ESEE 4 Mystery Steel Pass Around----all spots taken

Discussion in 'ESEE® Knives and Gear' started by shaneadams90, Feb 8, 2019.

  1. FortyTwoBlades

    FortyTwoBlades Moderator Staff Member

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    The fresh edges. All three felt identical on the grinder, and polished up nice and easy with minimal wire edge formation, which was easily worked off by stropping on my palm. Definitely stainless--basically zero sparks even off the coarsest belt. They'll leave a glossy cut on pine at this point. It does feel a bit odd having to approach the cut from a steeper angle of attack than I usually do, though.

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  2. Jacob Peterson

    Jacob Peterson Member

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    EXCELLENT JOB! You did all the things that I had hoped to do! Straight up excellent!
     
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  3. STPNWLF

    STPNWLF Member

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    Thank you Jacob
    Even though I just collected/processed the materials for cooking a southern meal the methods also tried to reflect a simulated survival/practical usage senario.
     
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  4. FortyTwoBlades

    FortyTwoBlades Moderator Staff Member

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    Tests of abrasive wear. Strapping and fiber-reinforced kraft tape are hell on edges. Mild deformation was experienced on the first example in cutting the strapping but the other two held up, and it's possible the first one was a fluke. All three blunted almost immediately cutting the fiberglass-reinforced tape. This leads me to suspect that between this, their highly rust-resistant nature, and the fact that they're probably USA-made steels that odds are good that they're 440A, 420HC, 440C, and/or possibly something like 154CM. My guess is probably the first three, or possibly even all the same steel with different heat treatments. Whatever they are, at least a majority are likely low-alloy USA-made cutlery stainless.

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  5. Kevo

    Kevo Member

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    I hate to have to say it, but I think I'm going to have to bow out of this before the knives make it to me. A relatively sudden change in living situation Has got me in between permanent mailing addresses.
     
  6. Andy the Aussie

    Andy the Aussie Administrator of the Century Staff Member

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    ..... I am sure the staff at the Correctional Centre will let you have them one knife at a time for "Yard Testing"....I understand why they may balk at all three at once though... !
     
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  7. mmbackpacker

    mmbackpacker Member

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    I can take Kevo’s spot. Please?
     
  8. FortyTwoBlades

    FortyTwoBlades Moderator Staff Member

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    Barring something going sideways on me tomorrow I should be finishing up my evaluation (which will be seeing how they respond to hand sharpening and then maybe some more abrasive wear) and then I'll be done. In addition to being crazy-busy right now I think others have already tested a lot of the "field application" aspects and the wear resistance is one of the only things that hasn't been dug into much that the stock geometry would allow me to see. Testing edge stability would be very telling, but at 20° per side I feel that really limits the ability of the steel to make a meaningful difference except for in abrasive wear, both in cutting and in sharpening. So I'll be done as soon as I tackle that aspect.
     
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  9. erik

    erik Member

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    nice job, Ben!
    looking forward to your thoughts on wear resistance/ease of sharpening.
     
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  10. FortyTwoBlades

    FortyTwoBlades Moderator Staff Member

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    Should be tackling that over the weekend and will get it going to the next person in line after the shipping holiday Monday. :)
     
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  11. Bushcraft_Dave

    Bushcraft_Dave Member

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    Very interesting observations. I think you're right, it's most likely one of those scenarios you mentioned.
     
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  12. FortyTwoBlades

    FortyTwoBlades Moderator Staff Member

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    Well, got to playing around with the knives on a stone, and if I had to hazard a guess I'd say #1 is moderate-high hardness 440C, #2 is average hardness 154CM, and #3 is moderate-high hardness 420HC. But I could be totally wrong. None of them felt like 440A normally responds, but it's still not out of the question.

    •#1 felt reasonably abrasion resistant on the stone but also was prone to having a bit of a burr get pushed back and forth, consistent with what I find with reasonably hard 440C.

    •#2 also felt fairly abrasion resistant but was less "glassy" feeling on the stone and was less prone to developing a burr that needed pushing around, consistent with what I find from 154CM.

    •#3 felt the softest of the three, but not so soft/easily abraded as I'd expect something like the standard 1095 to be, and so despite the comparatively greater responsivess to abrasion vs. the other two I don't think it's as fine-grained as 440A. It felt similar to abrading one of Condor's 420HC tools.

    HOWEVER, what can be observed by eye and hand alone in a short-term test with a thick edge, especially when my muscle memory is adapted to thinner geometries, means that it could even be none of these, or those same steels in a different order. The differences are small enough that I could even just be imagining it all, or it could (again) be just one steel with slightly different heat treatments. For practical purposes I don't think that there's a clear winner out of the three. Which is pretty much what I expected. It's almost impossible to discern knife steels this way unless they're really radically different from one another, and these ones seem not to be.
     
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  13. erik

    erik Member

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    instead of 420hc, could it have been AEB-L/13C26?
     
  14. FortyTwoBlades

    FortyTwoBlades Moderator Staff Member

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    Definitely not. It didn't respond to the stone like AEB-L would and I doubt that ESEE would use a non-USA steel for their product, which has been a constraint cited in the past.
     
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  15. FortyTwoBlades

    FortyTwoBlades Moderator Staff Member

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    So is MMBackpacker taking Kevo's spot or am I sending 'em to erik? @shaneadams90 -- what say ye?
     
  16. shaneadams90

    shaneadams90 ESEE Knives Marketing Director Staff Member

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    No idea....you guys sort it out amongst yourselves and let us know....I can' t keep track of who has bowed out since I created the original list....I'm not up for substitution....if the person behind you has bowed up it goes the next guy on the list...

    EDIT:
    I reviewed the comments....they go the to the next person on the list ( @erik ). No substitutions....the pass around was closed a while back and we are way behind schedule.
     
  17. shaneadams90

    shaneadams90 ESEE Knives Marketing Director Staff Member

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    Nope....goes to the next person in the list....The Pass around was closed and we have testing to do of our own after this...once we get that done I have promised a Canadian pass around...

    After that....we will see...
     
  18. FortyTwoBlades

    FortyTwoBlades Moderator Staff Member

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    That's what I presumed, but figured it best to check!
     
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  19. FortyTwoBlades

    FortyTwoBlades Moderator Staff Member

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    It's on its way to erik now. Got it all polished back up to a shaving-sharp edge at the factory angle again. Will be interested to find out what steels they are when this is all said and done.
     
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  20. patrickknight

    patrickknight Member

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    I am really excited to see what the end result of this is.
     
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