Posted: 6/8/2006 3:04:18 AM EDT
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Anyone have some advice on 1) Identifying the steel used to make a no-name knife purchased years ago, and 2) What it's heat-treated to? We've got these knives we bought at, well, at a Ren Faire  in CO, I think Mrs. Drang had some sort of idea for Klingon costumes or something --hey, we have friends who did that well enough that Paramount hired them for Star Trek movie debuts! And we were newlyweds at the time.  Anyway, I got to wondering if they have any value beyond taking up space on the junk shelves. At least they didn't cost too much... No markings on the blades. I post here instead of the "Pointy Things Forum" because I get agoraphobia when I leave the WAHTF, and I figure someone might know a local business that can run a quick test for me. If not, I can use it to practice cord-wrapping hilts. |
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You'll likely get better answers here, but maybe you'll get lucky. Stokes is the only one here in WA that I know has some knowledge on blades. Good luck. |
Acually I'm active on the blades forum here and on Bladeforums.com. I also have a rather large knife colletion, of which I specialize in Randall and Ruana knives. If yoiu have a custom made piece, most of the smaller custom shops or hobby knifemakers work in O1 tool steel. It is cheep, easy to work, and easy to heat treat. I used to have an aqaintance who did a lot of Renfair stuff, mostly medevil style daggers and short swords with some tactical models thrown in. He worked exclusively in O1. Now if it's an imported factory made cheepo knife, such as the examples from Pakistan found at places such as Smokey Mountain or Bud K, it is probably a real poor quality 400 series stainless. As far as heat treat, there would be no way to tell, but most cutlery is in the 58-64 Rockwell range. Value on cutlery is really dependant on what someone will pay for your knife. |
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Should have mentioned, I checked out the "Pointy Things" forum FAQs before posting here. No markings at all, but almost certainly NOT stainless. Overall kinda battleship-greyish. Blades are single-edged, somewhat falcata-shaped. Hey, I somehow became a member, I can post pics now! Have to get on that... Stay tuned! |