Knife collecting is an extremely rewarding experience for knife enthusiasts. There truly is a knife for everyone. Many increase or hold their value throughout the years, making collecting knives something to pass on to the next generation of knife collectors.
Marine Corps hero feted with Nawrocki knife at The Battleship Ball.
An unforgettable setting for a memorable event celebrating an American hero—all complemented by a beautiful knife by Brian “Rocco” Nawrocki—completed a tribute to USMC Sergeant Scott Bunker during last year’s 250th anniversary of the United States Marine Corps.
Assigned to Lima Company in 2005 during the Iraq War, Sergeant Bunker took multiple machine-gun rounds at point-blank range in house-to-house fighting, resulting in the loss of an eye, half a lung, several ribs and soft-tissue damage to his left arm. He was the guest of honor at The Battleship Ball 2025 on November 1, held on the deck of the vintage World War II Battleship USS North Carolina in Wilmington, North Carolina.
Event organizer/USMC veteran Dean Smith (left) congratulates Sgt. Scott Bunker after delivery of the Nawrocki tribute knife (in display case on the dais) during The Battleship Ball.
The handsome fixed blade Rocco made for Sergeant Bunker includes steel from the North Carolina for the blade and guard. The wood handle is teak from the battlewagon’s deck, along with purple heart ribbon spacers.
To get that special custom knife, attend knife shows—and if you see a knife you want, don’t put it down until you’re through haggling! (PointSeven image)
Is it realistic to say there’s a surefire way to get any custom knife you want? While there are always exceptions to the rule, if you practice the following nine steps, you might just find that beautiful custom knife you’ve dreamed about nestled warm and safe in the fleece lining of your favorite zippered knife pouch:
Attend the knife show(s) where the maker and/or owner of your dream knife exhibits;
Introduce yourself to the maker/owner at the show, talk about his/her work and designs and/or knives, ask questions, and express your interest about the knife inside the show and/or at the hotel bar after show hours;
Ask to look at and hold the knife—and don’t be afraid to tell the maker/seller what you will pay for it;
On a high-end knife especially, it it’s worth it, buy it! You won’t sleep if you pass on the knife for a small difference in the asking price;
If you see the knife you really want and pick it up at the maker’s/seller’s table, do not put it down until you’re finished haggling for it;
If it’s a custom order, supply the materials for the knife directly to the maker;
Visit the maker’s shop or the seller at an agreed-upon place and pay cash for the knife;
In the case of the maker especially, tell him or her you will give the knife a great home and how you will display it, or how good the knife feels in your hand and how you will use it, and;
Plan a pricing strategy to go with all the travel, conversation and luck that surround the big purchase. Have a figure that you will pay for the knife in mind beforehand.
“If the price is way over your head, then walk,” advised custom knife collector Chris Nolen, stressing that even though it may seem unorthodox, it is good to tell the maker how much you are willing to pay. “If the price is in the ballpark, buy the knife,” he concluded. “You will know when it’s that ‘special’ piece.”
The company name stamped on the blade isn’t always the manufacturer’s name.
Who doesn’t like solving a good mystery? Remember the mystery game Clue, with its colorful game board depicting an old mansion, a stack of character cards, various miniature weapons, a detective’s notebook, a set of dice, and clue cards? The object of the game is to determine who murdered the victim, where the crime took place, and which weapon was used. Each player assumes the role of one of six suspects and attempts to solve the whodunnit by strategically moving around the game board that represents rooms of the mansion and collecting clues about the circumstances of the murder from other players. Clue is cited in several Top 10 lists as the fifth highest-selling board game of all time, with over 200 million copies sold.
Mysteries regarding knife production abound because thousands of cutlery manufacturers exist in the United States. Collecting vintage or antique knives inevitably turns up many examples with mysterious or unknown tang stamps and origins, even for seasoned collectors. To many knife enthusiasts, determining which factories produced specific models is unimportant. However, for serious and curious collectors interested in researching some recent finds, tracking down the origins of unknown tang stamps is akin to solving a cutlery history mystery.
In most cases, the finders of these unknown specimens can reference highly regarded publications with lists of knife manufacturers, descriptions of tang stamps, production dates, countries of origin, and sometimes even desirability ratings or collectible rankings.
The same company made two original sheaths of widely different patterns. A page from Dean Case’s Kinfolks Knives book shows the exact carved leather sheath and proves that the company made it.
Such books include those authored by John Goins and Bernard Levine. I use the references much like a history book since they are devoted explicitly to production knife history, perusing years, dates, details and fascinatingly unique information. Of course, there is also the Internet and its various search engines, which, if used correctly, can uncover published data on most little-known knife tang stamps. Keep in mind, however, that much of the Internet, especially forums, consists of a series of posts made by individuals, some experts, but many not. Most posts are simply an individual’s opinion and are not based on factual material such as military contracts or production knife company catalogs and ephemera.
