I carefully chose each component material to handle the duty and loads it could be exposed to. Martensitic stainless steels are hardenable, durable, and resist corrosion making the overall product more resilient and long lasting in just about every way.

  Every component in these knives is stainless steel, except for the neodymium magnet and the tungsten carbide glass breaker tip. All the major components (Handle, blade, bolt-lever) go the extra mile by being passivated as a last step to further improve corrosion resistance.

Passivation is an acidic bath run in a controlled temperature per ASTM standards to remove free Fe(iron) from the surface of the Stainless Steel. Free-Fe can be introduced from High-speed steel tooling, contaminated media during grinding or finishing, or just molecular structure, these Fe atoms along the exposed Stainless surface would be the initial oxide site from where corrosion would start.

Using the UPK-M1, my first product, here is a chart identifying the material choice and some of its key performance characteristics per part.