If I had to skin and clean three deer and two moose before shaving, I’d go with D2 steel.
if you are talking about stainless steel, the main problem is dependable against its heat treatment
Yes, the heat treatment is at least as important as the choice of steel. It is possible to have a knife with a really good steel, but poor heat treatment, and end up with a mediocre or bad knife. Or have a knife with a cheap and mediocre steel and very good heat treatment, and it ends up a descent or even good knife.
To make an excellent knife you need both good steel and good heat treatment.
However it is hard to specify the actual heat treatment. One partial clue is the hardness, but that is not conclusive. The only way to evaluate the quality of a knife is to use it until it is dull and resharpen it. Preferably a few times and in different tasks.
This is why the name and reputation of the knife maker is so important. A knife maker who use good steel and good heat treatment will get a good reputation. Unfortunately the importance of the name of the steel has become exaggerated, probably because it is so easy to state what the steel is and so hard to specify how the knife has been heat treated.
You want the steel hard and wear resistant, but not brittle and prone to breaking or chipping. One high-end method of handling this is to laminate the steel, A hard steel in the centre and a softer steel supporting it on the sides. But then we are not talking budget knives any more.
Triflex (laminated) mora knives are in the budget range.
However, those are not really needed in real use, and I have used all the varieties offered. Plain carbon steel is just as good, and 12C27 stainless they use is a proven good steel too.
I have a Mora MG Companion stainless, cheap but a lot of quality. Here in the best italian knife forum, with a lot of well prepared guys, Mora is a brand well respected. Everybody have one or more. If I have to choose one from a well know chinese brands and a scandinavian steel, I’ll stay with Odin sons :bigsmile:
I have a lot of Sanrenmu, a couple of Enlan and Ganzo, and I like them.
I’m not sure you can even Compare Mora with the likes of SRM and Enlan. I have quite a few blades from these people and they are all good but comparing a carbon steel fixed blade with a stainless steel folder will get you no where fast. They are very much different tools.
There are some folders that use the same steel as the stainless Moras.
I like the folders made by EKA. They use the excellent stainless steel Sandvik 12C27. Also they have very good ergonomics and most have a very utilitarian "non-tactical" look with two handed opening and no clip. Non-threatening...
I especially like the elegant EKA Swede 7 in curly birch (masur) or bubinga and also the robust no-nonsense EKA Swede 10. And the thinbladed lightweight super slicer EKA Swede 88, also in curly birch. EKA also sell nice fixed blades with 12C27 with a more elegant look than the Moras. And a significantly higher price...
Very cool Adoby. Thank you for reporting that. Are you aware of any that used the high carbon blade?
Sierra Trading Post has several and I have a code for 35% off but the shipping might be a little much for some people.
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Sorry, no.
Yes, there are.
Kellam knives Osprey folders:
http://www.kellamknives.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1_34_139&products_id=942
Also consider Svord and Opinel knives.
Can you explain it ,pls?
cause I don’t even imagine surviving with a scandi knive edged without a flat human-made stone (like japanese) .
I’ve never found a stainless steel knife which could compare to a good carbon steel one in my use. Rather than the usual oils, I prefer this to keep the rust away.
Rust isn’t always a bad thing; before gun bluing came to be there was “browning”- a controlled rusting process which once done acted similarly in keeping rust on the surface for a while so you could deal with it later if you couldn’t do that immediately. A well-used carbon steel blade will “brown” itself over time which doesn’t bother me at all; in fact I like the lower reflection it causes compared to a shiny new blade.
With new EDC knives I usually leave them dry and steel wool them every few days as the “browning” develops on it’s own, then I use the RIG once the process is complete. For less used knives I wipe the RIG off before use, clean afterward, then RIG for storage- that stuff has never let me down.
Phil
The ceramic will actually sharpen the blade quite easily.
Now to be clear, I’m not suggesting to toss out a quality stone. But this is a good tidbit of info should you need to sharpen a blade but don’t have a stone with you.