Like detective work, looking for clues is the key to solving most knife mysteries. Many knives can reveal clues to their history if one knows where to research and what to look for. Unfortunately, just when you think you’ve traced a particular knife back to its manufacturing origins, you inevitably discover that thousands of models were not even manufactured by the company indicated on the tang stamp, but were, in fact, made on contract by different factories. Those factories derived a significant portion of their business taking orders. In other words, the stamping on the blade, which generally indicates a manufacturer and city of origin, may not be the factory or the city where the knife was made.
Production knife companies can be divided into two categories. The first manufactures blades bearing their own stampings and makes few, if any, knives for other businesses. Remington Cutlery appears to be one of those manufacturers that produces only knives bearing the company’s full name. Remington did have a couple of production lines, one with knives stamped in a straight-line “Remington,” but it only produced its own blades and did not work with outside contracts.
A gorgeous, red-handled hunting knife is stamped “Ideal” on the knife and sheath—the snaps on the top of the sheath hint at its origin.
The second are those that not only produced knives bearing the official company name but also accepted contracts to make models for any of several major retail outlets needing factory-fixed blades and folders. For many manufacturers in the second category, making knives for retailers or putting other companies’ brand names on tang stamps equated to a significant source of revenue.
Knives On Contract
Some production knife companies made blades on contract to spread their knives throughout the United States. This was particularly important for manufacturers like the Western States Cutlery of Boulder, Colorado, which had difficulty selling its knives east of the Great Plains. Other companies include industry giants like Camillus, Colonial, Western Cutlery and Kinfolks. Some outlets contracting with Western Cutlery to make knives for them included Sears, Montgomery Wards, Coast Hardware, Western Auto, Spiegel and Shapleigh Hardware.
Camillus is perhaps the best example of a production knife company known for copyrighting dozens of tang stamps, yet the manufacturer made all the blades. The list of those stampings takes up pages but includes Kingston, Clover, Sta-Sharp, Dunlap, Kwik-Kut, Streamline, OVB (Our Very Best), High Carbon Steel, Keen Kutter, Kent, Sword Brand, Tip Top and Buck. While most stampings are contract-made knives (like Keen Kutter and Buck), others are merely Camillus Cutlery’s sub-brands.
With the data well documented regarding the practice of knife manufacturers producing contract brands, a look at specific examples is in order. The origins of many of the tang stamps started as mysteries that were eventually solved through clues inherent to the knives.
Western Cutlery knives hold some specific clues, which, once recognized, can prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that they were made by the company even when stamped with another name. The first and most obvious clue lies in the aluminum pommels that Western used on its various hunting knives. Unlike the rounded, mushroom-shaped or ovoid pommels of other knife manufacturers, Western employed a bird’s-beak pommel.
The aluminum pommel extends smoothly from the last series of colorful handle spacers to form a bird’s beak and head. The top of the pommel is not flat, as most others, but slanted like a bird’s head, sloping down at an angle toward its back. Recognizing this obvious clue, it becomes easy to put a hunting knife stamped “Western” next to those stamped “Craftsman,” “Western Field,” and “Hawthorne” and recognize that Western Cutlery made them all, and those featuring alternative tang stamps were built under contract for Sears and Montgomery Ward.
A red-handle Ideal hunting knife, which snaps onto the Kinfolks hatchet set sheath. Notice the similarities of the leather sheath embossing style—a perfect match. Kinfolks made the “Ideal” knife.
A second clue to whether Western Cutlery manufactured specific knives is those stamped with a unique patent number, 1,967,479. The number refers to a patent by Harlow Platts described as a “novel and simple method of forming a handle for a tool which is durable, strong and which cannot be displaced or loosened.” The patent refers to Western’s double-tang handle configuration, which is two flattened steel rods that run from the blade to the pommel and between which fiber and leather spacers are stacked to form a handle that does not move.
Since only Western knives incorporated the patented handle design, it becomes a simple matter to look at a typical hunting knife from that era to see whether the steel tangs are visible on both sides of the handle, with the spacers lying between the two—Western most certainly made knives with this design feature.
Round Leather Spacers
Most other hunting knife handles from the time were made with a single round rod extending from the base of the blade to the pommel. Round leather handle spacers with holes in the middle are stacked tightly, with the rod running through them, for the length of the handle between the blade and pommel. Generally, the rod is threaded so that a round, usually brass nut can be tightened to sandwich and secure the handle spacers between the blade and pommel, making a durable handle. On these knives, the top ends of the aluminum pommels have round indentations where threaded nuts are seated. Marble’s knives are examples of this handle construction.
