What knife steel and handle are best for cold weather high altitude hiking?

[vivi]

Good to hear that, in your experience, the blade quality doesn't seem to have declined.

gsm has been maligned on bladeforums and other forums but my experience has been fine so far.

viewtopic.php?p=1747406#p1747406

I don't know anything about them other than they recently acquired SOG and Cold Steel. Not familiar with their other product lines.

[Jim Malone]

FRN and VG10. A Spyderco was on the Everest summit so why look further.

[VandymanG]

they've gone through a lot of changes. old versions had carbon v blades, then they went to aus8, then sk5 like mine. When they went to sk5 they switched to hollow saber grind vs flat saber. Before the aus8 change they went from ballistic nylon sheaths to plastic secure-ex sheaths. They also shortened the ricasso at some point.

My oldest are sk5's from before the sale to gsm, and my newest are from after the buy-out. Quality seems good so far on the blades but I had a sheath issue they resolved generously for me with an OD green sk5 version.

they also run them in 3v which apparently has the old flat saber grind.

Very good beater fixed blade that takes a great edge. Still don't own a 3V version because I've been happy with SK5. It's a lot like well heat treated 1095....a treat to sharpen.

Thank you for the information. I had a conversation with a friend of mine who makes knives. He was basically saying the same thing you’re saying about cold steel. He also said look for collaborations like the recent Demko knife they put out.

He looked at some of my knives that were razor sharp but had areas that dulled to easily. He showed me that I was creating an area or areas on the blades that were burr edges that would roll easily. He also dulled/rolled one just by how he put it back in the sheath and pulled it out. Interestingly enough I was tending to do this with some of the harder to sharpen steels.

Some of the knives that were dulling easily I’d also gone with a thinner bevel which he suggested I go back to a 20 degree bevel (40 inclusive). One of the knives that I had gotten really thin on the bevel angles was my PM2 S45VN. It also had a burr edge. When stropping we could see the edge rippling over the strop. I re-beveled the blade to 40 degrees inclusive and sharpened it again. It now slices like a champ and doesn’t dull easily.

Guess I like to strop way too much. I tend to do this when going for a crazy sharp edge and when bored or stressed out. Plus since I joined this forum I tend to chase insanely sharp edges now. Well now I know and I’m working on changing how I sharpen my knives.

I think I’m going to get the SRK knife and SPY27 (2) mule to practice/experiment on since they’re cheap.

[Xplorer]

Cold temperatures effect different steels to different degrees. Altitude will not have an affect.

Basically, cold has the potential to make steel brittle. There's a cold point for every steel where the steel will loose a significant amount of it's toughness. It's called the DBTT (ductile to brittle transition temperature). Each steel has a different DBTT limit. Basically, higher carbon and harder steel will have a higher DBTT (more effected by cold). The best choices for cold (low DBTT) would be a steel with low carbon, fine carbide structure, high toughness, and nickel included in the chemistry.

Some high carbon steels can have a DBTT higher than room temp, while often low carbon steels will have a DBTT in the -75F range.

If you read this article, you'll know everything you need to know to make an educated decision regarding which steel to choose for a cold weather knife.
https://knifesteelnerds.com/2018/12/21/ ... s-brittle/

[elena86]

FRN and VG10. A Spyderco was on the Everest summit so why look further.

Which one ?

[IanS]

Just returned from Nepal where high altitude is above 20,000ft. 5,000ft is a mere hill

[Wartstein]

Well, since I seemed to recall that FRN can get brittle in low temps I did a quick google search and this blade forum thread came up first
https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/ext ... ce.450567/

Some interesting points there, among those Sal himself confirming that FRN gets brittle at lower temps, while G10 does not:
Quoting Sal:

- "When we had guys up in your area using FRN handles, we learned that at 40 below 0, the FRN handles became brittle enough to break if dropped on the ground.
G-10 was ok at extremely cold temps."

Another interesting quote in that context (quoting ""knarfeng"):

- "G10 uses epoxy resin as a matrix. Micartas are usually based on epoxy or phenolic. These thermoset resins lose less of their properties at -40F than most thermoplastics such as standard grades of nylon. (There are some special Nylon grades that retain much more of their properties at -40F, but I doubt they are the grades that are made into knife handles.)

We have used epoxy and phenolic laminates for aircraft parts for years. The temp at 35,000 ft is about -65F. And the laminates function properly in flight.
I said all that to say that if G10 works for you, micarta should too."

[Jim Malone]

Sorry. The 1991 worker with Pro-venator inserts was used on everest iirc. The knife was to commemorate a Swedish climbing team reaching the top of Mt. Everest. It features a stainless steel handle with Pro-Venator (Pro-Grip) inserts.
Stainless won't be affected by very low temperature but it will give you frostbite or freeze burns at those temperatures.
I was thinking about the snap it as well.

[Doc Dan]

In my young days I have climbed and spent literal days in mountains at very high altitudes and at temperatures South of -30º F. I never had any dulling, at all. In those days I had 440C and 425M. I can't see how any knife could get dull by merely carrying it in the mountains in mild cold, unless the knife edges were rubbing a sheath (happens) or part of the handle (folding knife).

Why not find an Aqua Salt serrated edge? Or an Enuff Salt serrated edge? Then, be happy.