440c any good

N

nobodeuno

Joined
Jan 16, 2002
Messages
3
Dear folks, Looking for the pros and cons of this steel....
Just ordered a knife with 440c steel, is this steel any good or is it old and in the way? Thanks kinda new to knives! It is a Benchmade Griptilan???
Thank you much
 
Even as a newbie I can tell you it's above average. Nothing high-end but serious cutting-stuff. Easy to resharpen as well, in my experience. Hardness generally around HRC 58.
 
440C was and is a very good steel for ever!

It may get "out of date" because there are new "better" steels,
but it will never get worse!

You call me a old fashioned conservative,
i say OK (with steel;))
 
Welcome to the Forums!

Properly heat-treated, 440C is good steel. Lots of custom makers still use it. It may not have as much "gee-wizz-bang" impact as some of the "new guys", but it works.
 
Thanks for the replys...I also did a search on this knife and the steel...proved interesting. I get the drift, it is a bit of an old designed steel, but seems to be ok, nothing fancy. I have one other knife with ast34 steel and wanted a nice daily knife to use, and the Mini Griptilian was priced nice. I also have never used an Axis lock? Hope its as cool as they say!

Again thanks to all, sincerely a very nice forum :cool:
 
As a side light notice that Ats-34 is falling from favor with lots
of makers with some going back to 440c. For what it''s worth
I've had such bad luck with Ats-34 I have sold / given all the
knives I owned with it away. I've worked with 440c a lot over the
years and find it to be a good edge holding steel with no price
premium.

My steel choices go something like this ......
Aus-8, 440a, 440c, vg10, bg-42 & dozier d2
I have had very good luck with all of them.
 
440C was once the standard in stainless steel and it is still a great steel. It is making a comeback right now and I see more and more makers offering knives in 440c.
 
Tightwad, what kinds of problems did you have with ATS 34?
Was it heat treated properly? Many people think that it holds
an edge simular to D2 at HRC 60, and is tough enough. Please
advise.
 
IMO, 440C is one of the best knife steels out there. It isn't the "latest greatest" fad steel; and some feel that unless it's 154CM, CPM440V, etc., it's a poor steel, but that does not change the fact that 440C is excellent all-around. Above normal stain resistance, takes a great edge, hold it nicely, not real difficult to resharpen, not brittle, looks nice if done right. (of course, all this depends on how it's heat-treated and ground). Benchmade's 440C, for example, is listed at around 58 to 60 HRc.

Jim
 
Don, When Ats-34 was all the rage I got caught up in it all
and bought several knives from different sources to use. All
went well until sharpening time. What a b!tch. Ats-34 makes
a great tool steel for machine tool use but lousy knife steel in
my opinion. To darn hard and brittle.

In my book unless a knife steel is user serviceable with reasonable
skill it is not a good choice. The knife steels I mentioned as good
steels all can be user serviced with an average level of skill and sharpening
equipment.

I dislike Ats-34 now to the point that if a knife is made with it I move
on automatically disqualifying that knife from consideration. I won't
waste anymore of my money on this type of knife.
 
440C and ATS-34 are BOTH very good steels for knife blades.

My REKAT folders are are ATS-34, and I haven't found ANY "problems" with sharpness (OUCH!), edge-holding (but then I normally don't have to cut my way out of a bank vault with my knife), re-sharpening (my Sharpmaker or Smith's Tri-Hone both do very well), or brittleness (but then, I DON'T use MY knives as prybars).:).
 
Originally posted by Tightwad
In my book unless a knife steel is user serviceable with reasonable
skill it is not a good choice.
Click to expand...

Amen!

On the 440C subject. I have had very good use from the 440C in my Benchmade Griptilian. It holds an edge a little less than ATS-34 but is easier to sharpen. 440C was the standard and it is now making a comeback. I like it.
 
Dennis, 440C never left. It is now as it has always been a good multipurpose stainless designed for use in the cutlery trade.

People have been playing around with other hardenable steels designed to be used in the tool and die industry, the bearing industry and what not, while these were for the most part harder none had all of the charcteristics of 440C such as corrosion resistance, flexibility, chip resistance and such.

I think that the return to 440C is simply a return to basics until something better is invented. For myself I will continue to use the 440C for all of my line of working knives because my customers are very happy with it.
 
The 440c in the benchmade outbounder takes a wicked edge ad holds it very well.gailt
 
glockman, Sorry, mate. With your level of experiance you would be
considered an advanced skilled knife owner / user, NOT an "average"
owner / user by any definition. With your opinion respected as such.

I've had chips breakout of the edges of my blades with this steel, not to mention
that Ats-34 ,for me, is very hard to sharpen on "average" home equipment which is
usually a simple stone setup. I've always felt that if I had to buy special equipment
just to sharpen my cutlery I was buying the wrong knives.

How many folk's would carry special sharping tools to the field to sharpen their knife??
That's why I believe it's important to be able to sharpen what you have on you with a
common rock if that is all that is available at the time. I like to keep thing practical if
possible. 440c and a few other knife steels that I've owned fit that requirement. Ats-34
does not.
 
Originally posted by Tightwad

How many folk's would carry special sharping tools to the field to sharpen their knife??
Click to expand...

I alway carrying at least 3 types of sharpening tools.

(in case I get bored ;) )


Dan
 
ATS34 is easy to sharpen with japanese water stones. It goes a lot slower with an arkansas or india stone. Diamond goes right fast though, and you can buy little pocket or keychain sharpeners.

I have a factory ATS34 folder that is a real pain to sharpen. I find the knives I make from ATS34 easier to sharpen. Like always, it comes down to heat treat. Here is a technical thread on another forum about the topic:

http://pub42.ezboard.com/fcustomknifedirectoryforumfrm19.showMessage?topicID=440.topic
 
Originally posted by Matt Harildstad
Diamond goes right fast though...
Click to expand...

Yup. Diamond is a necessity for me.

Originally posted by Matt Harildstad
I have a factory ATS34 folder that is a real pain to sharpen. I find the knives I make from ATS34 easier to sharpen. Like always, it comes down to heat treat.
[/B]
Click to expand...

Matt, I've noticed that my oldest BM AFCK 800/812's in ATS-34 were fairly easy to sharpen, took a very good edge. A couple of the more recent production (roughly corresponding to when the G10 went from that "fine" finish to the more coarse surface finish) are both harder to sharpen even with diamond, very noticeably, and they are much harder to get a nice shaving edge onto.

Matt, any ideas on perhaps what BM isn't doing now that they did back-when? Cryo maybe?

Anyone else noticed this w/ BM knives?
 
My knife is a 4 or so year old BM Mel Pardue. Hard as nails. I have always assumed that it was due to the 950 degree temper, but i can't really comment on someone elses HT.
 
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