A closeup of the stag-handle hunter shows the WARD tang stamp and a patent number below it, giving an obvious hint as to the knife’s maker.
Over several months, I accumulated four hunting knives with a wide-blade style known as a “woodcraft” pattern popularized by the Marble Arms Company. The knives had four different tang stamps, one reading JEAN CASE CUT. CO., a second, BELNAP, LOUISVILLE, the third, HOLLINGER, and the fourth was stamped KINFOLKS, INC. I was already familiar with the Kinfolks stamp, as I have always favored this wide-blade style. I also knew Kinfolks had a knife factory built in the 1930s but did not realize that the manufacturer was potentially involved in contracts with other companies to produce their knives.
An examination of the four hunting knives laid side by side clearly showed that they were almost identical in blade length, had the same highly polished chrome-vanadium blades, and identical aluminum guards and pommels with brass centering nuts.
If I needed yet another piece of evidence to prove that Kinfolks made the four knives, the spacer pattern proved a strong clue. The knives had identical stacked leather handles ending near the guards with alternating black and white spacers—five black spacers separated by three white spacers. Finally, looking at the sheaths was the icing on the cake. Although all four hunting knives had sheaths of the same length and width, with identical rivet spacing, one was patterned differently from previously known Kinfolks examples. Wondering if this last leather sheath with a unique stamping was original to the knife and produced by Kinfolks, I turned to a book by Dean Elliot Case titled Kinfolks Knives, a History of Cutlery and Cousins.
Western was a significant producer of contract knives for Sears, Montgomery Ward, Western Auto and others. Here are four examples branded “The Coast Cutlery,” “Western Auto,” “Hunt Master” (Spiegel), and “Western Boulder.” Some enthusiasts specialize in collecting Western’s contract-branded knives.
Looking at the illustrations of various Kinfolks knives in the book, I came across a picture of a sheath identical to that which housed the Jean Case woodcraft knife. The mystery was solved, and all four hunting knives were made by Kinfolks, even though they had different stampings.
A unique hunting knife appeared recently in an Internet auction. Being attracted to colored hunting knife handles from days gone by, I bid on it. My winning bid soon arrived, and opening the package revealed a hunting knife and a leather sheath with the word “Ideal” embossed in script lettering. The blade tang was also etched “Ideal.” The mystery was in what production knife company made it. I noticed that, at the top of the leather sheath, were two snaps, one on each side of the pommel. Those snaps led me to rustle through my collection of hunting knives, explicitly looking for knife/axe combination sets. I found just the set, made by Kinfolks, with the same two snaps on the knife sheath and an identical set on the hatchet sheath. Taking the newly purchased Ideal hunting knife, I aligned the snaps on that sheath to the Kinfolks knife/axe combination set. “Snap, snap,” a perfect match.
Examining the leather embossing on the Ideal hunting knife sheath proved to be a perfect match to the Kinfolks sheath for the knife/axe combination set. My investigation solved which company made the Ideal hunting knife with red handle slabs. It was a part of a Kinfolks hunting knife set with an Ideal stamping. I am sure a matching hatchet with an Ideal stamp and a red handle is somewhere.
Different Handle Material
One of Western’s most interesting knife styles was a wide-bladed pattern with a different handle material from what it usually used. Western Cutlery was generally known for its stacked-leather knife handles. The H-shaped leather washers are stacked together with various patterns of fiber spacers along the company’s patented double-tang handle, all held in place by an aluminum pommel that is double-pinned to two steel tang sections.
Two hunting knives, one with a stag handle and the other featuring a sectioned “cracked ice” celluloid handle, have similar “bird’s beak” pommels, blade shapes and tang stampings.
The knives I acquired are stamped “West-Cut,” indicating Western’s less expensive line of knives, most of which incorporate stacked-leather handles. Each of these knives, however, enlists a thin aluminum guard and a shiny, molded handle, which narrows at the butt to form a quasi-shaped pommel. The handles are plastic, deep brown with specks and swirls of lighter browns.
Finding several other examples, which I assumed to be West-Cut’s as well, I was struck by the stamping on the blades, which included Shapleigh’s, Colonial, Providence, Viking, New York, and yet another with an arched line reading “The Coast Cutlery, Portland, Oregon.” The Viking example had an aluminum handle. The Colonial was bright orange, and the Coast Cutlery (not pictured) model featured a relatively thick aluminum guard with a red spacer between two aluminum pieces.
Once again, the mystery lies in which productive factory made the hunting knives. Colonial Cutlery of Providence, RI, was known for making thousands of knife styles with colored handle materials. Living in Colorado, I have located a half-dozen examples of these molded, brown-handled knives.
