420hc steel, worth my time?

[Michael Cook]

I'm debating between picking up a buck-strider 889 and a 882. The main difference seems to be the bladesteel, I have no experience with either 420hc or ats 34. If the difference in bladesteel is marginal the fifty dollar price difference isn't marginal to me :o poverty sucks. :spyder:

[MacTech]

Buck does good work with their 420HC steel, it's nicely heat treated and can get bloody sharp, it may not *hold* that razor edge for long, but 420HC also sharpens up easily, Buck 420HC is a decent steel, it's not a "Supersteel", but it's servicable

420-J2, OTOH, *SUCKS*, about the only good thing I can say about J2 is that it has almost H-1 levels of corrosion resistance, everything else is mediocre/craptacular

[Michael Cook]

:spyder: Well that's good to know, I don't highly value edge retention in a knife that'll primarily be carried for self-protection since in a worst case situation I'm going to cut with it a few times and then wait for the police to confiscate it as evidence :o I think you've probably saved me fifty bucks. :) :spyder:

[lerman]

it might sound weird but i think i can say 420hc if one of my favorite steels, it gets SO sharp, and the easiest steel to sharpen i know, but as MacTech said doesn't hold an edge for long.

[thombrogan]

420HC is excellent for both a user knife and for EDDC (though why wouldn't you carry a :spyder: ? ). 420-J2 has been nice to me, too, even though I thought it would rot (apparently, any steel in a CLB-designed knife will kick major butt) in that it easily takes a sharp edge even though it doesn't hold that edge for too long.

420HC will resist impact better and take a finer/sharper edge than ATS-34. If you were using your knife for scraping Teflon tape off corroded metal pipes or cutting lots of dirty rope, ATS-34 would blow it out of the water.

[Michael Cook]

. If you were using your knife for scraping Teflon tape off corroded metal pipes or cutting lots of dirty rope, ATS-34 would blow it out of the water.

:spyder: That's great feedback. 420 is sounding more and more what I'm looking for! Also the 420 variations are available in plain edge and while I can bring myself to own an non-spyderco knife I can't bring myself to stomache any one else's serrations :o :spyder:

[LeeCQC]

One comment on the 889's handles... they will, literally, shred the pockets of your pants, and your hand when you stick it in your pockets. Seriously. The handles are like sandpaper. :spyder:

[thombrogan]

Sandpaper reduces that shredding effect, too.