Anyone else having hard prefferences for carbon and tool steels?

Speaking of upkeep - I am aware for those of you in humid conditions, or if you carry in a certain way with your sweat composition, it is a necessity for some. However, in SoCal a few miles from ocean, I used to keep ALL my folders slathered. Everything from basic carbon K55s and Douk Douks, to BD1N and S45VN PM2s (wtf was I thinking there??). I now have exactly zero mineral oil coating any of my blades (the ones that go outside with me most are K390 and M4). It's always fine.

Only ever got rust on knives in one way, two separate times: with a Douk-Douk and my Opinel, I left them on the counter, open when doing dishes and water splashed on it. Never needed anything more than off-brand flitz to handle it, but I got some BKF for tough stuff, like the Schrade 60OT+ I am restoring. No, I don't think I'm worried about rust.

I was going to start fishing soon because I have some friends into the hobby. I was thinking of bringing my BD1N PM2 along as my fishing folder since I don't have a Salted model and I leave that stuff in the sink all the time and it's fine. Practically stain-free. My Cruwear PM2 is probably my favorite, most used one. They say, well, they don't say, it IS a carbon steel, but the stuff is comparable to VG-10 in my somewhat limited experience. I have a VG-10 Endura that is probably MORE stained than the Cruwear PM2 that I use for everything/anything. Not that the Cruwear could resist the ocean better or anything, but, my experience...

K ktataragasi (boy your username is hard to spell by memory, I would just see it and pronounce it as "Cat-Are-Gassy" in my head) ZDP-189 is a weird one, though, isn't it? It's at the threshold of "stainless steel", being 20% chromium (I could be wrong on that number but iirc) but it's clearly not really a true stainless. I got an Endura in ZDP very early in my knife career for no real reason other than hype, and they seemed like they could get disco'd. I like the idea of the steel for food prep and stuff, still kind of an answer without a question for me, though.

Nice micarta, too.
 
I'm a tool steel and carbon steel guy. I have been for as long as I've been able to tell the difference which was on the old Arkansas stones. Now with diamond and good synthetic stones it's not difficult to sharpen anything but I remember when there was a big difference between 1070/1095 and 440A/440c .

I take care of all my knives and I'm of the opinion that a patina isn't appealing or something to do intentionally. It looks like poor maintenance to me but then again I'm old and set in my ways.
 
I like em' both. I used to like carbon and tools steels a lot more but I got out of the hobby for some years and went through some crazy life events where my knives were away from me and unmaintained in a box. I got them back a little while ago and some had a little bit of rust spots which I've had to clean up. That opened up my eyes to stainless being a lot easier to maintain throughout a lifetime. Some of us have A LOT of knives compared to the normal person and we may go through fazes in our lives where we don't touch a lot of them for some years. Just something to think about. And although I do love trying a new steel and having an assortment of different steels that excel at one thing or another exceptionally in case a time comes where I have to do a lot of said thing, I find the longer i'm into knives the less I care about exactly what steel I'm using or buying a knife in. Most decent quality knives work pretty darn good for me.
 
Hashishiin said:
Speaking of upkeep - I am aware for those of you in humid conditions, or if you carry in a certain way with your sweat composition, it is a necessity for some. However, in SoCal a few miles from ocean, I used to keep ALL my folders slathered. Everything from basic carbon K55s and Douk Douks, to BD1N and S45VN PM2s (wtf was I thinking there??). I now have exactly zero mineral oil coating any of my blades (the ones that go outside with me most are K390 and M4). It's always fine.

Only ever got rust on knives in one way, two separate times: with a Douk-Douk and my Opinel, I left them on the counter, open when doing dishes and water splashed on it. Never needed anything more than off-brand flitz to handle it, but I got some BKF for tough stuff, like the Schrade 60OT+ I am restoring. No, I don't think I'm worried about rust.

I was going to start fishing soon because I have some friends into the hobby. I was thinking of bringing my BD1N PM2 along as my fishing folder since I don't have a Salted model and I leave that stuff in the sink all the time and it's fine. Practically stain-free. My Cruwear PM2 is probably my favorite, most used one. They say, well, they don't say, it IS a carbon steel, but the stuff is comparable to VG-10 in my somewhat limited experience. I have a VG-10 Endura that is probably MORE stained than the Cruwear PM2 that I use for everything/anything. Not that the Cruwear could resist the ocean better or anything, but, my experience...

