Why Does Everyone Think 1095 is Tough?

I was busy at one point in the last week making comments about the results of forging chisels from various steels (nothing was less carbon-y than 1095), and some of the folks on the forum that I read think "the more modern the better", which is a little bit of a chuckle given the age of 3V. Others think the closer things get to iron, carbon and quench in water with nothing else, the better (and without some believe in temperature cycling and more that you can just hammer something to perfection).

And shortly after discussing how much of a disappointment 1095 was in chisels (I'm fine with it in knives, but I don't hit knives with a hammer or use them to bend open sheet steel boxes), I thought about it for a second. Is there anything I've ever made that I couldn't make pretty much as fast with 1095 instead of what is essentially recycled silver steel.

...no

but i don't have much favor for 3V or things with more vanadium yet as far as woodworking goes because they'll develop a deflection about as deeply as something like O1 will develop a chip. Except O1 can be driven a little harder, so somethings the deflection is deeper than the comparable chip in O1. In order to sharpen a same depth chip out of 3V, it takes about twice as long (imagine that you're not just sharpening a knife once in a while, but sharpening a completely dull knife three times a day or more). I prefer the O1.

I'd probably prefer 1095 to 3V even though 1095 just seems to be ready to lose a tiny chip here or there sooner than silver steel or O1.

Any time I hear someone talk about what they "need" for woodworking and they're claiming they need all kinds of things that people who could outwork them by a factor of 10 150 years ago didn't need, I always think they probably need experience. Most of the people I know with a lot of experience don't care too much for high speed steels or high vanadium steels in woodworking (excepting the people who like to put muddy tree stumps in large lathes).
 
(and I've never seen a knife broken off in a real world scenario near me unless it was an old hard carbon steel knife and my mother used it to break ice. my relatives were farmers, too - their knives broke apart plenty of animals. They broke plenty of things, just when they were going to abuse something, they usually didn't use a knife).
 
how many of the knives are we talking about with 1095 steel (plain) vs. 1095 with chromium and vanadium in it?
 
because 1095 IS pretty tough,is it the toughest steel on the market?of course not but it’s pretty good for what it is often used for..it’s tough,it has decent edge retention and it sharpens up fairly easily..I’ve had a lot of good experience with 1095 from ESEE,TOPS,KaBar and OKC..for a good while I wasn’t comfortable spending over $200 on knives but even now that I have some higher end knives from Bark River,L.T. Wright,Battle Horse,etc in A2,CPM-3V,Cruwear,etc I still say the ESEE 3,ESEE 6,ESEE Junglas,KaBar/Becker BK7,BK16,BK9,TOPS Brakimo,TOPS Scandi Tracker,TOPS Storm Vector,TOPS Armageddon,OKC RTAK2,OKC RAT3,OKC RAT7,etc are some great knives..for knives in the $50-$200 price range I think 1095 is a perfectly good blade steel.it is a tried and true blade steel and the fact it has been used in hard use knives for so many years and is still the main steel being used by reputable names in the industry like ESEE,KaBar and TOPS says a lot
 
I haven’t read much of this thread, but I agree. I have a Tops CUT 4.0 fixed blade in 1095 and dropped it on pavement (only about a 3-4’ drop), and it chipped the hell outta the blade.
 
Bigfattyt said:
What chart shows 1095 to have "excellent toughness"?

Seems to be near the bottom of most charts I have seen.
Even D2 is higher than that 1095
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I would say that after years on this forum, that I am moderately educated about knife steels. Mainly due to my own laziness. I've gotten away with some poor practices in the past, like years ago banging this D-2 Leatherneck through local materials on a cold winter day, on top of a frozen creek. I honestly don't know how I didn't break some knives. 1095 toughness ? I've only slowly been learning about knife steel properties in the last few years, pretty much through osmosis. I dove into ESEE 1095 basically for the warranty because I was mindlessly battoning anything in the brush. But low and behold by George, my two brain cells finally met on this journey, and agreed that hatchets and axes are handy wood splitting tools after all. I will still batton a knife judiciously if no other choice. But I do have better options. And ESEE still has that warranty, as far as I know, lol.
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upnorth said:
I would say that after years on this forum, that I am moderately educated about knife steels. Mainly due to my own laziness. I've gotten away with some poor practices in the past, like years ago banging this D-2 Leatherneck through local materials on a cold winter day, on top of a frozen creek. I honestly don't know how I didn't break some knives. 1095 toughness ? I've only slowly been learning about knife steel properties in the last few years, pretty much through osmosis. I dove into ESEE 1095 basically for the warranty because I was mindlessly battoning anything in the brush. But low and behold by George, my two brain cells finally met on this journey, and agreed that hatchets and axes are handy wood splitting tools after all. I will still batton a knife judiciously if no other choice. But I do have better options. And ESEE still has that warranty, as far as I know, lol.
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The Leatherneck’s a great knife.
 
