Pocket Knives

Rust resistance and edgeholding ability are contradictory terms. Stainless steels will not keep a sharp edge. High carbon steel can be hardened very hard and hold a razor edge, but is very susceptible to rust. My personal favorite all-round tool steel is car or truck leaf springs. They are dirt cheap at salvage yards and you can make almost any tool with it. Bugs

Try Bladeforums.com and knifeforums.com as well

440C and ATS-34 both have excellent edge-holding qualities when properly heat treated. Their stainless properties aren't as good as the low-carbon stainless steels, however, even when passivated.

Some of the guys on bladeforums or rec.knives might have more (and better) information.

Myself, I keep a Victorinox Tinker in my pocket for important uses and a

3-dollar cheapie with it for general abuse.

On the other hand, I have a dagger I made from OCS, (Old Chevy Spring)

5160, which hasn't rusted in 10 or more years while sheathed in a pocket in a leather pouch. It's also still hair-popping sharp.

In the Even-a-blind-hog Dept: There's my PPOS (Pakistani POS knife-like object) a merchant gave me for helping her out. She sold those for $6.00 US. It's still both bright and sharp after being thoroughly abused, cutting everything from tent stakes to beef steaks. Sue's $6 Boot Knife is legendary in the SCA.

Go figure steel. :)

FWIW, check at automotive spring shops too. One local to me gives away

5160 and 9260 end cutoff drops. Both make very nice and sturdy tools as you noted.

The one here has given a friend and me pieces up to 4 feet long in several thicknesses and shapes.

This was once true but is no longer. ATS-34 heat-treated to Rc 60-62 takes and holds a very respectable edge.

You are right, Don. Even if you had no first-hand experience with ATS-34, I would believe you are correct because you are quoting performance and attributes from modern steel charts. IMO, quality of the legendary truck spring steel lies mostly (no pun intended) in the minds of those that have made cutlery from them. If someone goes to the trouble to grind out a knife shaped object from a piece of raw steel, he is "bound" to believe it is wonderful stuff. If the same individual made a comparison blade from ATS-34, for example, he probably would not be quite so high on truck springs.

Personally, I prefer my blades be made from the axels of a 1937 Plymouth; dipped nine times in panther piss during odd full moons.

Bob Sw>

There are knife blanks you can buy, you just need to finish them up...The blanks are in different forms/styles...

xman

I'm not a knifemaker. My everyday "carry" is a blade made of ATS-34: the "gentleman's folder" from A.G. Russel. Its thin, weighs about zip, wasn't expensive for a good blade, one-hand opener, easy to have in my pocket.

I've been very happy with it. I use it for anything and everything one might use a pocketknife for -- stripping wire, cutting cardboard, opening the mail, cutting rope, shaving wood, yada yada. It is not a "tactical" or "fantasy" blade, just a useful everyday pocketknife.

A couple of licks on the crockstick every few days is all it needs to stay boxknife-sharp for several months. When the edge does need to be restored by honing, it takes a while.

I like the idea of car springs but for a pocket knife getting it down thin enough would be a lot of grinding . For a belt knife though would be great . Ken Cutt

Thanks

I carry a real cheap pocket knife just in case I lose it . Good ones I lose fast but cheap junk seems to hang around forever . I gave my sons all Victorianox knives last Christmas as a stocking suffers . My preference for a knife is a Boker but the pocket knives go for around

175 here . Too much if it gets lost . Anyway time for me to learn how to heat treat steel Ken Cutt

I have seen the blanks but I want to learn the entire process . I own far more knives now then I will ever need . All commercial products . Just trying to keep learning new things Ken Cutt

About what I want . I carry a " Stockmans Pattern " so this is what I want to make . Nothing fancy , just a good serviceable knife . I will have to look at where ATS-34 is available . I am sure not locally though Ken Cutt

You forge truck springs into tools. Grinding is a slow, expensive hobby. I can't count the number of 'surgical' steel knives people have shown me. Not one of them had an edge. The Chromium makes the edge break down as it approaches a keen edge. Thos who are happy with Stainless may have other bad habits. Bugs

xm sez: " There are knife blanks you can buy, you just need to finish them up...The blanks are in different forms/styles..."

Yep! There are blanks for everything. The other day, at my friendly metal supply store, I saw some file blanks.

Bob Swinney

If you lose good knives all the time then you need to spend a lot more money on your next one. I have found that if you don't spend enough on a product you tend to "forget" about them and the next thing you know you don't have it any more. On the other hand, when you spend a ton of money on something you are a lot more aware of where it is. Buy a knife that is really expensive and I'll bet you keep real good track of it and take real good care of it too.

Hawke

Even more so for something you have created.

Dan

You absolutely do not want to do this, Ken. Making a knife is like eating a Lay's potato chip. You cannot stop with one. Or even, as you mentioned, "a few." before you know it, every square inch of wall space is covered with knives; they'll fill every drawer in your workshop and your office; you will find yourself carrying two or three or four everywhere you go simply because you have no place else to put them. You will, and I use the term advisedly, become a "knife knut." A chronic condition for which there is no known cure.

That said, check out some of the newbie and other forums over at

You have been warned.

-Frank

Aren't you required to make some "knife-shaped objects" first? You know, something that looks like, but decidedly is not, a knife?

Didn't work, at least for me. Maybe he's better at it. So, I've got these worn out files, ...