It seems that every time I look a knife manufactures catalog or web site these days, I see a new blade steel that I have never heard of before. In fact, I still remember the days when 440C was the first choice among custom bladesmiths, 154CM was just starting to make inroads, and Bob Dozier had yet to popularize the use of D2. Continue Reading

When it comes to blade steels, there are four factors that affect the blade’s performance which are: edge stability, abrasion resistance, tensile strength, and corrosion resistance and each of these qualities is affected by the size of the carbides formed during melting. Therefore, the perfect blade steel is strong, hard, tough, abrasion resistant, corrosion resistant, and holds an edge well. However, several of these factors are inversely proportional to one another. For instance, by increasing hardness, you decrease toughness and by increasing toughness, you decrease hardness. So, if you make the steel too hard, it may break or shatter in use but, if you make the steel too soft, then it won’t hold an edge. Continue Reading

In this article, I am going to focus specifically on traditional pocket knifes. Traditional pocket knives come in many different distinct designs such as the English Jack Knife, the Pen Knife, the Barlow, the Stockman, the Sow Belly Stockman, the Congress, the Whittler, the Canoe, the Coke Bottle, the Gun Stock, the Sunfish, the Trapper, the Muskrat, the Peanut, the Copperhead, and the Texas Toothpick, ect., in addition to several specialty patterns such as the Electrician’s knife, the Doctor’s knife, the Fruit Tester’s knife, the Boy Scout Knife, and the Swiss Army Knife. Continue Reading

Bushcraft knives are in a league of their own. Unlike most everyday carry knives, they do not care much for concealment as much as sheer strength and dependability. Just so we’re on the same page, bushcraft knives are not the same as Rambo-type knives that looks more like bladed clubs. Bushcraft knives are often fixed blade knives and most have a full tang construction that are built for medium to heavy camping tasks. Most are used for general cutting like ropes and food preparation all the way to heavier tasks like batoning. Bushcrafting is a relatively new practice and there are still those who do not know just exactly what it is. It is simply combining the survival practices of the ancients tribes and more modern military personnel. Continue Reading

Before we can determine which few hunting knives out of all of the hunting knives available today are the best of the best, we must first determine what defines a good hunting knife. Then, we must determine what makes a good hunting knife a great hunting knife. Therefore, for the purpose of this article, I have chosen seven hunting knives that I feel are the best hunting knives on the market today based upon their blade design, blade steel, and the materials used to construct the hilt.

But, what makes a good hunting knife a great hunting knife? Well, the first step to evaluating a hunting knife is to examine the design of the blade. For instance, hunting knives generally fall into one of three categories: Drop Points, Clip Continue Reading

Benchmade 710Below are the top selling 3″- 4″ blade EDC (Every Day Carry) best pocket knives currently available from the top 2 production knife companies. These knives are on top for a reason. They are proven designs from the industries leaders. Continue Reading