which type of steel will work best in extreme cold weather?

Brommeland said:
My comments, as well as those of several others, were aimed at pointing out to you problems that you obviously do not know exist. This was done in an effort to help you.

I cannot speak for anyone else here, but I'm starting to lose some of the concern that I felt for you earlier.
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did I ask for your help on anything other then knife steel? you're not my parents I don't care if you have concerns for me. I'm asking advice on whitch steel will preform best on my trip not if I should bring my pillow case with the red dolphin on it. brommeland I have no other comments to your unhelpfull post.
 
This may be a really stupid question.....

But what would one practically be DOING with a knife at -40 temps? I have absolutely no experience with temps like this, but if what some of the other members have said is true, it sounds like game processing and firewood processing is basically impossible because everything with any moisture is frozen rock hard.
Am I wrong? Seems like knife usage is a pretty important part of choosing what knife to purchase. And the op was not very specific as to what he was going to be doing with that knife....just "General survival" and skinning. Seems like there wouldn't be many knife related tasks in either category at those temps, due to everything being frozen.
 
I live in Ontario Canada(the more southern part of Canada), and it has been -30 here no problem and steady for long periods of time, in the arctic circle I'd imagine higher temps which is why I said -40 for even onger periods of time. and in an emergency situation I would 100% like to have a knife for survival, skinning animals and whatever else, even if it was a broken piece of garbage i'd want one
 
tomwilson77 said:
I live in Ontario Canada(the more southern part of Canada), and it has been -30 here no problem and steady for long periods of time, in the arctic circle I'd imagine higher temps which is why I said -40 for even onger periods of time. and in an emergency situation I would 100% like to have a knife for survival, skinning animals and whatever else, even if it was a broken piece of garbage i'd want one
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Fair enough....I figured that was the case but was genuinely curious.
 
tomwilson77 said:
did I ask for your help on anything other then knife steel? you're not my parents I don't care if you have concerns for me. I'm asking advice on whitch steel will preform best on my trip not if I should bring my pillow case with the red dolphin on it. brommeland I have no other comments to your unhelpfull post.
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Haha!! Some people man I'm telling you. I had this issue earlier with people going off on their own self righteous tangents and not answering the question. You posted a simple question. End of story. If you die from freezing, or cutting your jugular while hacking a seal to death then that's your problem.

Now to your question again.. The CPM 3V is a great steel that you WILL NOT be able to sharpen quickly. If you are an experienced sharpener then OK but it doesn't seem like you are. A solution to this would be the WorkSharp portable belt sander. This set is about $100. I would DEFINITELY recommending practicing on some cheap blades though. When I started I used cheap kitchen knives from a thrift store and practiced until I was confident to put an expensive blade to a sander/grinder. The nice thing is when you get good at it, you can sharpen any steel to a hair-shaving edge in less than 10 min.



[video=youtube;F3MlkabgqYM]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3MlkabgqYM[/video]
 
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GlockandBalls said:
Haha!! Some people man I'm telling you. I had this issue earlier with people going off on their own self righteous tangents and not answering the question. You posted a simple question. End of story. If you die from freezing, or cutting your jugular while hacking a seal to death then that's your problem.
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Funny how you chose to go off topic on a tangent about a belt sander. :D
 
tomwilson77 said:
I live in Ontario Canada(the more southern part of Canada), and it has been -30 here no problem and steady for long periods of time, in the arctic circle I'd imagine higher temps which is why I said -40 for even onger periods of time. and in an emergency situation I would 100% like to have a knife for survival, skinning animals and whatever else, even if it was a broken piece of garbage i'd want one
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Then what knife steel do you use at home? It will probasbly work where it is ten degrees lower (not, as you say, "higher").
 
marcinek said:
Funny how you chose to go off topic on a tangent about a belt sander. :D
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My tangent was directly linked to the OP's consideration of CPM 3V and his potential inability to sharpen it. I know he will find it helpful which is my purpose here. It's much more relevant than questioning his judgment, personality, and grammar. This is very very simple logic which is not hard for most to comprehend. It's divisible down to the root of the issue and can certainly be understood by the simplest of minds. Here I'll do the math for you:

Request for steel by novice + Consideration of CPM 3V = Help with possible sharpening options.

The key part of my equation is the word HELP. That is what I like to offer people. It's nice to take the time to extend a hand.
 
tomwilson77 said:
actually calc everything you listed was considered or will be considered I let my audience know exactly what I wanted to let them know. whodo you think you are coming on here and saying stuff like that. you and brommeland are nothing but bullies
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And... who do you think you are? It doesn't sound like you know half as much as you think you do. I'm trying to gently nudge you in the right direction, but you insist upon creating friction where there need not be. If you had actually thought of all those factors beforehand, you wouldn't be asking a question as obtuse as yours is. You really need to take a step back and think about what you know, what you don't know, and what you actually need.

