Made out of 1086V, this steel is ridiculously strong and hard to grind. A Kid named Felix ordered this knife and gave me the design he wanted, it includes a mean scull crusher a false to swedge to make it legal for him to carry it. I used a Brass guard and turned it black with Brass Black, by the way works great. The knife is very rustic and mean looking, I left some of the heat treat scale on it except for around the hollow grind I hot blued that and over the whole blade. It's over a 1/4" thick and I guarantee it will not break, I'd love for him to pound it straight through a concrete block to test it but I'm sure he won't want to do that since it's his.