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- Sep 6, 2014
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This is not a comprehensive steel analysis or cutting test done in any type of controlled environment. I'm just throwing this out there to give folks and idea how and why I do things the way I do. These are three knives owned by a friend of mine that I hunt and fish with, he is an excellent hunter and usually gets one to two bucks each year in the 140-150 inch range with his gun and his bow. He is also a taxidermist and mounts 25-30 deers heads a year for customers along with Bear and Elk and what ever else comes his way. These 3 knives came back for sharpening prior to the hunting season, 2 are CPM154 and 1 is AEB-L the 4" drop point hunter is CPM154 and is one of his go to knife skinning and butchering deer which he dose about 25-30 a year with. 1 caper is CPM154 and the other is AEB-L. The CPM154 blades are heat treated with a cryo treatment to HRc-61 and the AEB-L blade is heat treated with a cryo treatment to HRc-62.
The 1st knife here is the drop point hunter he brought to me earlier this year for a touch up he went out to the local butcher shops that he deals with for capes and skins the deer out and pays the butcher who pays the hunters for the capes. He took the sharpened knife and skinned 10 deer with it and brought it back to me to take a look at while I sharpened some other knives he had. Anyhow I looked at the knife and it was still very sharp, not quite how it was when I first sharpened it but still very sharp. All he did was to maintain the edge was lightly stroke it on a smooth steel once or twice during the course of skinning the 10 deer. The knife didn't need it but I took it over to the buffing wheel with the green chrome rouge gave it a quick strop and that was it.
CPM154
The next 2 knives are the caping knives, the 1st one CPM154 and the 2nd one AEB-L, He has been using both of these knives for the finer detail work around the eyes, lips and antler bases. Something important to note here is when skinning a cape out for a shoulder mount is the hide around the antler bases is very tough and adhered to skull extremely firmly, and in an awkward place to remove. So what does this mean? It means the blade of the knife is inevitably going to come into contact with the skull bone. And why am I telling you all of this? Because in this particular scenario the AEB-L actually out performs the CPM154. Why does the AEB-L out perform the CPM154? Because both knives being used equally the CPM154 blade came back with a lot of little micro chips in the edge, it still had a functional edge but was getting ratty with all the bone contact and scraping. The AEB-L just blunted down and stayed smooth and un-chipped throughout use. One thing important to note is the AEB-L blade was ground thinner at the to begin with, the CPM154 blades are 0.020" prior to sharpening and the AEB-L was 0.010", this was an experiment of mine just to see how it work out in real field use. AEB-L is about the toughest stainless steel out there at goal hardness it is about twice as tough as CPM154 so that's why I didn't hesitate to make the edge thinner to begin with, so the also helped its performance no doubt.
CPM154
AEB-L
All this being said, there is no doubt in my mind that for general field use that the CPM154 with its hight carbide content would out perform AEB-L in edge retention area. I talk with my friend about caping on occasion and I've actually done it myself and getting the fur off of the antler bases can be a real bear. He sometimes resorts to a sharpened screw driver, I've actually used a wood chisel and a pliers, so yes caping is hard on an edge. And caping deer is not a everyday task most sportsmen or women would engage in.
The 1st knife here is the drop point hunter he brought to me earlier this year for a touch up he went out to the local butcher shops that he deals with for capes and skins the deer out and pays the butcher who pays the hunters for the capes. He took the sharpened knife and skinned 10 deer with it and brought it back to me to take a look at while I sharpened some other knives he had. Anyhow I looked at the knife and it was still very sharp, not quite how it was when I first sharpened it but still very sharp. All he did was to maintain the edge was lightly stroke it on a smooth steel once or twice during the course of skinning the 10 deer. The knife didn't need it but I took it over to the buffing wheel with the green chrome rouge gave it a quick strop and that was it.
CPM154
The next 2 knives are the caping knives, the 1st one CPM154 and the 2nd one AEB-L, He has been using both of these knives for the finer detail work around the eyes, lips and antler bases. Something important to note here is when skinning a cape out for a shoulder mount is the hide around the antler bases is very tough and adhered to skull extremely firmly, and in an awkward place to remove. So what does this mean? It means the blade of the knife is inevitably going to come into contact with the skull bone. And why am I telling you all of this? Because in this particular scenario the AEB-L actually out performs the CPM154. Why does the AEB-L out perform the CPM154? Because both knives being used equally the CPM154 blade came back with a lot of little micro chips in the edge, it still had a functional edge but was getting ratty with all the bone contact and scraping. The AEB-L just blunted down and stayed smooth and un-chipped throughout use. One thing important to note is the AEB-L blade was ground thinner at the to begin with, the CPM154 blades are 0.020" prior to sharpening and the AEB-L was 0.010", this was an experiment of mine just to see how it work out in real field use. AEB-L is about the toughest stainless steel out there at goal hardness it is about twice as tough as CPM154 so that's why I didn't hesitate to make the edge thinner to begin with, so the also helped its performance no doubt.
CPM154
AEB-L
All this being said, there is no doubt in my mind that for general field use that the CPM154 with its hight carbide content would out perform AEB-L in edge retention area. I talk with my friend about caping on occasion and I've actually done it myself and getting the fur off of the antler bases can be a real bear. He sometimes resorts to a sharpened screw driver, I've actually used a wood chisel and a pliers, so yes caping is hard on an edge. And caping deer is not a everyday task most sportsmen or women would engage in.
