Aus-6

R

richardallen

Joined
Oct 15, 2002
Messages
1,101
tell me more about it - pro and contra, do you like it or dont you ?
i'm quite happy with it in my endura, although i guess that's partly due to the serrations. dulls quite fast, but easy to sharpen. plus i took it with me while diving in spain, and no rust was to be seen. what are your thoughts about it ?

regards, cheez
 
Seems, you know everything, that is to know about this steel.

Any comments i have read here, were going the same way, you´ve pointed. Dulls fast, easy sharpening.....
 
your endura is in aus-6? Ive owned a few, but they were all in aus-8. Could you possibly be mistaken?
 
Probably wont find much support here for this steel. However it's worth noting that some fairly nice production knives out of Japan still feature this steel. Can't be all bad.
 
SOG uses it alot still in some of there knives mainly the SOG SEAL family. It is like you say a good steel no frills no trills. It cuts well need some sharpening from time to time. Not hard to sharpen and always clean of stains.
 
Much of it has to do with proper heat treat. Still though aus-6 is aus-6.
I do have a few delicas in aus-6 that are decent.
 
I have two Sogs and a Spyderco in AUS6, in general I feel it´s comparable to 420HC, 425M and 440A, rust resistant, easy to sharpen, not expensive, fine for general use in my urban life.

Not similar to the more expensive steels, that will hold an edge longer but will be harder to sharpen and cost more.

Not similar to High Carbon non-stainless steels that will be easy to sharpen and not cost much, hold an edge better but not rust resistant.

The steel facts by Joe Talmadge, put it pretty well, I belive there is also a thread where he presented some classification of different steels and there are some good comments, you may want to try a search.
 
Originally posted by rev_jch
your endura is in aus-6? Ive owned a few, but they were all in aus-8. Could you possibly be mistaken?
Click to expand...

The stainless endura/delica is still made in AUS-6, the older zytel handeled ones were made in AUS-8, then ATS-55, and currently VG-10.
 
what glocksrock said, i got the stainless one, and it is aus-6. zytel handles feel a bit cheap to me, although i'd prefer a stainless endura with vg-10 of course!
 
Another Point. Many of CRKT folders (Crawfords, Carsons, etc.) use AUS6 steel. My observations: good general purpose steel for gents folders, non-heavy use blades. The hard use should be left for the harder, higher end steels unless you don't mind sharpening frequently.
 
I second you observations indicating that it resists rust pretty well (as long as it's not bead-blasted), is easy to resharpen (just light stropping will do if it's not really dull already) and it doesn't hold an edge all to well. It's also pretty tough.
Generally, I'd say that it's my favorite "low-end" steel out there.
 
My AUS-6 SOG Northwest Ranger seems to keep an amazingly good edge, better in fact than some other 'better' steels that I have on other knives. A good heat treat makes all the difference....

My best edge holder by far is my CPM-440V spydie native....
 
I have a meerkat and it says its an AUS6A while I also got a F4 CRKT which say it is made of AUS6M.

What is the difference between the AUS6A and AUS6M?

It seems to me that the meerkat holds its edge longer than the CRKT.
 
They make good blades if they got a good heat treat. I think CRKT's AUS 6 blades are too soft.
 
Eh, I don't mind AUS6... it's the worst edge holder besides 420/420J2 that I've tried, but it sharpens up easy and keeps the rust away. I consider AUS6 almost as good as 420HC, but that's me :)
 
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