M14 Forum

huntinghawk

Files are tool steel & don't make the best knives. Just too brittle. Spring steel is a better choice.

HH

flintsghost

Dan Dennehy (Dan D) one of the founding members of the Knifemakers Guild and a Hall of Fame member started making knives on board ship for Marines. He was a retired Navy CPO. He was also a friend. He used to say that you could make a pretty good blade out of an old nicholson Mill ******* File if you knew how to control the temperature when forging and heat treating. That's what he started doing. Over the years he spent time with Bo Randall learning some things and also with John Nelson Cooper. Dan made some fine knives.

The Randall's that are so famous are made of Swedish Tool Steel similar to O1 and their stainless is 440C, just for the record. They use both to forge blades using a trip hammer behind their shop. 440C tends to be hard to forge and can get flaws in it during the process and I have seen at least one model 16 that was sent back from Vietnam, snapped at the guard. Wayne Potts replaced it with a tool steel model 14 and I sent it back to my brother. Wayne was the shop foreman at Randall at the time and he told me they have some problems with 440C forging from time to time and the flaws that showed where that one snapped were an example. My brother felt the stainless was harder to sharpen and keep sharp and that the tool steel made the better more usable knife.

Jimmy Lile used a lot of D2, which is a semi stainless in the Rambo knives, both the Mission and the Sly II "First Blood." It's good stuff. Loveless started the use of 154CM which was originally developed for turbine blades for jet aircraft engines. Now lots of people use it and I personally like it a lot and have several knives including some Benchmade AFO switchblades and a Neeley survival that my son is going to use made from it. It's good stuff too, but more expensive than 440C.

mknopfler

The Kamis that make these khukiris in the picture use leaf springs, preferably from old mercedes benz trucks. It is 5160 high carbon steel, great for blades - except the rust factor. That khuk is 20 & 1/2 inches long and weighs four pounds with a very keen edge that takes sharpening well. The pocket knife in the pic is a ZT350 in S30V steel. S30V takes a little more work to sharpen but holds an edge very well, no rust issues. It is a powdered steel developed in the U.S. specifically for blades. That is a quarter in the pic for comparison.

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flintsghost

S30V can't be forged and must be stock removal made only. The 5160 high carbon leaf springs, most likely would have to be hammer forged to produce a knife. Those are things that one must consider when the decision to build a knife is made. Do you have the equipment to forge or do you only have the equipment to grind. Forging requires both while stock removal requires only the latter. Good luck.

NE450N02

For a tough whack um, chop um, stab um knife, 1/4" and 8" blade will do...

And for Survival is not a bad thing to have...

But for a real "using" knife, for butchering, camp and kitchen chores, something thinner and around 4 inches is a much better choice.

Nothing wrong with having one of each.
The "using" knife can be a good folder. If you can find a German Puma or a Boker, they hold a good edge and are easy to sharpen with a DIAMOND STONE.

PS, I put myself through school as a Butcher, and I have gutted, skint, and butchered a LOT of game meat over the years, from elephants to squirrel, so I know a little about "cutting stuff" with a knife...

PSS, Elephant meat is good to eat... Giraffe and cape buff too...

huntinghawk

Using tool steel to make a knife there are extra steps required in the process. But done correctly they will make a good knife. But for slicing & dicing & not for chopping. For a chopping tool you want a full tang knife.

HH

CountrySmoke

High carbon steel makes a good knife as long as the blades are treated to fix the brittleness issues. There is a company out here in cali called anza that makes quality knives exclusively out of this. I can def say they work great for both slicing and chopping. i have shaved with it and just to see if it could with a tap cut an inch into thick plastic and further into soft woods.

sac troop

I've got a couple of the Anza knives. Both are pretty simple user designs and show the signs of being forged from old files. These guys do a good job in the annealing and re-tempering them to reduce the brittle factor. Not a bad knife IMHO.

CountrySmoke

They definitely have an old school feel to them witch is nice with all the tacticool knives and over the top stuff you see every where now. I was able to cut a E.W.A.R.P patch off a pipe by just tapping the handle. It actually cut into the pipe a little witch was surprising. They also give great discounts for military witch is another plus.

lawnchair 04

ill cast my vote for an esee 5. amazing knife, ive split logs with it and its still sharp enough make feather sticks out of match sticks. the blade is 1/4 thick, has a sharpened pommel and a bow drill divot built into the handle scales. the esee 5 was actually designed by air force sere school instructors as a downed pilots survival knife. plus if you email them directly they will send you order forms for special military/leo pricing. and dont get me started on their warranty. as a matter of fact im about to pick up an esee 3 and 4 to add to the collection.