14c28n is no joke!

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Chronovore said:
It could be easy machining plus extreme ease of sharpening. They pride themselves on "knives for the working man" and their knives being easy to touch up on the bottom of a coffee cup or a random rock. 🤷‍♂️
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The working man also likes a long lasting edge... Duh. Their steels both carbon (1065, i reckon) and stainless (12C27) were spot on in that ball park.
 
herisson said:
The working man also likes a long lasting edge... Duh. Their steels both carbon (1065, i reckon) and stainless (12C27) were spot on in that ball park.
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actually, they use afnor xc90, which is more like 1090 ;)

N°09 Carbon

Strong and solide, the perfect tool for handymen. It offers an excellent cutting quality. The beech wood handle is comfortable in the hand. The safety ring allows the user to work without any risks. The blade requires maintenance. Feel free to check our article "Taking care of your blade".
www.opinel.com www.opinel.com
they even list it on their website now^ (never used to for a long time they just called one carbon and the other stainless) ; )
 
That would be their new carbon steel, right ? I love 1075 (XC75), so, 1090 sounds fine. What about their "special" 12C27 ? Seems kind of ludicrous to me to request a special formula of a very true and tested steel which Opinel (and others, Laguiole for example) has(have) used (with great success) over decades.

@ Chronovore Chronovore​

 
herisson said:
That would be their new carbon steel, right ? I love 1075 (XC75), so, 1090 sounds fine. What about their "special" 12C27 ? Seems kind of ludicrous to me to request a special formula of a very true and tested steel which Opinel (and others, Laguiole for example) has(have) used (with great success) over decades.
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They use 12C27-Mod. It often just gets called "12C27" and that causes confusion. It is mentioned explicitly on their steel page. Here it is, plus a compositional comparison with regular 12C27.

www.opinel-usa.com

Opinel Steel Blades

OPINEL CARBON vs. STAINLESS BLADES Steel, an endlessly recyclable material. It can easily be recovered from other waste by magnetic sorting. Recycling leads to savings in terms of the mineral itself, time and energy. Opinel Carbon steel XC90 (acier au carbone) Opinel knives "Carbon" blade series...
www.opinel-usa.com www.opinel-usa.com

 
Thanks for the information. This is indeed interesting. Not only did Opinel go to a higher carbon steel (1090 instead of 1065 or 1075) but also to a 12C27 with more carbon. I wonder if this 12C27 Mod is provided by Sandvik or under license by some local foundry like Bompertuis. Opinel blades should be better than ever...
 
herisson said:
Thanks for the information. This is indeed interesting. Not only did Opinel go to a higher carbon steel (1090 instead of 1065 or 1075) but also to a 12C27 with more carbon. I wonder if this 12C27 Mod is provided by Sandvik or under license by some local foundry like Bompertuis. Opinel blades should be better than ever...
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I had to read that twice. They say "All Opinel stainless steel blades are modified by adding at least 0.40% of carbon to the "sandvik" blend." Everything I have seen says that the 12C27-Mod has less carbon, not more.

Everything I could find on the composition of regular 12C27 lists 0.6% carbon. Adding "at least 0.4%" to that would bring it up to levels comparable to 440C or VG-10. However, everything I could find on the composition of 12C27-Mod lists 0.52% carbon. So it's not only less carbon but the number doesn't match up to the difference.

So was it a mistake? Do they mean something different by the "sandvik" blend? Maybe we'd better call a metallurgist... Larrin Larrin
 
Hell, yeah. Larrin help us out. Honestly, to me it sounds like Opinel ordered a "sandvik" steel from a local foundry. I still don't see the need for something more (or less) stainless than Sandvik 12C27 which has proven over years and years to be very stainless besides being easy to sharpen and very capable of holding an edge. I suspect cost cutting or just marketing blurb.
 
Larrin said:
Opinel USA says “12C27 modified.” https://www.opinel-usa.com/products/no-8-opinel-stainless-steel-blade

Opinel says “Its carbon and chromium content are respectively 0.5 and 14.5%.” https://www.opinel.com/en/the-brand/manufacturing

Which is 12C27M. Seems pretty clear to me. https://www.alleima.com/en/technical-center/material-datasheets/strip-steel/alleima-12c27m/
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The confusion was that their website seems to say that their modified 12C27 has 0.4% more carbon. I just wanted to make sure I wasn't missing something, since the modified 12C27 seems to have less carbon instead of more. Was it just a typo or language error on their part?
 
Chronovore said:
The confusion was that their website seems to say that their modified 12C27 has 0.4% more carbon. I just wanted to make sure I wasn't missing something, since the modified 12C27 seems to have less carbon instead of more. Was it just a typo or language error on their part?
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I’m a metallurgist, not an analyst of poor marketing.
 
It is not mistranslated since their main/international site is also in English.

Anyway, with how much people are impressed by lower carbon stainless nowadays due to the "blade stability" I wonder what do you guys thing about AUS-6, which is the 0,6% carbon range of the AUS series, so about the same composition as the 14C28N or 12C27. AUS-6 was called utter garbage for a long long time to the point it is extincted.
 
Dr Rez said:
This is not an accurate comparison.
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Probably not due to all the variance and False / Fake steel out there ..
I mean , when CrMov can give D2 a run for it's money ... Where is the accurate comparison ?
And when D2 can give super steel a run for it's money ... One can only conclude that the steel is only as good as it is cooked !
And the only comparison to be made is by the user ( if they actually test ? ) . Otherwise , all knives and all steels are good !
And what criteria is good ? For many - Easy Sharpening is good ... And for yobs like me , edge retention is good ! ( Lack of retention Bad ) .
But that lack of retention is good for many because it = easy edge restoration !

??????????/ Do you want a knife thats easy to sharpen in the field or do you want a knife that stays sharp till you get home ?
 
Knife fit for purpose !
If you need a knife for the weekend ? Then a knife that will stay sharp for the weekend might be the go .. ( Why sharpen if you have a knife that stays sharp ? )
If you need a knife for the TV show ALONE ! ... You might want a knife that is easy to resharpen . ( Cos you might go the distance ? )

If the world ends :
A) Any knife
B) An easy to maintain knife
C) As many knives as you can comfortably carry .
D) Some sharpening tools that actually work ( Work for you )
E) My own No1 choice would be Scandi , simply for ease of maintenance . ( In what ever steel )
 
I am only speaking from my personal experience, and and by no means an expert.

But for me, scandi ground knives are not always easier for me to sharpen, as you need to lay the whole edge bevel flat on a stone.

In my experiences, there is a bit of a challenge in getting the curved parts evenly sharpened, and one must keep the entire bevel flat with a bunch more surface area being ground.

It seems easier for me to just sharpen a smaller edge bevel.

Maybe I am doing it wrong?

Also, scandi-edges seem more brittle, as the apex is quite small with not a lot of shoulder. They sure cut wood great though.
 
MolokaiRider said:
...It seems easier for me to just sharpen a smaller edge bevel.

Maybe I am doing it wrong?...
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If you are, I'm right there doing it wrong with you.

ALL of my blades, no matter the primary grind, have a small "micro-bevel" (*about 20 DPS) for the actual edge. I reckon I'm defeating the design/engineering that went into many of 'em, but that's just what works for me. 🤷‍♂️ (*"To each his own", "Your mileage may vary", yadda, yadda, yadda)
 
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