A closeup comparison of the two hunting knives shows the same patent number on both blade tangs. This patent number was awarded to Western Cutlery for “a simple method of forming a handle for the tool”—the double steel tang upon which H-shaped fiber spacers and washers could be stacked to form the handle. Western made the WARD hunting knife; thus, another mystery was solved.
Also, I know that Coast Cutlery of Portland, OR, had extensive contracts with Western for producing small red and white bird-and-trout knives, reinforcing Western’s status as the maker of the molded-handle knives. The “Shapleigh’s St. Louis” example is a monkey wrench in the works, as is the “Viking, New York.” Both are located quite far from Boulder, and Western Cutlery generally had few contracts to make knives east of the Mississippi River. Colonial Cutlery in Providence is even farther away.
Since Western has been out of business since 1992, and all company records are available to collectors and researchers, the idea that Western produced all these knives is up in the air. A letter to current Providence Cutlery owners was also a dead end. Who made these colored, molded-handle knives? That’s a mystery yet to be solved.
Solving cutlery’s history mysteries involves following the clues, comparing examples, looking at knife construction, examining the sheaths, reading company histories, talking to other collectors, and formulating educated guesses.
The Gut Hook Is One Of The Most Important Hunting Knives. Finding One That Works For You Can Save Hours On A Hunt
What Is a Gut Hook?
A gut hook on a knife blade is a highly specialized feature designed to open the belly of a downed deer, elk, or other critters; the notion being the gut hook will make the single purpose easier. After opening the belly the hunter would then use the primary edge to dress out the animal.
The Gerber Myth’s 3.75-inch flat-ground blade of 7Cr17MoV stainless zips through a plastic sheet.
During more than a half-century of hunting on three continents, I have taken more deer, elk, and other large game than I can count—often with a bow or other primitive weapon. I have dressed my game with whatever knife I had at the time, folder or fixed blade, and sometimes with flint or obsidian blades. I have never used a gut hook. When I was assigned to review four knives with gut hooks I thought of it as a learning experience.
4 Best Gut Hook Knives
The four knives are the Camillus Prym1 Veil, Gerber Myth Fixed Blade Pro Gut Hook, the Fremont Knives Hide Glider, and the Outdoor Edge Wild Skin.
The Camillus, Gerber and Outdoor Edge are familiar hunting knives with the gut hook on the spine. The Fremont is a wild card, the blade having no point and a semicircular edge similar to the ulu, an all-purpose knife traditionally used by Inuit and Aleut women to skin and clean animals, cut food, and trim blocks of snow and ice to build an igloo.
The primary edge of the Gerber Myth slices boot leather with aplomb. Handle: textured rubber. Overall length: 8.5 inches.
Nothing was in season at the time of the assignment. Taking suggestions from my editor and others I assembled a group of materials that would more or less replicate the hide of a freshly killed deer: an old pair of boots with leather about as thick as elk hide, floor mats, plastic sheeting (a bit of a stretch), and scraps of tanned deerskin I obtained from my brother-in-law who uses two or three deerskins a month to make bags and pouches in the Native American style. As an aside, one of his pouches can be seen in the accompanying photos.
None of the gut hooks made the slightest cut into the boot leather. All of the primary edges easily cut into the boot. After having a slit to start with, I inserted each of the gut hooks in turn and attempted to cut the leather—without much success.
Only by exerting considerable effort was I able to get any of the gut hooks to cut the boot leather. I reverted to the primary edges of the four knives to do most of the cutting and found that they sliced boot leather like it was sushi.
The Fremont Knives Hide Glider primary edge slices boot leather. Blade length and steel: 3.375 inches and 4Cr15 stainless.
Next, I tried cutting the floor mats with each gut hook in turn. None would cut the floor mat. All the primary edges cut the floor mats with ease. Then I went at the plastic sheeting, which I had included because it was quite thin but resistant. All four gut hooks sliced the plastic with little effort.
Thinking about the geometry of the gut hooks and wondering if they would perform better on actual deerskin, which is thinner than elk hide or boot leather, I attempted to cut the deerskin scraps my brother-in-law had given me. With much difficulty, I was able to cut deerskin with each of the gut hooks. Again, the primary edges easily cut the material.
History of Gut Hooks
The boot leather succumbs to the primary edge of the Camillus Prym1 Veil. Blade length and steel: 4 inches and 420 stainless. Blade finish: Titanium Bonded.
Many hunters use gut hooks. They must be efficient at their designated job or no one would buy them. What was I doing wrong?
Merle Seguine, a custom knifemaker who popularized the gut hook back in the 1960s, reportedly designed it to pick up a coffee pot or small pot by the ladle from the cook fire, and in fact designed some blades for that exact purpose. He later refined the hook and sharpened it for removing animal hides.
