If you've ever read something interesting over the internet that you assumed was true you're not alone. It's the habit of many people to go to a well-known site, read up on an issue, and assume that it's the truth.
It's also fairly common for sites to repeat something over and over again, which adds to the belief that everything that's being blasted through the media is truth. However, sometimes it couldn't be farther than the truth.
In the same way, this common belief system is likely affecting what you believe to be true about knives.
Fact and fiction get misconstrued and hence can lead to a lot of confusion. After that, it's challenging for a prepper to decipher what to purchase in the land of survival weapons let alone know whether that particular weapon is flawed or high quality.
People who appreciate knives and own many of them should realize that facts that were considered true a hundred years ago are no longer accurate today. For example, if a senior citizen says your knife is the best there is because it's old that's no necessarily true because the knives today are being improved upon technologically speaking daily.
On the next page begin unmasking some truths about knives that are false today.
Get ready to dispel some myths, and you may be surprised to find out that those facts you thought were correct are far from it!
Next Page »
It’s just click bait guys. That’s why you have to click a new link at the bottom of each page instead of all the info on one page. Each time you load up a new page they get paid from their advertisers. Nothing at all to the content except to get you to click the next link.
But muh $900 knife!
S30v has the same hardness as 440. Find the right river stone and you can sharpen both. After all you can find granite in a river.
I love that they said price doesn’t mean better quality. I have an Ontario model 1 in d2 and it was pretty cheap, yet still a GREAT knife.
No and no for 2 of those “debunked” myths! As far as steel type being stronger that is certainly true! Chinese pot metal is no where near as strong as German or even Swiss steel!
Forging a knife not only burns out impurities but if done correctly it’s much stronger! The increased strength comes from each individual fold in the forging process! I currently carry a forged titanium blade and it’s stronger than any knife I’ve even owned. I chopped down a 3 inch tree by smacking my blade with a hammer. It did not leave any form of dent.
Nope. The steel is as hard as it is heat treated to be. Only differences are the “as quenched” hardnesses. Some companies use a certain steel at 57 hardness, others heat treat the same steel to 59-60. Higher number is harder. Higher number holds edge longer, but harder to sharpen. Softer number sharpens easier but dulls quicker. The maker finds and chooses the ideal balance. I make knives and do my own heat treating. I would rather have a properly heat-treated knife of say 1084, than a poorly treated one of any other steel. And wrong on the tool steel. Tool steels such as 0-1 and D2 make excellent knives and are used by many custom makers. D2 is used in planer blades, that’s tough. If a D2 knife is hard to sharpen, the maker over-hardened it.
K-Bar Becker Al Mar and Benchmade
Higher carbon steel makes a better knife. Period.. it’s how you finish it what makes a knife
My sebenzas , hinderers, and southwards are worth every penny I spent. Well over $400
#1 is total idiocracy.
Well, what’s. It to believe??? You have a knife the takes ammo ??
My balls itch so bad
Ontario Marine raider Bowie. Sweet blade for $60
You forgot ESEE. I keep a Benchmade in my pocket everyday. Of all my fixed blades, I prefer my ESEE knives though. They just cut good and hold an edge for a long time.
The only knife under 50 bucks I would use again is the Buck 110. All of the others I have tried out have been garbage that can’t hold an edge or take a beating. Most of my go to knives are in the 80-120 range. I find this is the good working quality range. I have blades that cost several hundred and they look way better but don’t work any better than the few I grab every day. I don’t need a thousand dollar knife to skin a deer or a hog but, I do need one that will make it through the whole animal without needing the edge sharpened 3-4 times.
I used to like Cold Steel, until they ruined the Ti-Lite. Now I carry Benchmade, CRKT, or SOG. Kershaw used to make some excellent pieces, I have an Onion special edition in S30V and it was my favorite until I met the SOG Trident and Spec Elite.
Sure are a lot of guys who think they know about knives here….
