I'm not sure how well I understand the answers to these esorteric questions about steel qualities, but it's good clean fun anyway.
What has raised this question is the reported use of these steels in fillet knives. 440 has lots of Cr, which would expectedly give it an advantage in corrosion resistance. 420 has substantially more Vanadium, which, as I understand it, provides improved edge holding. Both contain lots of C which ought to make them pretty hard. The quality which had been attributed to them in my initial reading was that they tend to be brittle. If someone is using them for f. knives a way must have found around that, perhaps in the heat treat. My question is, how do these steels compare to one another in all the usual categories, such as edge holding, corrosion resistance, toughness, ease of sharpening, can they be made to provide a flexible blade, and anything else you can think to add? Thanks.
What has raised this question is the reported use of these steels in fillet knives. 440 has lots of Cr, which would expectedly give it an advantage in corrosion resistance. 420 has substantially more Vanadium, which, as I understand it, provides improved edge holding. Both contain lots of C which ought to make them pretty hard. The quality which had been attributed to them in my initial reading was that they tend to be brittle. If someone is using them for f. knives a way must have found around that, perhaps in the heat treat. My question is, how do these steels compare to one another in all the usual categories, such as edge holding, corrosion resistance, toughness, ease of sharpening, can they be made to provide a flexible blade, and anything else you can think to add? Thanks.
