5160 versus S35vn

B

BOBO

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Feb 8, 2005
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To all makers and anyone else: Can you tell me your opinion on two identical knives, one being made of 5160 and the other being made of S35vn steel? Blade length 6", thickness .25", blade shape is spear point, and purpose is heavy batoning and prying of sheet metal and wood. Think of door frames during a breaching scenario. Let's assume both are optimally heat treated and at their full potential. Which, in your opinion, would be made of the right steel for this application? Please, not looking for any lectures on using "breaching" tools instead of fixed blade knives. Just looking for a side to side comparison of these two steels for this application. Thank you.
 
T1 from Martin Knives? I'd go 5160 if you know you're going to use it for prying, as I think carbon steel provides more strength in that sense, while being harder to sharpen in my experience. I do my sharpening manually and I get thrown off by the feel of carbon steel always feels a bit more gritty to me. (I think this is because of the larger "carbides" in the carbon steel, but I have not delved much farther into the science than that.)
 
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Having just watched the Zombie Tools "The Deuce" chop completely through a car hood from front to back, an air hockey table, a tv, a metal bicycle, a pallet, cinder blocks, and a baguette, I'm going to say 5160. Also, as much as I love S30V, S35VN, and S90V, carbon steel of equal quality will win out every time if tempered well. The things that typically make a steel stainless also make it a little softer. The above stainless steels just find a better balance and mix of elements than most stainless.
 
I would look into getting a sharpened pry bar if you're looking into getting a knife for those purposes. Not a knife that looks like a sharpened pry bar, I mean a literal sharpened pry bar. As in, buy a pry bar for ten bucks, and sharpen it on a belt grinder. It'll work better for "heavy batoning and prying of sheet metal and wood" than any actual knife. Might as well save your money.
 
For pure toughness, 5160 is an excellent choice. If I knew I was going to be breaching doors and stuff like that, 5160 would be high on my list of steels.

T.L. said:
T1 from Martin Knives? I'd go 5160 if you know you're going to use it for prying, as I think carbon steel provides more strength in that sense, while being harder to sharpen.
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You're half-right. Carbon steels like 5160 are much easier to sharpen than high-alloy ones like S35VN.


Dan57 said:
I would look into getting a sharpened pry bar if you're looking into getting a knife for those purposes. Not a knife that looks like a sharpened pry bar, I mean a literal sharpened pry bar.
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Where's the fun in that? :p
 
Stainless is generally speaking more brittle than carbon steel and therefore not ideal for prying, 5160 has very high toughness which is ideal for the applications you mentioned. I may be mistaken but s35vn is meant to have good strength and edge stability, not high toughness or ductility.
 
Thank you for the replies and opinions thus far. Dan57, I carry a lot of kit and using items for multiple uses keeps that weight down. I'm just interested in opinions regarding these two steels. Thank you for the replies thus far.
 
But if all you're doing is batoning and prying, then a sharpened pry bar will perform just as well as an expensive knife. And it'll be lighter, too, since I think most pry bars are less than a quarter inch thick anyway.
 
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