UK Pen ?

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gull wing
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UK Pen ?

#1

Post by gull wing »

I see the current UK's are fitted with CTS BD1N steel.
Today I dug up a an old UK Lightweight in GIN 1, now I've never really carried it, I sharpened it, that's it.
How do these two steel compare? Guessing the Carpenter steel is an improvment??? :confused:
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Doc Dan
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Re: UK Pen ?

#2

Post by Doc Dan »

http://zknives.com/knives/steels/steelg ... hrn=1&gm=0


BD1N is an improved Gin-1/BD1. It has a little N in the mix. It holds an edge just a little better in my experience and is very corrosion resistant. However, unless I just wanted an excuse to buy a new knife I would be happy with the Gin-1. Unless you push your knives, or use them excessively, you may nit even notice the difference. I’ve used both quite a lot in the kitchen and BD1N stays sharp longer for me.
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Peter1960
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Re: UK Pen ?

#3

Post by Peter1960 »

... and don' t forget besides the small differences in steel you will have a big difference in the springs of the UK-PKs. The stronger spring in the newer ones is a considerable improvement!
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Re: UK Pen ?

#4

Post by Robbob »

Peter1960 wrote:
Thu Feb 27, 2020 3:12 am
... and don' t forget besides the small differences in steel you will have a big difference in the springs of the UK-PKs. The stronger spring in the newer ones is a considerable improvement!
The action of the CQI UKPK is night-and-day better than the original version. The original was "squishy" (for lack of a better word). The CQI is crisp and refreshing, to the point that it's somehow satisfying to open and close.
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Re: UK Pen ?

#5

Post by Nate »

As the others noted, I'd say the differences in the backspring tension and blade grinds (hollow saber vs. ffg,) are more significant than the change in steel. BD1N is still an upgrade though.
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Re: UK Pen ?

#6

Post by TomAiello »

I think it's worth upgrading the the s110v version. And I'm still holding out for Maxamet. :)
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Re: UK Pen ?

#7

Post by Doc Dan »

TomAiello wrote:
Thu Feb 27, 2020 8:25 am
I think it's worth upgrading the the s110v version. And I'm still holding out for Maxamet. :)
K390. :p
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Re: UK Pen ?

#8

Post by TomAiello »

I'd take K390 too, but I'd rather have Maxamet in a smaller knife like this one. The longer edge holding of Maxamet will be more important for me than the toughness/stability of K390 (relative to Maxamet).

I feel like Maxamet is underrated with a bunch of new steels that are tougher, but I still haven't seen any production knives that can even come close to it's edge retention. Even my Rex 121 fixed blade doesn't seem to hold an edge as long as my (production) Manix 2 LW in Maxamet.
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gull wing
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Re: UK Pen ?

#9

Post by gull wing »

Thank you all!
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