I'm sorry, but it needed to be said. Your question needs so much more context, so much more criteria, and so much more direction to actually be answered accurately. Believe it or not, the people answering you are trying to help you as those before them helped them when they were in your position. The difference is that they were a bit more willing to listen.

marcinek said:
Funny how you chose to go off topic on a tangent about a belt sander. :D
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Exactly - steels depend on other factors, e.g., sharpening methods and tools. The OP is accepting of these answers not because they're not off topic, but because they give them the answer they're looking for.
 
H13 or other nickel high temperature steel like L6.

Titanium + tungsten carbides would be better.

Maraging steel would be best...
 
I had thought of maraging steel too but my experience was a long time ago .And we never used it in the cold ! They have many types now even a stainless one. They do make fencing swords with it but that's a different thing. Of course in extreme conditions you would sacrifice things like hardness for toughness .I was hoping someone had actual usage at very low temps.

I don't understand why anyone thinks 3V is hard to sharpen .First it hold an edge very well and if diamond is used it's easy to sharpen !!
 
Trying to perform complex motor skills at those temperatures is a fun fiction. However, on some commercial fishing work we just had some cheap vitorinox and dexter butchers. If those worked, I'm sure anything most members here are into will be fine. Forget about impact tasks though, some will just shatter.
 
glockandballs- ahah thanks for your posts was hoping someone would see whats going on and call him out lol. thinkin cpm3v is peftect. emailed bark river and they recommended it for my conditions. I just bought a whetstone today so im going to start practicing with my old pocketknives made from stainless. think 1 side is 2000 grit and other is 3000. I chose the whetstone because there is a very limited amount of electricity up there, if any. but that wrksharp thing looks wicked!

marcinek- I only own a couple of stainless pocket and fillet knives. which have held up well. and probably would do great. but I would like a hunting knife and they come in so many different kinds of steel its crazy

Idaho- Great stuff, had to look up "maraging steel" and wiki actuallty gives a great breakdown of it. it even lists the nickel percentage!! why haven't I found any knife company's to be using this stuff.

mete- that's good to hear abut the cpm3v lol, do you happen to know the maker of the knife with the maraging steel?

b34ns- deffinitly not many impact tasks, heard many stories of knives fracturing at -25.

lastly calc, I feel the same way about you.. and im sure a moderator or admin on this forum would too.. "sound like you know half as much as you think you do". im the one asking the question you idiot! why act like that man? glockandballs said it perfectly, what do you want from me? I posted all the criteria that I had for this post and your chirpin me for what? so what if i'm not as experienced as you when it comes to knives. get a grip dude. go squeeze your stress ball.
 
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tomwilson77 said:
calc, I feel the same way about you.. and im sure a moderator or admin on this forum would too.. "sound like you know half as much as you think you do". im the one asking the question you idiot! why act like that man? glockandballs said it perfectly, what do you want from me? I posted all the criteria that I had for this post and your chirpin me for what? so what if i'm not as experienced as you when it comes to knives. get a grip dude. go squeeze your stress ball.
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Alright kid, if you're going to start with insults, I'm done trying to help you. You really wasted a great opportunity to use the resources on here.

If you're fine being ignorant, go ahead and stay ignorant. But I'd you'd actually like to learn useful information in the future, I wouldn't recommend the abrasive tone you're using.
 
calc said:
Alright kid, if you're going to start with insults, I'm done trying to help you. You really wasted a great opportunity to use the resources on here.

If you're fine being ignorant, go ahead and stay ignorant. But I'd you'd actually like to learn useful information in the future, I wouldn't recommend the abrasive tone you're using.
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Yep...

And I'm pretty sure your questions have been answered op, so why do you continue to drag this on?
 
I've got an idea, let's just alienate all new members. We should make them feel uncomfortable and ignorant for not knowing as much as other members on here. This should bode well.
 
calc you've done nothng but talk down upon my post and contribute nothing helpful at all. get lost. that simple man, same with you blue bender, wtf are you talking about my question is still obviously open to more information, did you even ready any of this thread. you guys are really something else.
 
tomwilson77 said:
glockandballs- ahah thanks for your posts was hoping someone would see whats going on and call him out lol. thinkin cpm3v is peftect. emailed bark river and they recommended it for my conditions. I just bought a whetstone today so im going to start practicing with my old pocketknives made from stainless. think 1 side is 2000 grit and other is 3000. I chose the whetstone because there is a very limited amount of electricity up there, if any. but that wrksharp thing looks wicked!
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Right on man. Good luck. The BR is a convex edge which has excellent retention and cutting ability but again is VERY hard to sharpen for a novice. That fact along with a super steel like CPM 3v = A very difficult task to sharpen. I am telling you man. Do your research. A Hollow Grind will be much easier for you. A convex edge has no consistent angle to it. It bevels to the edge. A hollow grind has a dedicated angle that you can follow along your sharpener. Having said this. The Fallknivens have a convex as well. Something like the San Mai III SRK may be the ticket. You can use the WorkSharp sharpener below and be done in 15 minutes. Its only $25 and has a bunch of features. I swear by mine in the field.



 
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