Wednesday, January 28, 2009

About steel


Most people interested in knives worry a lot about steel.


Fact is most any steel with a reasonable amount of carbon (o.75 to 1.00%) will make a knife. The knife, however, will be only as good as its heat-treat and its geometry.


The more expensive and complex steels do have advantages.....which are achieved with heat-treat and geometry..... but there ain't no free lunch.


Mostly, if we were talking about cars, we would be worrying about a vehicle that does 0-60 in 6.2 seconds compared to one that does it in 6.4 seconds, In knives, maybe it is a blade that cuts the rope 200 times compared to one that goes 250 cuts on the same rope.


Heat-treat and geometry ---those are the important things about steel blades.


More later sometime....


KW