ATS-34 or 154CM

They are very close to being the same thing, ATS-34 being made by Hitachi in Japan, and 154-CM being made by Crucible here in the states. Most knifemakers say 154-CM grinds cleaner, and general consensus is that given the same quality heat treat, 154-CM probably provides some marginal performance benefits that most people wouldn't notice.
 
The ABS smiths that I have talked to have told me that ATS-34 was supposed to be a "copy" of 154CM and are pretty interchangeable. Im sure they are not identical but both were supposed to be made using the same method.
 
I have knives in 154CM and ATS34, and can't tell the difference. As Joe said, they are basically identical steels made in different countries.;)


Erik
 
Originally posted by Joe Talmadge
They are very close to being the same thing, ATS-34 being made by Hitachi in Japan, and 154-CM being made by Crucible here in the states. Most knifemakers say 154-CM grinds cleaner, and general consensus is that given the same quality heat treat, 154-CM probably provides some marginal performance benefits that most people wouldn't notice.
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Ordered some Crawford customs. Pat said he is now choosing to use the American made steel, now that it's more available. There was some technical reason that he used 154-CM for a while.
 
Please check difference of each steel.
If i say my thinking,it is unfair.
Quality is partialy statistical problem.
If you get bad steel,you may make good cutlery.
So distribution of opinions is not dividable clealy.
 
They are pretty much the same thing. I would rate them as middle of the road steels. They have never really disappointed me with their performance, and neither have they impressed me a whole lot.
 
From the Benchmade Catalog:

154CM: Carbon-1.05, Chromium-14.00, Maganese-0.50, Molybdenum-4.00, Silicone-0.30, HRC-58-60

ATS-34: Carbon-1.05, Chromium-14.00, Maganese-0.40, Molybdenum-4.00, Phosphorus-0.03, Silicone-0.35, Sulph- 0.02, HRC-58-60
 
Chemical compositions of 2 are almost same.
There are many umor of pros-and-cons. However, the same thing is an amateur's idea here.
The important view points of such material are keeping finer microstructure,keeping uniform microstructure and stability of
production with keeping such status.
Although this will be realized if the same material is used in large quantities,there are few such people in this field.Please consider extremely long edge of samurai sword.
If you make it,you must check quality of raw material more carefully.Because in the case of long cutlery,probability of edge defect occurence is higher than conventional one.If material is used in large quantities, it will become sensitive also to small probability. Since regrinding also suffers troubles very much.
 
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