All purpose fixed blade steel?

rodriguez7 said:
So I'm having a custom made, and I'm having a hard time choosing the steel! It's going to be an all around, hunting blade, main uses are skinning, butchering animals, chopping wood, general camp chores, battoning wood for fires. The steel choices I'm going with, are 52100, A2, 80crv2, and possibly o1.
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If I'm paying someone to make me a custom product, I hope they know more about said product than I do. So I'll take whatever they recommend.

As far as the 4 steels listed go, I love 52100 so I'd generally pick it. As has already been stated though, steel type is only one variable.

I don't know how to heat treat, but I have a belt grinder. I could make you a knife out of M390, but it's not likely to perform any better than Buck's 420hc.(probably much worse.)
 
I'm leaning more towards 52100. Anyone have any experience with this steel in a skinning knife? Wondering how the edge retention is with a good heat treat?
 
rodriguez7 said:
I'm leaning more towards 52100. Anyone have any experience with this steel in a skinning knife? Wondering how the edge retention is with a good heat treat?
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It's what I use but the geometry of it also matters. Contact knife maker G.L. Drew here on the forum. He uses 52100 and will teach you all about it. His 52100 is highly praised as well
 
52100 would have the best edge retention but most prone for oxidation
A2 and O1 are almost identical, good al-round steel, tougher bit less edge retention (maybe A2 is a bit less oxidation sensitive than O1)
80crv2 is the toughest of the 4.
 
If you got 4 unmarked blades in O1, 52100, A2, & 80CrV2, I think it would be blind luck if you could tell which was which, aside from A2 being a bit more corrosion resistant
 
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