I didn’t have a campfire handy or a pot with a bail, but it’s easy to see the Outdoor Edge, Gerber, or Camillus would serve that function. As for the Fremont Knives Hide Glider, being all one piece of steel with no handle, not so much.
And here’s the MSRP for all the blades that were reviewed from least expensive to most:
Outdoor Edge Wild Skin – $18.95
Camillus Prym1 Veil – $30.64
Fremont Knives Hide Glider – $34.99
Gerber Myth Fixed Blade Pro Gut Hook – $54
Hunting Knife Review: The Gut Hook Results, Ranked
The flat-ground Gerber was the best all-around cutter, the flat-ground Outdoor Edge a close second and the hollow-ground Camillus third. The edge of the Fremont was quite sharp and though it placed last in all-around cutting, I suspect that with more experience on my part it would make a good slicer. The Fremont is also an intriguing design and being flat should easily fit into any kit bag.
Sharpening the gut hook would be an exercise in patience. A small, round sharpening tool should serve to get into the tight space.
Are Gut Hooks Necessary?
The Outdoor Edge Wild Skin deconstructs leather boot with the primary edge. Handle material: Rubber TPR. Overall length: 8.5 inches.
I have never found opening the belly of a critter to be especially difficult, though there is some technique required.
The hardest part of opening an elk’s belly is getting the huge critter—elk often weigh 500 to 600 pounds—on its back. Deer, of course, even “mulies,” which can reach 300 pounds, are much easier to manage.
I’m very much old school, as my sons remind me, and have a great deal of experience, so I’ll continue to dress game with whatever knife I have at hand. But if you’re new to dressing game the gut hook can likely do a better job for you.
If you dress out a great deal of game, say as a hunting guide, the gut hook will make your job easier and faster.
Three More Gut Hook Knives Worth A Look
This trio of gut hooks may not have gotten a hands-on review, but they are more than capable of serving you well when dressing a deer.
SharpWorld Beautiful Damascus Gut Hook
SharpWorld Beautiful Damascus Gut Hook
This knife lives up to the name and then some. The full-tang blade is made from a spectacular damascus alloy that looks even better with the ram horn handle. At eight inches in length it’s long enough to get under the hide without being too big to become cumbersome.
MSRP: $49.99
Buck Zipper
Buck Zipper
When it comes to outdoors knives there are few companies better than Buck. And their gut hook, the Zipper, is named based on what it’s designed to do: open animals like a zipper. The drop point is made from 420HC stainless with a Heritage Walnut DymaLux handle and comes with an included leather sheath.
The current CEO and President, CJ Buck, personally helped design the knife after seeing a glut of subpar gut hooks on the market in the early 1990s.
MSRP: $122.99
Case Lightweight Hunter Gut Hook
Case Lightweight Hunter Gut Hook
Case has made an incredibly light and strong gut hook that’s just over four ounces in weight as part of the brand’s Lightweight Hunter line of knives.
The gut hook has a sabre concave grind on the Tru-Sharp surgical stainless steel blade. The steel itself is a high-carbon variety designed to hold an edge longer than more conventional steels. The handle is a ballistic nylon material that increases strength without adding unnecessary weight.
MSRP: $78.99
Editor’s Note: Michael Abelson contributed to this piece.
Zero Tolerance announces a new knife category called ‘factory custom’ done in concert with Rick Hinderer. (Kershaw knife image)
Zero Tolerance’s Model 0392 “factory custom” collaboration with Rick Hinderer is not only a new knife idea, it might be an entirely new knife category.
Here’s how it works: Hinderer makes and supplies the knife parts such as the pocket clips, screws, spacers, filler tabs, standoffs and other furniture and Zero Tolerance employs them in the manufacture and assembly of the resulting knife—thus the name, ‘factory custom.’ The initial parts will be titanium anodized cool blue.
According to a ZT news release, “While we’ve often worked with custom knifemakers … we’ve never had this kind of partnership before. Now, working together, we can create knives with true custom details, while producing quantities that would be impossible for a custom knifemaker.”
The resulting factory custom knives will also offer “after-market customization.” Customers will be able to buy the furniture from Hinderer with different finishes, anodized in different colors, etc. The furniture may even come in different materials, including copper, to go with the standard titanium. The different finishes, anodizations, etc., apparently will come later.
An award-winning custom knifemaker out of Shreve, Ohio, Hinderer is best known for his XM-18 folder, and his knife lotteries are always among the best attended. He also has been expanding his knife operation to offer semi-production-type knives. He had a booth at the recent BLADE Show, where he celebrated exhibiting at his 25th consecutive rendition of the event.
