ESEE could fill. The handle is great. I'm really liking the N690. It carries very well & the blade profile is just about perfect. It is a tad thicker behind the edge than I'm used to -certainly- not a slicer. So far it seems like a great do all knife.

 

[tiguy7]

Boye pours his 440C and Stellite 6 in ceramic molds. The dendrites (macro crystals) are formed during the cool down. I don't think that there is any further heat treat on the 440C. The Stellite (Cobalt Crystal) is not heat treated.