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The Knife Thread

785 Views 49 Replies 10 Participants Last post by  Leo Greer, 
Leo Greer
For Spyderco lovers and all other Knaf related discussion.
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rm105
@Graybeard would like to see that, didn't know they had a smol serrated one :) took this through a denver airport on a keychain years back by accident haaa that was fun.

Yeah the stereotypical spyderco blade shape is something of an acquired taste. When you handle a nice one it makes a bit more sense, but it's not wining many beauty contests.
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SiliconeSword
mr. potatohead said:
Spyderco knives are quite nicely made, but I can't get over how ugly most of them look haha. Maybe I'll change my mind in the future.
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Same, but they're the only ones selling 15V afaik, and $75 for a top notch blade at that. I figure that worst case scenario I grind it a bit if I'm able to make a better shape out of it.
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Squad144
My CRKT Provoke clone came today. Literally an exact replica of the real thing. Not too bad and didn't cost me an arm and a leg. Similar (if not the same) steel to the real one too. Just got her oiled up, still need to give her a good sharpening.
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mr. potatohead
Pretty neat deployment method on that one.
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Graybeard
rm105 said:
@Graybeard would like to see that, didn't know they had a smol serrated one :) took this through a denver airport on a keychain years back by accident haaa that was fun.

Yeah the stereotypical spyderco blade shape is something of an acquired taste. When you handle a nice one it makes a bit more sense, but it's not wining many beauty contests.
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Graybeard
Not good EDC knives…..



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Graybeard

These are my favorites to carry. The one on the right is beat to hell, but it gets carried everyware…It’s been left in a flower pot outside NOAA, National Archives, the Smithsonian….I”ve even handed it over to security guards at the door, and asked if I could get it back on my way out. I seem to forget to leave it in the car, so I stopped carrying my nice knives as EDC…
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Graybeard


These are nice little souvenirs. The green one was from my second National MTB race back in ‘94. The other was from a trip to Yellowstone. For some reason the pic makes it look more aged than it is. It‘s more ivory than brown.
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Squad144
From one mtb biker to another, that is one kickass swiss army knife!
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Leo Greer
I love downhill mountain biking. It'll kill me one day, if snowboarding doesn't do it first. :D
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G
I may have a problem. Currently have a Benchmade Volli in my pocket.

In the knife case for regular rotation: Microtech UTX-85 TE, Benchmade Osborne, Benchmade CLA, Benchmade Bugout (blue), Benchmade Bailout, Benchmade Griptilian Tanto, Spyderco PM2 Digital Camo, Spyderco PM2 Lava Flow, Spyderco Sage 3, Benchmade Bugout Mini (orange), Benchmade Axis Flipper, Gerber Propel Downrange, Kershaw Launch 3, Kershaw Knockout, Cold Steel Recon 1 Tanto, Civivi Altus, Boker Kwaiken Lava Flow, Fox 479 (OD)

Hundereds of others that aren't in the normal rotation, including fixed blades I use regularly.

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Squad144
That's quite the collection!
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-Spitfire-
Squad144 said:
one of these days I'm going to pull the trigger on a knife that I will only wear on special occasions, something made from Damascus or another expensive material.
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I'd heavily advise against generic damascus. It's typically very low grade, low quality steel, with an even worse heat treat and performance. If you want an actually expensive blade steel that isn't a piece of crap and performs well, look into Damasteel... pretty much the only good option currently.

rm105 said:
Newer pieces from Boker, still deciding if I like the feel of G10 vs wood scales or metal. Got a 42 tucked away, few others as well - used to be pretty good with them, these days if I can impress the kids without dropping anything I count that as a win :ROFLMAO:
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Speaking of Bali's, here's one I just parted with:

If you know, you know lol.

