Anyone else not concerned much about blade steel?

[PMBohol]

Nothing better than caressing a smooth shiny slab of VG10, sharpened to a fine edge.

[STR]

The general argument would be that it doesn't last long enough to do one particular thing and so you would have to stop during a task to resharpen.

At some point however with "better" steels you will reach a steel which allows you to complete a task and resharpen when it is over, some steels move to more than one instance of a task. In the extreme, Tom Mayo would report he sold his knives (S60V) to hunting guides which could use them an entire season and then have him reharpen them, that obviously meant a lot to them.

Even most knife users for example would have some tolerance and for example would not want to stop to sharpen a knife while using it in the kitchen, others might not want to sharpen every week (there are multiple knives), others a month, etc. .

In general you can combat this with edge angle/thickness/grit modifications on simpler steels if you are willing to wear out a knife faster. If you carry a small hone with you as well you could use a knife made out of mild unhardened steel.




I have an XM-18, can't see how anyone would see it as jewellery as the aesthetics are not close to presentation grade, checkered G10, blasted/washed blades, etc. . I have a knife from Bruce Rugg on the other hand, mirror polished blade, Amboya burl handle, etc. . That is presentation grade, but still a user.

My perspective is the same as Chas Clements whose perspective was simple - make it work first, then make it pretty. I usually don't say pretty, but there is no need to have an ugly knife unless you can't afford it. There is an obvious question as to why pay for aesthetics you are going to damage - but the same could be asked as to why buy a new car or clothes as well.

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I hear ya and of course I know the points you mention about number of cuts and so on between sharpening and agree with you. I just recall back in the day when all most hunting camps had was an old carbon blade butcher knife borrowed from mom's kitchen while we hunt and it would pretty much cover all the needs of a deer kill. As we got older and the town grew where we lived in West Virginia we got this Army Navy Surplus store. We'd buy the knives and things for hunting there because it offered some really decent prices for poor mining folk. Most of the blades for this we grew up with were primitive, almost Green River type or Old Hickory blades and that like. Probably nothing special but a 1095 or 1075 maybe or perhaps some other 01 blade from yesteryear. Point being they worked and no one had any issues with them doing the job. It didn't require a super steel or even the best, it just required skilled hands to wield it. It is just like they never fuss about the 420HC Buck 110 which you still see in deer camps all over the world being used by professional outdoorsman. $30, no super steel. Just a great tried and true blade shape and edge using the latest and greatest in what they find works best. The idea is that yes, one steel has properties to make it perform better and longer but this still can't make up for user err when using a blade. The point was people don't really even find out how long those better blades can actually go because most knife nuts just can't let their knives get that dull before the Sharpmaker or some other such device, even a diamond hone from the back pack and the apex is brought to true again and off they go.

The quick touch up in the field to bring even a D2 blade is not really full out rebevel sharpening but at the same time in the hands of most users I've witnessed in deer camps rolling a carcass around by the beach of a river or near river rock and sand sometimes after dragging it for quite a way and they end up cutting dried blood, hair, rocks, dirt and whatever else is in the hide now that they've rolled it around in it and the next thing you know even their super steel blade is being cussed cause this thing doesn't keep an edge at all!

In cases like these it really wouldn't matter the steel of the blade much because it is the user that needs correction and touch up here not the blade. They'd be dull no matter what it is because of the hands using it tho. Nothing to do with the knife being bad or good. They just don't take time to make quality cuts maximizing the edge by parting the hair, flicking out debris and other such grit particles and being sure to only use the edge for what you want it to cut, flesh. Suddenly if you do that you realize well, heck even this 420HC blade by Buck with a great edge and primary grind geometry just works as well as anything else you can find.

[Ankerson]

Don't know of any steel that can cut dirt and grit for very long before it gets duller than a butter knife. :D

[Cliff Stamp]

I don't really understand "we used to ..." as that was always the case with everything, at one time for example people had solid wooden wheels for their "cars", which later went to solid rubber, then inflated, then with suspensions to absorb the shock. Would you say that what we have now doesn't matter as we used to have wooden wheels and everyone still got around?

It is no different with knives in any respect not just steels, advances in bearing design, locks, etc. all improve a design. In each case you could roll back "iwe used to ..." . The curious part I always found about that is that argument never ends. For example you can roll back to not using steel in knives, it isn't like people didn't kill animals before they smelted steel and the game was always processed.

If you are a person who really thinks steel doesn't matter, you have not seen steels properly optimized.

If you are a person who thinks steels are the only thing that matters, you have not seen geometry properly optimized.

The realty is that steel like all other aspects of a knife is one of the attributes which will either enhance the performance, be neutral, or take away from it. In order to really see it you need the experience range to compare and you need it used by someone who understand what a steel is supposed to do and how to grind the knife to achieve that.

STR, you have (probably still do) make clip modifications for quite some years and they are generally well regarded from what I have seen so people appreciate that the design does matter. But it was the case that knives have been made with very primitive clip designs so when someone asks for a mod why don't you just say - "we used to".

Because the clip modifications you make do enhance the knives for the people who appreciate/desire/need those aspects of performance.

Same with steels and all other aspects. If what steels do is important to you then you will see a difference, if they are not then you won't. If your knives never look used and you have carried them for years and you sharpen them by stropping once a week, then you could just as easily be using annealed stock.