12C27 vs other stainless steels

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Brutus013

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Has anyone had experience with this steel? I just won an EKA Swede 88 on eBay, and it uses this swedish steel. I know Kershaw uses 13C26 and that it is comparable to AUS 8, but how doe 12C27 stand up?
 
I have an EKA H8 and I think the stainless is 12C27, but am not sure. At least three of my Bark River knives use 12C27, and it's a fine stainless. I like it less than my favorite stainless, 154CM, but all in all it sharpens well and holds an edge reasonably well. It may be that my Helle and some of my Moras use 12C27, but again I'm not sure. All are just fine.
 
I think my Mora 760mg has this steel.

It's shown wonderful corrosion resistance, better than most other stainless steels I've used. The thin geometry has held up fine to rougher uses like being batoned through metal and wood. The blade also took a near 90 degree bend before it snapped when I tested how easily it would break when being pried. Gets very sharp and gets there easily, though some of this is due to the thin edge the Mora comes with. These types of edges will sharpen much quicker than a thicker edge bevel. I do use a microbevel on it though. An extremely light one. I grind the main bevel on a DMT stone, then use 1200 grit sandpaper or my DMT fine stone to apply an extremely light microbevel.

I did use one of these knives as my "skateboard knife" for a few decks. The edge received some rolling and light chipping when I used it to slice griptape for skateboards, but in all fairness this is probably the most abusive thing I've ever cut with a knife. The damage was a bit more severe than other knives with thicker edges I've tried this with. A more appropriate tool for this particular use is a box cutter, but that's no fun. :)

I really like the steel and I've planned on getting a custom of either 12C27 or 13C26 at max hardness to see how they perform.
 
I've had various French Laguiole (spelling?) knives that had 12C27 blades and found them decent for EDC - easy to sharpen to a truly wicked edge, but not a high performance steel (like M2, for example) since the edge becomes dull faster. For most tasks, no issues, though.
 
StretchNM said:
I have an EKA H8 and I think the stainless is 12C27, but am not sure. At least three of my Bark River knives use 12C27, and it's a fine stainless. I like it less than my favorite stainless, 154CM, but all in all it sharpens well and holds an edge reasonably well. It may be that my Helle and some of my Moras use 12C27, but again I'm not sure. All are just fine.
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Hi StretchNM,
All EKAs, stainless Moras, stainless Laguioles, Helles, Bruslettos, Opinels and some Bark Rivers uses 12C27.

//Jerker
 
Brutus013 said:
Has anyone had experience with this steel? I just won an EKA Swede 88 on eBay, and it uses this swedish steel. I know Kershaw uses 13C26 and that it is comparable to AUS 8, but how doe 12C27 stand up?
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Hi Brutus013,
I work for Sandvik, technical support for knife steels, and will try to answer.

EKA Swede 88 is made from 12C27, like all other EKAs. 12C27 is a fine carbide stainless. In short that means higher toughness, easier to sharpen, reaches higher sharpness, better edge stability but slightly lower wear resistance than coarse carbide grades like 440C, D2, AUS 8 etc. I would personally not say it's equal to AUS 8 since the steels are fundamentaly different in their carbide structure, fine vs coarse. If you want our view please check out the info on this web site I made. Have a look and comment or ask questions and I will do my best to answer.

www.smt.sandvik.com/hardeningguide

Regards
//Jerker
 
Razorsharp244 said:
Hi Brutus013,
I work for Sandvik, technical support for knife steels, and will try to answer.

EKA Swede 88 is made from 12C27, like all other EKAs. 12C27 is a fine carbide stainless. In short that means higher toughness, easier to sharpen, reaches higher sharpness, better edge stability but slightly lower wear resistance than coarse carbide grades like 440C, D2, AUS 8 etc. I would personally not say it's equal to AUS 8 since the steels are fundamentaly different in their carbide structure, fine vs coarse. If you want our view please check out the info on this web site I made. Have a look and comment or ask questions and I will do my best to answer.

www.smt.sandvik.com/hardeningguide

Regards
//Jerker
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Ah, sounds like a very nice fit for a knife like the 88. I'll probably end up buying at least a couple more EKAs after a while, I really like the Swede 60 and the T8 as well.

