Steel type

[JohnM]

Any of you knife guys know what steel was used for the old Schrade+Steel blade?
I just dug out a 296Y Yellow Trapper I bought years ago. Never liked it because it was always so hard to hone to a good edge compared to the old fashioned carbon steel blades I always liked.

 

[JohnM]

so much for that

 

[hso]

Schrade+ was their designation for stainless. They used this instead of a specific steel since the steel changed as economics changed. 440A is supposed to have been used as well as 440C and 420. The stamp never changed because they knew they'd work to keep the performance the same (at least as far as most users could tell) through heat treat. This let Schrade keep costs under control as steel prices changed without significantly impacting performance for the customer.

 

[JohnM]

Thanks for the info. Yeah, this is a stainless and one of the totally non magnetic types.
Miserable stuff to sharpen, so even though it's a nice looking knife and a pattern I always liked, this one is back in the keepsake box.
For some reason I had kept this one in the box, it says it was copyrighted in 1989. I don't remember anymore if they used a new date every year or what.
Got a whole handful of old Schrades I had reefed on too much and ruined the pins.