it is a good and tough knife steel

by bj , Wednesday, April 25, 2012, 19:38 (4389 days ago) @ Art

1095 is a very tough steel.

I grew up being careful with my knives- cut things but don't use a knife for chopping or prying. My father used to give me his old knives, mostly knives with broken tips. Well a good steel is more resistant to this type of thing. I've been focused on the good state of the art stainless steels, they are hard and can hold a good edge, but they aren't very tough. 1095 on the other hand is very tough even though it isn't rust resistant.

Look up Becker knives on the internet, and in particular look up destruction tests of Becker knives on youtube. This brand among others uses 1095, and they make very tough knives. I've watched tests where they chopped through 2x4's, splintered bricks, punched holes in sheet metal, etc. They do a lot of this and all it does is to slightly dull the edge. Another test that I've seen that is interesting is when they stab the knife point into the broad side of a 2x4 as hard as they can, then bend the knife over sideways until it breaks out a chunk of wood. They do this repeatedly until they cut a hole completely through the 2x4. Stabbing a 1095 blade into a piece of wood and breaking out the wood by using the knife as a pry bar shows the toughness of that steel.