420hc and 440c steels

I

ilikecheapknives

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Mar 19, 2016
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How do these compare?I'm buying a new knife and I can't afford high end steels.Do te steels old an edge for long or is 440A better?
 
440C will have better edge holding when comparing the exact same blade with good heat treatments
 
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Yep. I remember back in the '80s when 440C was the shiz. :D It's still a very good everyday user steel, though it's been surpassed in different areas by different subsequent steels. :thumbup:
 
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knarfeng said:
I disagree.
440C>440A>420HC at when hardened to the same hardness.
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That's fair, my experience with 420HC is largely Buck and my experience with 440A is either Jarbenza type knives or cheap kitchen cutlery, so quality has likely played a significant role in my perception. :)
 
440c is a good thing in any budget knife, and better than 8cr and even Aus-8 IMHO. 440a sucks, VG10 and Sandvik 14c28n are better than 440c IMHO.
 
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I have 5 kershaw knives with 4 different blade alloys. They are all good. 1 is 420hc. The tempering and blade geometry along with the ergonomic handle, make it a very good slicer and is equally suited to push or pull cutting. While not even an upper mid range steel, a very useful inexpensive steel.
 
abbazaba said:
440c is a good thing in any budget knife, and better than 8cr and even Aus-8 IMHO. 440a sucks, VG10 and Sandvik 14c28n are better than 440c IMHO.
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AUS8 has that there Vanadium in it. It is more wear resistant than 440c. In the best examples I have used with both Steels, AUS8 took a better edge and held it longer. 440c is more stain resistant though.
 
ursamajor said:
AUS8 has that there Vanadium in it. It is more wear resistant than 440c. In the best examples I have used with both Steels, AUS8 took a better edge and held it longer. 440c is more stain resistant though.
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No way. I've done side-by-side testing cutting manila rope. At the same hardness, 440C outperformed AUS8 by a sizeable margin.
http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/s...tainless-alloys-using-a-visual-inspection-tec

At 0.2%, there is only enough Vanadium in AUS 8 for grain refinement. It is an insufficient amount to generate enough carbides to affect wear resistance.
 
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440a has a very poor reputation due to being commonly used in Jarbenzas and other no-name knives
 
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