Edit: Also, there are some great pictures on your website, I especially like the one where you can actually see the carbide in the 12C27 compared to the 440C, very impressive.
 
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The 88 is a nice little knife. Sharpens up easily, takes a pretty keen edge, holds it well enough for most usage. Nice score.

Frank
 
Oh yeah, do any of you happen to know what angle they sharpen their edges to? I'm pretty sure they don't use a scandi grind...
 
These_Nutz said:
Its the only steel i can get to whittle a hair.
Great steel but doesnt hold an edge long.
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Hi These-Nutz,
Having the job i have I have to ask. What do you mean by not holding the edge? Is it because of sheer wear resistance (cutting something abrasive)? Is it due to edge-rolling (the edge rolls or folds slightly when cutting "hard" with it? Or does it chip? These three things are what we find to be the reasons for poor edge retention. Corrosion is number 4 but it's not so common that the edge fails due to corrosion.

Generally speaking our steel does not chip, compared to other steels out there. It does roll however which we believe is "kinda good". Good because with a quick touch up it's razorsharp again. If it didn't roll it would chip which is a real hassle to grind out of a blade.

I have a 12C27 EKA kitchen knife which I used for every day for 1 year without sharpening. I like to cook and I always use fresh ingredients so this knife saw quite a bit of cutting for that year. I only steeled the knife quite often. After one year it 'almost' shaved hair.

When it comes to wear resistance it's VERY complicated. On a CATRA-test with paper doped in sand (silicon oxide) our fine-carbide steels loose against coarse grades. All fine-grain loose to all coarse-grain, doesn't matter who makes it. BUT if the CATRA with manilla-rope is used it's a whole different story. Then steels like 12C27 will measure up to just about any steel out there. I think that it's because the oxides in the CATRA-paper are the same size as the carbides in 440C, 154CM or D2 for instance which means they only bump each other. While the fine carbides tend to be "dug out" by the oxides.

So my question at last. What did you cut? And which grade did you compare 12C27 to? My experience is that what you cut is very important to how the blade performs in terms of edge-retention.

Sandvik believes that the most common reason for edge-failure is chipping and rolling, not pure wear resistance. That is one of the major reasons for our development of fine grain steels.

Regards
//Jerker
 
huj900 said:
i think this is the steel in my kershaw leek? if it is - i love it.
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Hi huj900,
If it's newer it's 13C26, it's our razorblade steel used by all major razorblade manufacturers you have heard about. We supply them all.

Anyway, ours or not, glad you like it.

BTW: in jan 2009 Kershaw will switch all their 13C26 to our new 14C28N grade. It will be similar to 13C26 in most respects except it will also have higher corrosion resistance. At least like 12C27. Kershaw will run it 60-62 HRC I believe. From the sample I have seen they will most likely run them on the upper side of this spec.

Regards
//Jerker
 
Brutus013 said:
Oh yeah, do any of you happen to know what angle they sharpen their edges to? I'm pretty sure they don't use a scandi grind...
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Hi Brutus013,
EKA have a couple of knives with Scandi grind. I have a folder with Scandi grind. Check our ragweedforge.com, I believe Rangar has all of them. Or just ask/search the wilderness survival forum, there they really like the typical scandinavian knives, the puukkos.

Regards
//Jerker
 
These_Nutz said:
Its the only steel i can get to whittle a hair.
Great steel but doesnt hold an edge long.
Click to expand...
My testing finds 12C27 to hold a fine edge very well, outperforming a number of popular steels generally considered to have good edge retention, including VG-10.

With its excellent edge holding, high corrosion resistance, and toughness greater than 1095 at similar hardness, 12C27 is an outstanding cutlery steel.
 
I don;t officially test knives (or even unofficially), but my use of 12C27 gives it a very good grade for edge retention. I'm so biased with my admiration of 154CM that I couldn't really compare the two, but that doesn;t mean 12C27 is any knid of slouch. 12C27 is a very good stainless steel for sharpening and edge retention as rated by this user.
 
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