Graybeard said:
Not good EDC knives…..
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Eh, the Cuda and Pentagon aren't horrible. That Cuda was from back before Camillus' bankruptcy, so almost definitely had better QC than your gerbers.
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Graybeard
Not good EDC because they’re too big, not so much the quality. I picked the Cuda up back in the early to mid nineties. The TEKNA was really popular with white water paddlers when I was a kid, and always wanted one. Found that one. Now, I don’t know what to do with it. THe Leverletto, well the sound of that thing opening is what there’s to like about that one. Can’t carry it in most places anyway.
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rm105
Few handles I did, old pics. bottom one is a Sanrenmu with a sage scale - was so dang tricky to work with but man is it pretty



just for fun - an old Kershaw 1030(?) that's just got such an interesting handle
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Shady
-Spitfire- said:
I'd heavily advise against generic damascus. It's typically very low grade, low quality steel, with an even worse heat treat and performance. If you want an actually expensive blade steel that isn't a piece of crap and performs well, look into Damasteel... pretty much the only good option currently.
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This very much depends on where you get the knife. A good damascus blade from a reputable local smith is going to cost you, but it will also outlive you.
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-Spitfire-
Graybeard said:
Not good EDC because they’re too big, not so much the quality. I picked the Cuda up back in the early to mid nineties.
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I used to edc one

Shady said:
This very much depends on where you get the knife. A good damascus blade from a reputable local smith is going to cost you, but it will also outlive you.
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Nah. Pattern-welded Damascus is what you're thinking of, and no matter who you get it from, you'll run into issues under hard use. There's a few expensive makers in the US, and while their blades are beautiful and hold a semblance of an edge, they're still prone to delamination and have drastically lower durability, edge retention, and toughness than modern mono-steels. That's simply a side effect of mixing dissimilar metals. The other thing is that it's by far most common for people to just get the cheapest or most easily available pattern-welded steel they can find, because they think that it's the same thing as genuine (historical)Damascus. Here's a write-up I had to do on it awhile back, you can skip through the bit about individual products:
taskandpurpose.com

The best Damascus knives worth owning

Our top picks for the best Damascus knives that cut through the competition — and look good doing it.
taskandpurpose.com taskandpurpose.com
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SiliconeSword
Definitely look at the stainless Damascus knives on blade HQ or something like that, they're often made of quite good steels and look pretty awesome.
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Leo Greer
I have owned one custom blade with quality Damascus, and then a couple knives in Damasteel.

The damasteel is better for sure, but ultimately Damascus is whatever steels make it up--1095 and 1520 Damascus with a good forging process and a quality heat treat will perform... like 1095 and 1520. Not bad steels, but of outdated composition compared to modern powder steels like S35VN, M4, Magnacut, etc, etc.

Damasteel performs like its components as well, except these components are better and much, much harder to forge. Damasteel also tends to be very expensive. There's more than one variant of damasteel, but the most common to see is made of RWL34 and PMC27.
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-Spitfire-
SiliconeSword said:
Definitely look at the stainless Damascus knives on blade HQ or something like that, they're often made of quite good steels and look pretty awesome.
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Those are mostly either damasteel, or stainless 'damascus' from China(civivi uses it). The latter is ok, softer than I'd like though. Definitely inferior to damasteel.

Leo Greer said:
The damasteel is better for sure, but ultimately Damascus is whatever steels make it up--1095 and 1520 Damascus with a good forging process and a quality heat treat will perform... like 1095 and 1520. Not bad steels, but of outdated composition compared to modern powder steels like S35VN, M4, Magnacut, etc, etc.

Damasteel performs like its components as well, except these components are better and much, much harder to forge. Damasteel also tends to be very expensive. There's more than one variant of damasteel, but the most common to see is made of RWL34 and PMC27.
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I've owned and tested good pattern-welded steel, bad pattern-welded steel, stainless 'Damascus', and damasteel. Covered some of it in the article I posted previously. Benefits of my old job, and side effect of my addiction.

Good pattern-welded steel isn't as good as both of its component steels... it's only as good as it's weakest link. And 15n20 (I'll assume 1520 was a typo) simply isn't that good for blade steel in this context. It's used specifically because it's got such a high nickel content, but it's too dissimilar from 1095. This allows for a much more vibrant pattern when it's acid etched. You're also forced to use a heat treat that's subpar, to be able to accommodate both steels. But hey, at least you actually get a heat treat, unlike the Damascus blanks you find on eBay, Etsy, Amazon, etc.

I'll take a 1095 blade with a good heat treat over the best pattern welded steel any day.

You don't forge damasteel. It's a PM (particle metallurgy) steel, and it's stainless. It's better for a few reasons, including better base steels, a much finer grain structure due to the process used, and a very proprietary heat treat you couldn't get through forging (saying this as a former journeyman blacksmith). All of that quality, precision, and r&d results in a higher price tag than a modern mono-steel that would outperform it... But wouldn't look as pretty.
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