1095 Knife Steel?

[jcn59]

I like a high carbon steel blade, especially with a touch of vanadium, maybe chromium & a bit of other stuff.  I'm no metalurgist which should be clear by now.   I've always thought of plain old 1095 as being car leaf spring material.  I've seen it used in knives for years in K-bars, old Chicago Cutlery, Case knives, and other older knives.  Generally these were moderately priced, honest value knives.  Then came stainless which was the hot-snot for many years.  Now I'm starting to see some hundred dollar 1095 steel knives being advertised.  That seems like a terrible price for a plain-jane knife made out of car leaf spring steel. 
 
Why the high price?

[Keith1]

jcn59,
My answer to your question about a knife being expensive is that EVERYTHING is more expensive and about to get MUCH more expensive. The Federal Reserve has printed all of those TRILLIONS of dollars and where have they went? They have went into the stock market and commodities is where the dollars went.
 
When I was a kid a hamburger cost $0.25 cents. Last night I bought one that cost $9.70. Now that's some increase don't you think?
 
If you don't like the prices now just wait a little while and you sure want like them.
 
Regards, Keith

[gcrank1]

It takes just as much work to make a knife out of good steel as 'bad', or CS vs SS. Start adding up the time a guy puts into a nicely done one and you'll see why a lot of makers dont want to work for $5/hr anymore. My local mainline auto dealer gets about $60/hr, so 1.5hrs on my car to bill at $90 wouldnt have them making me much of a knife, even if they salvaged a car spring to do it.

Keith, I agree, before this last QE-2 the dollar was really worth about 2c, now that they doubled the money supply it will 'slowly' be realized to 1c of purchase power; its mathematical, but they figure we all went to public school so we dont know how to cipher it out. All I know is that everything Ive worked for and saved since 1971 is gone by probably 2015.

[inthebeech]

Leaf springs from Ford trucks are 5160 steel; I get cut offs from dealers who replace OEM springs and they still have all of the tracking information on the sticker which is on the part that they cut off.  Ironically you've stumbled on an alloy that is one of the absolute best available.  It is about all I use these days, along with 1084.  Properly forged and heat treated, and with the proper edge geometry, these blades are awesome in terms of capabilities and combination of strength, toughness yet flexibility.  Any knive can be a three hundred dollar knife.  It is all in the labor and not in the material cost.

[Karl B. Andersen]

1095 would not make a very good leaf spring. Maybe 1084, but most are made of 5160 because of the deep hardening aspects.
That said, most prices for knives has very little to do with steel costs when considering mono grade steels. Most of the prices are determined by the complexity of the knife's construction, which equate more time of production by the maker.
I use 1095 all the time and a hundred dollars wouldn't even come close to my base price.

[jamaldog87]

my Gurkha Kukri is made of of jeep leaf springs and it cost 14.99 unsharpen. I asked at a knife store how much to sharpen it and he said "15-30$ depending on how much time it takes". if you buy it already sharpen it cost 45 + dollars. I kind of messed up when i sharpen mines but it took a long time and a lot of effort on my part to get it as shrap as i like(about 1/2 hour for 3 days off and on with a wet stone).
 
to me why the high prices are , time it takes on each knife and supply and demand.  I have a CKRT M16Z pocket knife that i got used for 5$ and they cost at least 40$.

[jcn59]

You are ALIVE!   I haven't heard from you since you told about the 43 racoons and 7 alligators you shot one night in the Everglades with your pellet rifle!  I always enjoyed your posts.

Thank you for your input.  I would sometime like to see how they grind knives in a production facility.

[SHOOTALL]

they cost what they do because people will pay it . Think advertising , its working . But then the quality is better in many cases . Case the long time standard won't hold a candle to a Benchmade knife and the price is not that far apart on some models. There is relief the Griptalon by Benchmade is the Glock of knives    check one out , plastic scales with a good locking system and blade .

[HL]

There is nothing wrong with 1095 High Carbon Steel. If properly heat treated and tempered, it will serve you just as well as the fancier stainless steels. With most of the knives I have made, I used ATS-34 and good quality 440C.
I have a couple of 1095's I made that hold an edge just about as well as those. Also, I like the aged tarnish look of the 1095 HC Steel. No rust, just charactered tarnish.
But, speaking of price, the same amount of labor goes into making a knive with 1095 as it does with most of the other stainless tool steels, which means, other than the cost of the raw material, cost is the same.