420HC vs 7Cr17MoV.

Buck's 420HC folders beside its 7Cr17MoV folders

Put the Buck folders named here side by side, 420HC against 7Cr17MoV, and the first difference is style, not steel. On the 420HC side are lockbacks and traditional patterns. The Buck 110 Slim Select Lockback Black pairs a 3.75 inch stonewash clip point with a 4.88 inch closed length, and the Buck SpitFire Lockback puts a 3.25 inch drop point in gray anodized aluminum handles, 4.25 inches closed. The Buck Trapper carries clip and spey blades in wood grain handles with nickel silver bolsters, 3.5 inches closed, and the Buck Toothpick a long clip blade in brown wood handles, 3 inches closed. On the 7Cr17MoV side are framelocks and a linerlock: the Buck Odessa Framelock with a 3.13 inch satin drop point in a satin stainless handle, the Buck Cavalier Framelock with a 3.38 inch stonewash drop point in gray anodized aluminum with a carbon fiber inlay, and the Buck Mini Trace Linerlock Bronze with a 2.38 inch stonewash blade in a bronze skeletonized aluminum handle. Stainless or aluminum on the handle is a separate matter, taken up in aluminum vs stainless steel.

Price does not sort these knives by steel. The 420HC Toothpick costs less than the 7Cr17MoV Odessa, and the 7Cr17MoV Cavalier costs more than the 420HC 110 Slim Select. Among these Buck folders, choosing a style of knife chooses the steel with it, which makes it useful to know what each steel line means before the style decides for you.

The chromium figure and the rust rating disagree

Read the composition lines and 7Cr17MoV looks like the rust-resistant pick: about 17 percent chromium against about 13 to 14 percent in 420HC. The published ratings point the other way. 7Cr17MoV steel is rated very good for corrosion, a rating its record credits to high chromium content and calls roughly comparable to 440A, the pairing worked through in 7Cr17MoV vs 440A. 420HC, with less chromium, is rated excellent. Neither record explains that gap, so this page will not guess at one. The lesson for a shopper is narrower and more useful: chromium is an ingredient, the corrosion rating is the published result, and the rating is the line to compare.

Toughness separates them further. 420HC is rated very good. 7Cr17MoV's record calls its toughness reasonable for a budget stainless, and only "when not over-hardened", a condition set by whoever heat treated the blade rather than by the name on the spec line. Edge holding is where the two meet: both records say modest, and 7Cr17MoV's places it below the D2, AUS-8 and 8Cr13MoV tier. The records also differ in whose work they name. 420HC's credits Buck's proprietary heat treat with setting it apart from generic 420, while 7Cr17MoV's describes a generic Chinese mill grade, not one producer's proprietary steel.

For a folder that rides in a pocket and sees light use, either steel does the job, and a very good rust rating keeps ordinary care simple. For a knife that often gets wet or takes sideways loads, the 420HC ratings leave more margin.

Where each listing says it was made

The steel row is not an origin row, and Buck's own listings show it. The Buck Trapper and the Buck Toothpick are 420HC knives whose listings give China as origin, while the Buck 110 Slim Select Lockback Black and the Buck SpitFire Lockback are 420HC knives whose listings give the USA. On the 7Cr17MoV side, the Odessa, the Cavalier and the Mini Trace each give China. The Gerber listings named here happen to line up by steel. The Gerber Sharkbelly Lockback, a 420HC folder with a 3.5 inch satin sheepsfoot blade, gives the USA, and it costs more than the Gerber Pledge Linerlock Green, a 3.75 inch black oxide coated 7Cr17MoV reverse tanto, or the Gerber Zilch Linerlock Red, a 3 inch stonewash 7Cr17MoV drop point, which each give China. That is a fact about those listings, not a rule, as the Buck Trapper shows.

So a shopper who wants a knife made in a particular country has to read the origin row on each listing, because no steel line on these knives answers that question. Three rows do most of the work, and reading a knife spec sheet walks through each one:

• Steel: the alloy, and through its published ratings the rust, toughness and edge trade. It is silent on where the knife was made.
• Origin: the country that one listing gives. Two knives from one maker in one steel can give different countries.
• Blade and handle: the distributor's own shape, length and material, the part of the knife you notice before the steel.

Read in that order, the steel row settles the trade, the origin row settles the country, and the rest of the listing settles the knife.