A flipper folder, the 0392 will feature M390 blade steel, a titanium handle and the KVT ball-bearing opening system.
For the time being, the factory custom project is in the formative stages. Exactly how many of the knives will be made or when they will be available remains unknown. Stay tuned to Zero Tolerance and blademag.com for more details.
Three critical aspects of creating or choosing a quality blade are steel selection, heat treatment and geometry. This feature focuses on the first of these, and the first any aspiring knifemaker or enthusiast will be tasked with—choosing the right blade steel for you and your knives.
To the casual observer, the steel selection process wouldn’t seem like such a big deal, but as in-depth as this article is, it barely scratches the surface of the topic.
Not all steels are created equal. Each varies as much as knife style and is designed for a specific application. So, matching the correct steel to the specific blade, intended use, and maker or user can be critical in creating a quality tool. Choosing the best alloy for your purpose can mean the difference between achieving the highest performance by effortlessly allowing the steel to do what it does best and struggling to pound a square peg into a round hole by forcing it to do something it was never designed to accomplish.
From my observations after a lifetime of providing metallurgical consulting services for various industrial clients and countless knifemakers, the latter rarely select steel with the same analytical vigor as the former. Rather than independent research to match steel chemistry to a process and product, knifemakers often choose whatever alloy everybody else is using.
American Bladesmith Society Journeyman Smith John Schultz chose well with 1075 steel for its natural toughness on his recurved chopper.
Be it a ubiquitous old favorite or the newest rage in the “steel of the month club,” no single alloy is the best fit for every knife, use or maker. On the other hand, the one area where knifemakers often exceed my industrial clients is letting frugality make the choice. The number of knifemakers who have told me they use a specific type of steel because of their access to a cheap or free supply is unfortunate.
The trouble with these approaches is needlessly steepening the learning curve for many a new maker or knife user. I can’t count the number of times I have heard a frustrated knifemaker state that an alloy they have tried is a bad steel. But there is no such thing as bad steel. Industry wouldn’t bother wasting time, effort or money on steel that wasn’t optimum for its intended purpose. There are poor application choices and bad heat treatments. Any fault lies with the knifemakers or bladesmiths and not the steel.
A36 is an excellent steel choice for use in buildings and bridges, but it is a bad reflection on knifemakers if they insist on making a blade with it. The steel properties of A36 are not conducive to knife blades. Alloys like 1095 or O-1 can make good hunting knife blades, but if the steels are heat treated like 5160, they won’t measure up in edge performance. I can’t tell you how often I’ve bitten my tongue when shown a blade fashioned from steel with barely enough carbon for adequate strength or an abrasion-resistant edge.
If knifemakers have to deviate from standard heat treatment practices with unorthodox extra steps, it is most likely the result of a steel choice that does not match their application or methods. You can under-soak or over-temper a 1% carbon steel sword or use an alloy better suited for such a blade. You can add several steps to heat-treating richly alloyed steel in your forge or choose a steel that readily responds to that heat source.
Intended Knife Use
Rather than using hard and soft layers for damascus, the author, Kevin Cashen, has always combined toughness with abrasion resistance, as in this O1/L6 skinner.
The problem is that we often proceed from the wrong direction. Whatever the reason, many knifemakers have already settled on their steel before determining what knife they will fashion, but how can you make the right choice in a material before you even know its intended use?
A better model for success is letting the primary tasks a knife is meant to perform determine needs and goals. Develop a plan to achieve those goals by designing a hand tool that will perform a specific task or even multiple tasks, keeping in mind that the intended uses of a single knife can be much more varied than people think. With the desired tasks for the edged tool in mind, choose the material based on the desired properties inherent to each steel’s specific chemistry. Equally important is recognizing the limits of a maker’s abilities to work with a given chemistry.
To explain how to choose the correct steel for you and your knives, the myriad of blade designs is distilled down to two primary categories. The first group—fine-cutting knives—is designed to perform keen slicing or aggressive slashing. They are most often used in a draw-type cut that is optimized like a saw at the microscopic level. Think of scalpels, skinning and hunting knives, and many kitchen knives. Their edges are thin, flat or hollow ground for cutting various soft, fibrous materials.
This group has a subcategory of blades, including some kitchen knives and razors, that will be identical in many design features and desired properties, but they are used more in a push cut. Regardless, impact toughness is not nearly as crucial as abrasion resistance for knives like this.
The effects of carbon content in a simple steel can be seen on the Iron-Carbon phase diagram.
In contrast, the second group—choppers—is used in straight-on, push-type motions, cleaving, or cutting that often involves impact. These knives cut more like a chisel than a blade drawn into a cut like a saw. Camp knives, some bowies, and many swords fall into this category. They benefit from polished, beefier, convex edge grinds that don’t require abrasion resistance as much as impact toughness.
