My new Jonathan Mcnees blade and my Mcnees collection

Tactical Gear Tactical Lights, Lasers & Knives
1

I asked Jonathan to make me a knife and gave him some ideas about shape, size, color etc and told him to run with it and create something. This is the RSL (my initials) prototype. Blade is 1095, just about 5 1/4" long and the handles are black with blue liners.



…And the rest of the collection:

2

very nice. is 1095 considered a premium knife steel now?

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I’m pretty sure RAT/ESEE uses it. Its inexpensive compared to S30V, holds a great edge and will work hard, is very easy to sharpen, a hamon line is on all of his 1095 blades also.

4

yes they do. partially why I asked…

I also was told that the steel is less important than the harden but I have some nice knives and they all have the better brands of steel including an A2 tool steel BlackJack Trail Guide.

I wasn’t ridiculing, I just wanted to know…

5

I hope I didn’t come off as being defensive. I wasn’t being in any way. I was just giving the info with the best of my knowledge. The maker sends his knives off for heat treat because he’s been too busy to do it himself which will slow him down. Hope you like his knives ra2bach

6

Beautiful blade pal, just another stunner in collection.

Really neat how you got the prototype named after yourself, LMT was going to call the MRP the AFC but I am modest and all:sarcastic:

This newest one looks like it might balance better than all the previous ones.

Thanks for sharing:)

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Thanks Trident! This knife is a beast. Well balanced and comfortable. Good to hear from you man.

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nope, didn’t take any offense. I was just asking sincerely as I’m currently looking at two different but similar knives - one an ESEE and the other a RAT cutlery, made in D2 tool steel.

a discussion on bladeforums says the D2 is what anvils are made of - tough stuff - but that the heat treat is more important overall than the original material. that said, two knives both with a good heat treat but different steels, the better steel would be better, right?

it also says that the 1095 Carbon steel that the ESEE knives are made from is different than the plain 1095 and is an excellent hard use steel. I don’t know… someone else called it 1095 CRO-VAN. what’s that???

anyway, I don’t want to hijack your thread anymore. that’s a beautiful knife and I’m sure it’s built right. congratulations…

9

From British Blades Forum–a reply from KaBar on the difference between 1095, 1095 Cro-Van, and other names for almost the same steel…

[i]Re: 1095 and 1095 cro van

Question as answered by KA-BAR:

I’ll give you the 50cent tour of our steel and hope that it answers your question.

Yes, our steel is indeed, the now defunct, Sharon Steel Co. 170-06.

Long ago (way before Mike Stewart) the knife industry did in fact call Sharon 170-06 : Cro-Van or 1095 Cro-Van or 1095CV. Not just as a marketing name but actually on POs and specs and shop documents.

Notice that Case also calls their carbon steel: Cro-Van. A look through old turn-of-the century advertising literature and catalogs will confirm this for you. Also remember that Case, KA-BAR, Alcas (Cutco) were all related (Not to mention Platts (Western), Cattaraugus, Robeson, Kinfolks ,Champlin, Crandal, et al.) All located in South Western NY/North Western PA. So there was a lot of cross- over of personnel and knowledge between the companies. We are still on very friendly terms with Case even though the blood connection no longer exists. Also Sharon Steel was in Sharon, PA. A look on the map will show you why they supplied the turn-of-the-century knife industry.

If you look at the Chemical composition of 170-06, it is basically AISI 1095 with the addition of small amounts of Chrome, Vanadium, and smaller amounts of Nickel and Moly so the term 1095 Cro-Van is not off base.

For many years we called Cro-Van just 1095 in our advertising literature, but went back to calling it 1095 Cro-Van as it is a better steel than just straight 1095,

and we felt there were advantages to making the distinction. We did that in 2005. We make no attempt to hide the fact that it is 170-06. Nor do we make extravagant claims for the steel.

1095 Cro-Van is just the name we have always used.

I hope this answers your question. If you have further, feel free to e-mail me directly at [email]pault@ka-bar.com[/email]



Best Regards,


Paul Tsujimoto

Sr. Engineer

Product Development & Quality

Ka-Bar Knives

[/i]

10

cool. thanks…

I guess the CRO (chromium) and VAN (vanadium) are added to help with rust resistance?