Hacking knives

[kannonfyre]

Here's the scenario......you're invited by several of your close buddies to go for a long hike through tropical wildreness areas and will be passing through rural towns/villages where the locals are a tad bit xenophobic. It's a last minute invitation and so in your haste to put your gear together, you forget to bring a suitably large camp clearing/hacking knife.

You realise that you don't have your trusty knife when you and your friends are about to set off. However, one of your buddies offers to lend you ONE knife from his "beater" collection. Of the following, which one would y'all choose and why?

1) Ontario RTAK
2) BK&T BK1 Brute
3) TOPS Condor Alert
4) SOG Tigershark
5) Entrek Destroyer

I'm asking cos this was the situation that I found myself in when I last went trekking. I choose the RTAK cos my friend seemed least attached to it.

 

[Dave Markowitz]

I'd pick the Becker Brute. My favorite sheath knife is my Becker C/U-7 and I really like the hilt. Becker makes good knives.

I have no first hand experience with any of the other knives you mention.

 

[Soap]

I would be indifferent to the Condor, Brute or RTAK. I wouldn't take either the Entrek or especially the SOG simply because I don't really like stainless steel in a larger blade. The brittleness of stainless steel isn't suitable for a heavy chopper IMO.

 

[JShirley]

Unsure about brittleness (you may know more about this than I)- I understood that the higher the chrome content, the more "stainless" the blade. Chrome is very strong, but not very sharp.

 

[Soap]

Mr. Shirley,

When one adds any element to a steel structure it has an effect. Adding chromium makes the blade stain less as you have noted. But it also makes the crystalline structure of the steel more brittle, hence it is unsuitable for longer blades. For example, see any top quality sword: it is ALWAYS made up of a non-stainless steel. This is because the chromium adds to much brittleness factor to the blade, which is very bad on longer blades. In addition, the carbon steels can take shock and/or flex much better than a stainless blade. If one were to imagine a rapier blade made of say ATS-34, it would probably break with a minimum of use. The stainless steels are great but they are suited to a different application IMO. For me, stainless is good for EDC knives where the rust resistance and edge holding ability will be of concern...commonly these blades are no longer than 4". I would never choose stainless for something that would have to absorb heavy shock like a machete, kukri, sword, etc.

 

[JShirley]

Some have suggested 5160 may be the ideal steel for swords. Would you agree?

"Just John"

 

[JShirley]

steel toughness

...and, Mr. Flory, I find you are right re the Chromium:
Furthermore, it is a simple fact that all stainless steels we could use are inherently weaker than the steels we use because all of those stainless steels have too much chromium in them. Chromium has very beneficial effects in steel when present in the range of 1-4%. However, amounts of it greater than that weaken the grain boundaries which were already the weakest part of the steel...

(from Teller Canyon)

John

 

[Soap]

Just call me John,

5160 is an excellent steel for swords. If it is heat treated to about 52 RC then it should work quite nicely. The sword fabricator Angus Trim uses 5160 treated like this. His swords are known for the durabilty and most importantly the ability to do real test cutting. 1086 and similar are also good steels IMO for sword work. L6 is apparently an amazing steel but we see it so little in sword form that it is hard to truly evaluate it. If there is an "ultimate" sword steel it is probably L6. Professional metallurgists tell us that they use L6 in limited industrial applications with great success. The reason I say "limited" is because it is very expensive. For me, the 5160 would do nicely in an Angus Trim blade such as the Seneschal.

 

[hso]

I've got a Blackjack BKT Brute and it's a great work horse.

Next pick would be the RTAK or Destroyer.

The TOPS knives have grips that don't fit my hand so the Condor would be out.

Got a Tigershark and I don't consider it suitable for hacking at all.