upnorth said:
Ya, and I should get the Tanto soon, in case the steel is replaced with something from the Peoples Republic.
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I appreciate the semi-stainless quality of D2, but I think I would’ve preferred a good ole carbon steel for the ‘Neck. But anyways, I’m just nitpicking here, lol.
 
People think 1095 is tough from over 100 years of using it for knife tasks (E.G.: Cutting, slicing, whitling, cleaning fish and game, etc) without chipping the edge, or breaking the blade.
"Knife tasks" does not include chopping or splitting.
Oh, 1095 is also a good blade steel for a Froe, which is designed to be beat on with a wood mallet and split wood.
If you gotta "baton" and you ain't a cheerleader or some such thing, use a tool designed for that, such as a froe, and baton with the grain. (across the grain calls for an Axe/Hachet/Tomahawk or a crosscut saw). A knife isn't designed for choppng or splitting.

"Use the right tool for the job!"
It makes the job ever so much easier and faster to accomplish.
Would you use a wrench to remove a scew or a butter knife to drive in a nail? Of course not! So why would you use a knife to fell a tree or split a log?

FYI: The "old timers" of the pre-1970's bushcraft didn't baton their knives. They had a belt axe or hachet, and folding saw in their kit for any firewood processing they had to do.
 
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DangerZone98 said:
I appreciate the semi-stainless quality of D2, but I think I would’ve preferred a good ole carbon steel for the ‘Neck. But anyways, I’m just nitpicking here, lol.
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Didn’t they come out in SK-5 before D-2? I would be fine with that. But maybe a semi stainless is better for a lazy lizard like me. I oil blades sporadically. Maybe it’s good that I am semi ignorant about blade steels. I just use commonly accepted steels in well known brands. They cut things. I sharpen and usually oil them. It all seems to work fine and I’m not losing any sleep over this stuff. Ya, I do like the neck. Built like a brick outhouse and the grip is sweet.
 
1095 is not tough compared to other steel but is tough enough.

The reason why 1095 has such a big fame is because it's used worldwide by military forces. Giving examples as the kabar or the Glock knife. During WW2 almost all armies used 1095 in their knives which prove to be good enough.

Another thing i want to correct users here is that new Becker knives don't use 1095... They use 1095 crovan which is very very similar to 52100. However this is proof of my point since when Becker knives made their own steel they tryed to associated itself to 1095 which is the gold standard for military knives.

1095 is a very very old steel. And and is ancient technology compared to more modern steel. Just steels like 52100 or 5160 are much better at everything than 1095. However 1095 is not the best but is good enough.
 
PlumasDePan said:
1095 is not tough compared to other steel but is tough enough.

The reason why 1095 has such a big fame is because it's used worldwide by military forces. Giving examples as the kabar or the Glock knife. During WW2 almost all armies used 1095 in their knives which prove to be good enough.

Another thing i want to correct users here is that new Becker knives don't use 1095... They use 1095 crovan which is very very similar to 52100. However this is proof of my point since when Becker knives made their own steel they tryed to associated itself to 1095 which is the gold standard for military knives.

1095 is a very very old steel. And and is ancient technology compared to more modern steel. Just steels like 52100 or 5160 are much better at everything than 1095. However 1095 is not the best but is good enough.
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I’d love to hear Ethan Becker Ethan Becker ’s version
 
Depends on the heat treat and production process from what I've seen. The "Evil Step Mother" still has kitchen 1095 hand made knives that go through big critter cutting seasons every year. I've also seen new 1095 knives break large chip, edge fall off (Still no idea how that happened) and some more more common failures that weren't in the knife abuse zone. I've even had an OKC 5160 RD7 edge roll on twigs! Properly done 1095 is a good knife steel, not so well done its scrap metal. I've had some one take my mom's bad 1095 big love to edge roll butcher blade, re-heat treat it and profile it and now its a family heirloom knife the abuse it can take.
 
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