By definition, a knife is a cutting tool. If we should ever find ourselves detracting from a blade’s ability to cut in any part of our plan or execution thereof, we may need to consider whether making a knife or another tool is the better option.
Thus, all the properties discussed herein are relevant to cutting. A fundamental condition for a blade to slice through material is that it must be stronger than the cutting medium. There is tremendous load pressure at the microscopic level, where the cut is initiated. So, almost by definition, strength must be a top priority in any knife edge.
For this article, strength is the ability to resist deformation under load. Opposing this prized quality of strength is ductility, or the ability to easily deform without edge or blade failure. Knifemakers heat treat steel to replace ductility with strength. For millennia, it was the job of the blade maker to find the most acceptable compromise between strength and ductility for their blades to cut while avoiding brittle failure.
Steel Strength
The graph shows the total hardness from proper solution in steels soaked for 1 minute and 10 minutes, respectively, illustrating the effects alloying can have on heating requirements.
There are many types of strength in steel. Examples are compressive strength and tensile strength. These and shear strength are not as apparent in general knife use, so knifemakers more easily conceptualize them as hardness.
The other quality prized in a blade is toughness, which should be viewed as the steel’s ability to withstand shock from sudden loads rather than bending in a ductile manner under gradual load. These are two entirely different behaviors, with one being more relevant to a blade used in chopping. Rather than the Faustian bargain of trading strength for ductility, the Holy Grail of blade making is maintaining high strength with impact toughness. In chopping-type blades, impact toughness is almost as valuable as strength.
The next property to consider in a knife blade is abrasion resistance. Microscopically, the knife edge is subjected to tremendous wear, even when cutting seemingly soft materials. It is this wear that results in the tool dulling when used. Abrasion resistance is the steel’s ability to withstand such friction effects. While this property does increase with overall hardness, steel’s unique makeup gives it abrasion resistance above and beyond hardness and even independently from it. Within the steel, there might also be carbide particles with a hardness that far exceeds the overall Rockwell measurement numbers of the blade. Fine cutting and slicing blades benefit more from abrasion resistance than impact toughness.
Although the possible steel choices for modern knifemakers are endless, for simplicity’s sake, this discussion is limited to non-stainless alloys commonly used by forgers and grinders alike. Although many knifemakers have become dependent on AISI (American Iron and Steel Institute) or SAE (Society of Automotive Engineers) steel names, such titles as 1084, W-2 or 80CrV2 lack specificity and meaning compared to studying the individual steel’s chemistry in determining its potential properties.
The more alloying helps us in gentler quenches, the more attention must be paid to proper heating, making some steels a better match for a forge and others a digital oven.
I strongly encourage knifemakers to study the chemistry of any potential steel choices to decide which one to use and how to work it. A supplier that provides the chemistry for your steel understands this and is well worth doing business with rather than a source that omits the alloy’s makeup.
Carbon content is the first consideration within a steel’s chemistry and perhaps the most important. Carbon is the main element responsible for strength in steel. The more carbon a steel has, the greater strength can be achieved in hardening. However, this is only true to a certain point; maximum hardness in carbon steel is achieved at around .80% carbon, and beyond this, not much more is gained in that area. Putting more carbon than .80% into the solution during the hardening process can harm a bladesmith’s goals. However, carbon beyond this optimum level will add abrasion resistance if allowed to stay in carbide form.
This sweet spot in carbon levels around .80% is known as the eutectoid. It is the most efficient use of carbon in steel, with no leftover iron (ferrite) or any leftover carbide (cementite). Steels with less than .80% carbon content are inherently tougher and less brittle, while steels with more can have much greater abrasion resistance with a tendency to be less tough. This is important to consider when choosing steel for your intended blade purpose. Does a machete need abrasion resistance? Does a skinning knife need to be tough? Choosing 1075 for one or 1095 for the other could make all the difference in having a steel that will work for you or against you in creating that blade.
In centuries past, bladesmiths had no choice but to compromise between strength and ductility when working with simple iron-carbon material. But then, starting in the early 19th century, alloying changed everything. Finally, with the intentional addition of other elements to steel, bladesmiths could have their cake and eat it, too.
Steel Alloys
Combining it in one chart helps select the correct steel based on knife use and a knifemaker’s heat-treating equipment.
A sword in the 13th century that had to be kept in the low hardness ranges could now be just as tough at much higher hardness levels. Fine slicing cutters could have an abrasion-resistant carbide boost far exceeding simple cementite abilities. But with these gains in performance came greater demands for more precise controls in heat treating, atmosphere, and more refined blade quenches. Today, even the most basic carbon steels have enough alloys to radically differentiate them from the old steel. Anybody who thought they would water quench 1084, just like traditional tamahagane steel, can attest to this fact.
