Home Forums Gear Knives and Blades Guide to knife steels

Haha

Any steel can be use for a hunting knife. Doesn't make it one of the better choices. M4 is a premium steel that shines elsewhere, that doesn't mean it can't do a good enough job at something else. Sorry the truth hurts your sensitive feelings.

Good enough is a personal choice.

You're funny

Serious question, in NO way argumentary, but, exactly "what" did you "just in this thread, learned a lot from MRK, wwy and Canezes9"?

With all due respect....I seriously doubt this...

First thing, I'd rather listen to the advice of someone who has practical knowledge and use of a product than someone who has a chart and uses percentages of elements to decide which product is best.
We have one customer at work who is an "expert" on guns and accurate shooting. He can spout off on best scopes, best barrels, best loads, etc. The said thing is that he's a lousy shot.

From above
""wwy" cuts up more animals in a year than all the rest of us together"

"With all due respect....I seriously doubt this..."

OK, so there are apparently some others who also disassemble over 100 animals
a year.

Geedubya is probably one, and I really respect his comments on field use of knives also.

Who else here????? I don't know, but I would gladly accept your field use experience also, even
if you only do one animal once in a while.

Tim

With all due respect to everyone responding on this thread, I have to say this.

1. The vast majority, virtually all of the people who cut up a LOT of animals use what I consider crap for knives. If well made knives of upper end steel were even remotely necessary for turning animals into food, people like Tim could make decent living making knives, and their product would be a lot cheaper. When you buy a $10.00 knife, you get a $10.00 knife.

2. The vast majority of people turning 100 or more animals into food in a year are employed doing so. Further, turning 100 (or more) animals into food is getting awful close to one every other day or a five day work week. That leaves precious damn little time to do anything else, especially when you think about the amount of time it takes to do so in a sanitary fashion.

3. The knives made for people employed turning animals into food are specifically made to be easy (quick) to sharpen and NOT harder to dull. Likewise, they are not made to take a particularly fine edge.

I, like most of the people who buy Tim's (and other makers) knives do so because I want the best tool for the job. Small differences add up to a lot more for me than a lot of people because while my skill at turning animals into food may be much greater than 90 some percent of the people who attempt that, it is nowhere near that of the people who do it for a living. An additional difference is that on the rare occasion that I buy commercially processed meat I am generally appalled at the quality of work I see because the people doing the butchery are more concerned with speed than quality and waste. I like pretty meat. I gift friends with wild meat and frequently hear that THEY like pretty meat. Pretty meat tastes better. The knives I choose to turn the animals I kill into food form a set of tools dedicated to doing specific tasks BETTER than other designs to help compensate for my lesser skills. Some, like a classic design fish filet knife approach the design of commercial butchering tools, but are crafted out of much better materials. It is NOT a small matter to me WHAT steel the knife is made of. That is every bit or even in some cases more the importance of the blade size and shape. Some blades of some steels simply do a better job for longer when compared to "better" steels by virtue of their design alone.

I know of two people here who cut up a lot of animals, but not in a production mode.
One just shoots a lot of animals and processes them as far as there is use of the end product.
Another works at doing a lot of animal necropsy year round.
Their knives work hard.
If they say a knife of such and such specs works great, I believe them.

There are others who pay a lot of attention to field performance also, but on a lesser volume.
I like to hear about limited use results just as well.

I know the why of butchers using thin, less expensive, lower RC and easier to sharpen blades.
They can touch up an edge in seconds between stations/next operation and throw the blade away
when it gets worn down past functionally useable.

It is all relative and a lot of personal choice.
One man's fools gold is another man's pure gold.

There is a time and place for lab data and a time and place for field reports.

Cut on!!!

Not necessarily. If that were true it would be the same all the way up the price spectrum.

There are a bunch of guys whipping out $200 to $300 knives that are less than desirable. As there are guys whipping out $150 to $250 knives that are pure gems.

A spyderco and Benchmade are pretty equal in price yet the Spyderco's are a much nice knife comparatively.

Another thing to take into account is do you want to put a high dollar knife through that type of abuse? I use to commercial fish in SE Alaska, I believe it was 1995 I was Trolling off the northwest side of Three Hump in some pretty sporty conditions. I had a beautiful Phill Wilson Fillet knife that ended up overboard. I would have much rather have lost my commercial grade Dexter Fillet Knife. Losing that knife still haunts me to this day. I have a lot of Phill's knives but that was my first.

Don't let a price fool you into how good or bad it is.

All good...BUT: what did you learn on this thread?

I know at least 30 guys here who do well more than that in a month...
I did ~1600 last year...

Steel and it's elements is only 1/3 the equation! Heat Treat, and Geometry matter just as much.

HA!

Calling you out...

...You didn't learn that on this thread!!

You knew that LONG ago!!!


(I've actually expressed the same to MAKERS on here that still don't get it... Sad...

I am sure I will get flamed for this but in all honesty there isn't much to learn here. There are some good makers here. There are a few guys that have nice collections. There are a few guys that know more than they lead you to believe. But for the most part this forum is a bunch of guys with run of the mill knife experience. Nothing wrong with that at all. However I got flamed for saying that a Havalon maybe soulless but is a great tool in the field. A Havalon will outperform more than a bunch of run of the mill knives. It is faster and easier to replace the blade in the field than sharpening a knife. The cost is next to nothing and if lost is no big deal! I seek performance in a custom, I seek steels that offer more, heat treat that is better than the norm, and edge geometry that is thin. You can slice or you can plow, your choice. There are times when a thin blade isn't desirable but more times than not a thin blade is what I want. I try to keep up with steels and makers, but there are a lot of both so it can be challenging. I think most get butt hurt when guys here talk about knives that can and will outperform what they are either using or know about. I had a PM with Menefee about this a while back. I have also discussed it with a few makers that came on here and read post, then decided it wasn't worth their time on here. I use to be a quantity guy, I owned a lot of knifes from a lot of makers. I starting seeing slight differences but most were Germain. I wanted better and I wanted different but at that time there was not a lot of guys that stood out. Phill Wilson and Phill Hartsfield really opened my eyes. Now there are guys that don't want to make you 80 different models or your own personal design. Because they have put in the time, energy, money, and testing to figure out what really works. Get to know some of these guys and they may be willing to work with you on a project knife. If they think it is going to match their standard. Honestly I think there are some great guys on here and like anywhere else in life some not so great guys. We can all learn something if we are receptive to it. Anyways I have pretty thick skin and can handle any and all flaming. In the end I love knives, and I love exceptional knives even more.

GW, where did you find these cross draw sheathes???

I did ~1600 last year...

WOW.
Care to enlighten us.
Bound to be some great experiences there.

top left and clockwise



1. The maker's mark is "Tisdale, Canyon, Texas. That knife is by Rocky Menefee and it came in the sheath.




2. That sheath came with the A2 Skinner by Rick Menefee. The maker's Maker's mark indicates it is by Jim Layton.




3. Here is something by Dale Atkerson







4. One of my own design. Can be worn ambidextrous, and has enough cant that it is not uncomfortable when riding on an ATV or sitting.


ya!


GWB