Folding steel during forging doesn’t make it stronger. Before heat treating a knife you have to normalize it meaning that the steel becomes the same as it would be if it were a mono-steel. Forging made a difference a long time ago when steel had impurities but that simply isn’t the case now.
I’m a machinist so metal is my profession. How do the make structural steel?
What a bunch of crap…I want my data back
The moron must have never heard of metallurgy!
What a terrible article. The author is obviously an expert in his own mind but I doubt anyone else that knows anything would agree.
You will be better off not reading this dribble and just keep believing the myths. They are closer to the truth than this author gets.
Nice Fallkniven in the picture
If there’s no substance on the first page, it ain’t worth the click for the second page.
Stop writing filler and you might get more clicks.
I don’t know that I could find the article, but I read an article a while back speculating that Damascus steel was the result of a certain percentage of vanadium in the ore facilitating the formation of the characteristic layers of cementite and pearlite. (Not a knife maker, mostly just a nerd who’d like to try it given enough time and tools)
Benefit of damascus is you get benefits from two different steels, as in a camp blade from 5160 (tough as nails) and 15n20 (or something with a higher chromium or nickel content), forge welding a billet of steel from these two types gives you a great pattern when etched, and you get the toughness from 5160 and a little more rust prevention from the higher nickel/chromium from the 15n20. Many swords used one type of steel “sandwiched” with another for a different steel on the edge.
My brief reading on Damascus steel was that it was a crucible steel. Using a layer of sand in the crucible as a flux to separate the impurities from the steel instead of using forging to hammer out the impurities.
One of the most useless ways I spent (wasted) my time recently was reading that article.
I used to carry kershaw: then they moved production to China and I’ve switched to Ontario. They kick$#%&!@*
Damien A. King
A hand forged knife done by someone that knows their grain in salt can and will out perform any massed produced knife you find out their.
I have Ka Bar’s, Benchmade’s, Gerber, SOG, Boker, Buck, Spyderco, etc. My Spyderco is my EDC, but if I want a knife to really do some work with, I grab my Glock field knife. It’s been great.
Steel type is EVERYTHING when it comes to selecting a knife.
My EDC is a Benchmade Triage with N680 steel. It strops down to a razor edge and retains it decently, but the main appeal to that choice of metal is its corrosion resistance when compared to 440C (commonly used in higher quality knives) and tool steels such as D2.
My other knives I carry when camping or riding are D2 for one and CM154 in the other.
Properly heat treating a blade improves upon what you have already.
“5 myths” actually just 4 spread out on 5 click bait pages. They’re also not all right
Some accurate some total bullshit. SMbulldog Johnson
The steel is cast then hot rolled into shape. Your point?
Did you google it? It’s layered to create a stronger steel to support immense weight. It is so hard a cobalt coated carbide insert is needed to cut it!
Snapped a camillus when cutting a branch, it got stuck, when it came loose hit branch above it and broke
But just to let yall know kabar is my knife of choice for fixed blades Kershaw spyder Co Camillus are folders
I used to carry a Kershaw, Onion but the thing wouldn’t stay sharp.
Steel type is not everything. It’s one of many. So long as it’s a steel that’s able to take a decent hardness after tempering.
Take the best steel in the world, do a shitty job of hardening & tempering it, and it will make a functionally worse knife than a much more generic, lower grade steel that is properly hardened and tempered.
Dude structural steel is just mild steel. The same$#%&!@*steel you buy at home depot.
It’s not layered but even if it was that still wouldn’t matter. After you heat any steel to its critical temp (when it’s non-magnetic) it becomes normalized, meaning all the layers would be the same.
Lol Josh Navarrete I think this guy lost his marbles
lol yeah his knowledge is based on what others have said and not based on practical experience. It would be good for him to actually start making knives before posting stuff about knives. fun read
Lol I was lmfao the whole time
I seriously thought it was a joke
some are good some are bad I have Becker knives BK-7 and BK-9 VERY GOOD KNIVES
BK-7 I change the handel on the bk-7 to wooden ones
In the pouch on the sheaths I have folding knives