Age old question, best all around blade steel?

I'm going to likely catch grief for this, but I see toughness questions a lot lately and many are based on the all powerful ZipTie...Might I suggest that it has less to do with the toughness of the steel and more to do with cutting technique. I have watched people pry the blade edge up into a tight zip tie rather than approach it at a 90 degree angle. If you pry your edge into it, you are using your knife wrong, sorry about your edge getting damaged. Personally, I have found NOTHING in the "knife" arena cuts them better than serrated Spyderco's. I say knife arena because wire cutters work far better. Flame suit on, let it rip....
 
hangmanshammer said:
I see toughness questions a lot lately and many are based on the all powerful ZipTie...Might I suggest that it has less to do with the toughness of the steel and more to do with cutting technique. I have watched people pry the blade edge up into a tight zip tie rather than approach it at a 90 degree angle. If you pry your edge into it, you are using your knife wrong, sorry about your edge getting damaged. Personally, I have found NOTHING in the "knife" arena cuts them better than serrated Spyderco's. I say knife arena because wire cutters work far better.
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This.

hangmanshammer said:
I'm going to likely catch grief for this, but [...] Flame suit on, let it rip....
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I think your post was perfect without this part.
 
Well, there are many "age-old" questions.

For instance, it has long been known that one horse will run faster than another.

The question has always been . . .which one?
 
P philquinn73 welcome to Bladeforums, where subjectivity reigns supreme. I like AEB-L because it is a simple, fine grained ingot stainless steel, widely available to custom makers, inexpensive, and higher in toughness than the CPM steels, most stainless, and even many carbon steels. Where toughness is a big concern, this is my steel of choice if stainlessness is desired, otherwise 8670 or 15N20, which are similar in properties, except not stainless. All three are relatively low in wear resistance, but their high toughness means they can be ground thinner while maintaining edge stability, which boosts cutting ability. Add ease of sharpening for all three steels, and they become my favorites, and indeed the ones I carry daily on my hip and around my neck.
 
Wild Willie said:
Speaking for myself alone, I enjoy the character imparted to a blade by patina. Modern construction is great, and I carry one every day, but it still seems a bit soulless. As someone with a rather modest accumulation, and who doesn't tend to rotate a whole lot I like how the appearance shifts with time. Same sort of reason I like jigged bone... More of a story there, even if I'm the only one who can read it.

As far as "best" right now... I like 15n20 or 8670 in carbon, Buck's 420 and aeb-l are pretty easy going for stainless. So far as PMs are concerned I currently only have magnacut and s45vn. They're both pretty good, I have more experience with the s45vn, but I've used magnacut enough to feel like it definitely sharpens a bit easier.
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Good answer. I sometimes see the development of patina advanced in support of copper and brass handles. Character of wear is a thing.

Maybe coming at it from the opposite direction, I don't just like a rough stone-wash on my stainless because it glitters in the sunlight. It also visually absorbs scratches and obscures the appearence of minor blade wear. I go back and forth on the "patina" that starts to happen with micarta scales, but that's largely reversible.
 
I like magnacut and have it in multiple blades, folders and fixed. Definitely good steel. On paper it seems to be the best all around steel.
In real life use, I’m more pleased with m390 (in folders at least) and cruwear is actually the most impressive of all steels I’ve used.

My rankings:
Cruwear
M390/magnacut
3v
 
Sagandavis said:
I like magnacut and have it in multiple blades, folders and fixed. Definitely good steel. On paper it seems to be the best all around steel.
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This is very true. I hope to be adding a MagnaCut blade to my daily carry rotation soon.
 
Spyderco's have fantastic grinds and blade shapes for slicing but have very thin edges. Pretty much any steel with decent hardness and carbide content is going to chip with such thin geometry if you make contact with a staple etc... Additionally factory edges are usually more brittle, the steel should hold up better after sharpening by hand.

With that said, I do believe there is an actual answer to this question and its 3V. It can shine in anything from a filet knife to a katana and everything in between. I don't think any other steel can quite match its versatility. It performs well everywhere and is stain resistant enough to not worry about it.

I've made kitchen knives, bushcrafters, mega choppers, swords, and even ultra thin machetes from 3V. Always happy with its performance.
 
Chronovore said:
Good answer. I sometimes see the development of patina advanced in support of copper and brass handles. Character of wear is a thing.

Maybe coming at it from the opposite direction, I don't just like a rough stone-wash on my stainless because it glitters in the sunlight. It also visually absorbs scratches and obscures the appearence of minor blade wear. I go back and forth on the "patina" that starts to happen with micarta scales, but that's largely reversible.
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I do love a well used micarta handle.

I feel the same way about stone wash. Maybe I'm weird, but I like my knives to show the wear I've put on them... Worst part about my CRKs, (at least from the photographic standpoint) that stonewash hides all of the scratches on the blade.
 
In my opinion there are different steels that perform better in certain usages and the materials that are being cut. One will excel in one use but not as well in another. I think it is dependent on your personal use and preference and what works best for you.

As for a well rounded/all around knife steel that covers a lot of uses maybe not the top performing in any one category but does well in four important categories, in my opinion that would be Magnacut . It has high toughness, high corrosion resistance, sharpens fairly easily and has good edge retention. I have two knives in Magnacut and they are performing very well as advertised. Mine has held an edge for a good long time and when I finally had to sharpen it didn’t take long or much effort to get a screaming sharp edge. So far I’m impressed.
 
Sigh. With apologies to Will Rogers, "I never met a steel I didn't like." They are all good for something, Which ones I like best depend on what I am doing when asked. But even then, there's so much overlap in performance that it's more like groups of steels I like for certain tasks.
 
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