For this reason, another critical factor must be considered in proper steel selection beyond the type of knife being made. It is why the premise of this article is choosing the right steel for you and your knife. Our modern steel alchemists may have created the perfect high-tech steel for a knifemaker’s application. But if they’re learning the ropes, or all they own is a humble forge, it could still be a terrible choice for their knife.
If your shop is equipped with a digitally controlled oven, all the many modern alloy options are available if you learn the rules each steel choice requires. The same chemistry that makes one steel harden in almost any oil or air makes it much more finicky when heated before being quenched. An alloy steel may have the potential to outperform a simple carbon steel, but not if you lack the equipment necessary to unlock that potential.
Figure 1 shows the as-quenched hardness results of a series of tests involving simple heating versus a standard 10-minute soak on commonly used steels. Here, the effect of increased alloying is plain to see when looking at each steel’s time and temperature requirements, which many open-flame heat sources or forges may struggle to meet. Unless armed with an excellent understanding of the metallurgy, a smith desiring to stick with more traditional tools would be better served by more traditional steels. Simple carbon steels such as “W” or 10XX series are like what forges were initially made for and will allow the traditional smith to produce a fine blade effortlessly.
Knowing what each of the additional alloying elements brings to the table is valuable in knowing what to seek in steel. If you’re looking for impact toughness, consider chemistries that include nickel or silicon. These additions affect the iron’s atomic lattice, which acts like a shock absorber. For a knife needing abrasion resistance, a boost from the more powerful carbide formers can give you longer wear than simple cementite, with two of the most common examples being vanadium (above .25% of overall elements) or tungsten. Chromium will also help in this area to a lesser extent.
If you wish to achieve a fully hardened blade with minimal effort, manganese over 1% or relatively modest additions of chromium are just the ticket for leaving behind your stressful days of the water quench. And, of course, for applications where simple carbon steels would rust too quickly, chromium over 11% will also help resist corrosion. The chart in Figure 2 brings together all these considerations. On a final note, it must be conceded that a skilled bladesmith with a solid knowledge of heat treatment could push several of these alloys into adjacent categories. Still, here, we’ve focused on the path of least resistance.
By capitalizing on the characteristics of an alloy’s chemistry, a maker can spend less time getting it to behave in the desired manner and more time maximizing its performance.
The Quick Edge works like most other pull-through-type sharpeners. It consists of a sturdy plastic handle with a D-guard, and there is a pair of tungsten-carbide cutters in the sharpener’s head set at a pre-set angle of 20 degrees.
How It Works
(Lansky image)
The pull-through sharpener works on the principle of scraping a tiny amount of steel from the edge to reconfigure it to a crisp “V” shape. Pull-through sharpeners require very little skill to master—just pull the sharpener head over the entire cutting edge a few times and you’ve got a sharp knife. The Quick Edge is fast, convenient and safe, too, thanks to the D-guard that prevents accidental cuts during sharpening.
The handle’s understated, user-friendly finger grooves enhance grip, and the D-guard is large enough to accommodate a gloved hand comfortably and securely.
A thumb rest on the handle enables you to use your thumb to aid in providing downward pressure during sharpening.
Using the Quick Edge
Place the V-shaped carbide sharpening element over the cutting edge at the tang and pull toward the blade tip. Repeat until you obtain a sharp edge. The knife is the Kershaw Groove. (Dexter Ewing photo)
Place the knife you want to sharpen edge up on a sturdy work surface. Firmly grip the knife’s handle with one hand and, with the other hand, place the Quick Edge cutting head down on the cutting edge at the area closest to the tang.
With light to moderate pressure, drag the sharpener over the edge in one motion, going toward the blade tip. Once you reach the tip, replace the sharpener where you started and repeat the process several times until you have a sharp edge.
Due to how pull-through sharpeners work—not just the Quick Edge but most pull-through models—I caution against using them with high-quality using knives, including customs. However, if you need a good, serviceable edge for inexpensive working or hunting knives, the Quick Edge is for you.
For instance, if you do a lot of machete work, the Quick Edge should be your cup of tea. When the edge gets dull, sharpen it with a series of pulls and you can go right back to work. The edge the Quick Edge creates will not be as sharp or uniform as one provided by any of Lansky’s clamp-style sharpening kits—hence my recommendation against using the Quick Edge on high-quality cutlery.
Nonetheless, the pull-through model provides a nice, serviceable edge for cutting/chopping outdoor knives that see a lot of use and, perhaps, abuse.
Stored in a tackle box or toolbox, the Quick Edge is ideal for fast stock removal in the field and works best with low- to mid-grade blade steels.
