Re: American Kami Knives?
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: elephantrider</div><div class="ubbcode-body">I've never handled one of his knives, but I can give you an assessment based on what I've seen on his website, and my own knife making experience.
All of his knives are made from 1095 steel. 1095 is a carbon steel (meaning it needs to be oiled/protected or it will rust fairly easily). 1095 is also one of the cheapest steels you can make a knife out of. The raw material for each blade only costs a few dollars. They are all chisel ground (shaped on one side only) and hollow ground (meaning they were ground against a wheel, so the grind is concave vs. flat or convex). Nothing particularly wrong with a hollow grind, but it is probably best suited to a lot of fine cutting work than heavy duty use. They are all differentially heat treated meaning that only the cutting edge is fully hardened.
Overall I think his knives are overpriced for what they are. He starts with the cheapest steel out there and spends a lot of time fixing the problems with the crappy stock material to make a nicely crafted knife that will have so, so performance. He does have a lot of skill in his grinding abilities and the stuff you see on on his site reflects that.
Not sure what you want it for, but I think you can get a lot more knife for $400 than that friction folder. I would look for something made from a CPM steel; CPM S30V, CPM 154CM, and CPM S35V are all great stainless steels. CPM 3V is awesome if you want a super tough non-stainless steel. </div></div>
I couldn't have said it better myself!!!
For a folder with awesome edge retention M390 is hard to beat in stainless. I've carried a Benchmade 710 for about 15yrs. My current one has a M390 blade with a convex edge.
IMHO 1095 is better left for less expensive sharpened pry bars or chopping implements.
I have no use for anything that's hollow ground.