K ktataragasi (boy your username is hard to spell by memory, I would just see it and pronounce it as "Cat-Are-Gassy" in my head) ZDP-189 is a weird one, though, isn't it? It's at the threshold of "stainless steel", being 20% chromium (I could be wrong on that number but iirc) but it's clearly not really a true stainless. I got an Endura in ZDP very early in my knife career for no real reason other than hype, and they seemed like they could get disco'd. I like the idea of the steel for food prep and stuff, still kind of an answer without a question for me, though.

Nice micarta, too.
Click to expand...
The fun thing is you can type the name almost with one hand once you have it down!

ZDP-189 is a strange one as it should be stainless but something about how it forms carbides means they don't actually make it stainless.

One more thing that I like about tool steel is that you do have to take care of it some and you can't just treat it like it's another thing. I feel like I form more of a bond with knives with tool steel and since I've reduced my collection they get used enough that I never have to worry about them. I don't oil them and don't really worry about rust.
 
David Mary said:
Another vote for AEB-L here.
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It’s a hard one not to love when it performs like a tool steel but has the advantages of stainless.

If I could only use one steel for every knife for the rest of my life, I think I could very happily use AEB-L for everything from kitchen knives to large wood choppers and not feel like I was missing out on anything.
 
I like carbon steels because of performance benefits that I perceive. I think there certainly are some performance benefits but maybe not as much as I think, maybe I could never tell the difference. Having said that most of my folders are M4, Rex45 and K390. In my EDC group I have two token S110V and one in D2.
 
For some imperceptible reason, I feel like a stainless blade is less "knifey" than a carbon steel one. I know I'm wrong, but there's some strange tic in the back of my mind that causes me to gravitate towards simple carbon steel. Despite carrying stainless blades (victorinox, crk, and a David Mary David Mary in magnacut) and liking them, some insatiable part of my lizard brain tells me that if they're looked at wrong they'll break. I reiterate that I KNOW I'M WRONG in feeling this, perhaps I need counseling...
 
Wild Willie said:
For some imperceptible reason, I feel like a stainless blade is less "knifey" than a carbon steel one. I know I'm wrong, but there's some strange tic in the back of my mind that causes me to gravitate towards simple carbon steel. Despite carrying stainless blades (victorinox, crk, and a David Mary David Mary in magnacut) and liking them, some insatiable part of my lizard brain tells me that if they're looked at wrong they'll break. I reiterate that I KNOW I'M WRONG in feeling this, perhaps I need counseling...
Click to expand...
I have that similar feeling, I expect either breakage and chips or bending and rolls from stainless... and I kinda feel that my carbon steels have more "bite" and cut more agressively than stainless ones. And I sharpen all on diamond, so I have no idea why 🤣

Steels I'll avoid like plague:
_Cr_MoV group
440 and it's variations
420 and it's variations
4116...
4034...
Chinese D2
 
Carbon steel is a great way to teach responsibility to a kid.

It shows them what can happen if they don't take care of things.

Steels I'll avoid like plague:
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Excepting for the 440 & 420 - I tend to agree.
Probably because both were the "wonder steels" back when I was a stupid round head (a kid with a crew cut back in the 1950s = a round head) since we all had round Charlie Brown heads).
 
I use both in my knives. I use AEB-L (62-63 RC) and 26C3 at (63-64 RC). AEB-L at this hardness performs like and reminds you of high carbon steel. Razor edge, decent edge holding ability, toughness and EASE of resharpening. AEB-L at lower RCs can be meh for sure. But if you like high carbon steels ya love AEB-L when cooked properly. AEB-L really is the stainless for high carbon guys.

26C3 is just a great high carbon steel and keeps on a rocking. The performance characteristics are very similar to the AEB-L ya just have to take care of it more.

AEB-L:

nNmOwVM.jpg


26C3 with what I call a working hamon:

hLWdt1b.jpg
 
Horsewright said:
I use both in my knives. I use AEB-L (62-63 RC) and 26C3 at (63-64 RC). AEB-L at this hardness performs like and reminds you of high carbon steel. Razor edge, decent edge holding ability, toughness and EASE of resharpening. AEB-L at lower RCs can be meh for sure. But if you like high carbon steels ya love AEB-L when cooked properly. AEB-L really is the stainless for high carbon guys.

26C3 is just a great high carbon steel and keeps on a rocking. The performance characteristics are very similar to the AEB-L ya just have to take care of it more.

AEB-L:

nNmOwVM.jpg


26C3 with what I call a working hamon:

hLWdt1b.jpg
Click to expand...
I really need to try AEB-L some day
 
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