Information

[Jon Stewart]

Someone on another site wants to swap a deer hide that I have for a knife that he made with a sturdy sheath (he says, I haven't seen the sheath).  The knife looks good.  He said it's made out of 1040 what ever that means.  That is my question for you knife makers.  Is 1040 good knife material?

[akaboomer]

To my understanding 1040 has to low of a carbon content to make an outstanding knife. It works great for truck axles and hammers but I would prefer a higher carbon content for a knife. The carbon allows for hardening and with that low of percentage it probably won't get the Rockwell hardness you would want in a knife. Perhaps someone with more metalergic understanding will chime in.

Chris

[gudspelr]

I guess it comes down to what you want to do with the knife. If it's to be a heavy user knife, skin a bunch of deer, that kind of thing, not sure 1040 is what you'd want, just like said above. As Karl Andersen, JS, says a knife will cut as well as it's edge geometry and will cut for as long as the heat treatment was good (or something close to that).

This is important for you because of the carbon content. Too little carbon in it and the steel won't harden sufficiently to hold an edge for very long. It could be a perfectly ground knife and be sharp as all get out, but with the softer (low carbon) steel, it won't hold that edge for long and you'll be sharpening all the time. And that's all if the maker absolutely nailed the heat treat to get the max hardness for 1040.  So, that's why I say it depends a bit on what you plan to do with the knife. Hope that helps.

Jeremy

[Lin Rhea]

The "40" in the 1040 is the carbon content. That steel has in the neighborhood of 40 "points" of carbon. Another way of saying it is that it has .040 percent carbon. Still another, 4/10 of one percent.

That's a little low to make a durable knife. It needs 50 points or better, in my opinion. Think about the common numeric names of the steels that the knife makers often mention. 5160, 1084, 1095, etc. The last two numbers are the carbon designation. Whent he carbon reaches a full one percent such as in 52100, the last three numbers apply.