Best all around carbon steel

Standard or tool steel. Which carbon steel is the best?

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RayField Clement Jr.
rayfclement@yahoo.com
 
Sorry, there is no Best steel. Many high carbon steels when properly heat-treated will serve very well as knife blades. I personally like the working properties of 52100 in smaller knife blades.

Also standard vs and tool steel is confusing. I suppose you mean simple steels like the 10XX series vs alloy steels like A2, D2, and the like.

Paracelsus

[This message has been edited by Paracelsus (edited 04-18-2001).]
 
You need to ask yourself what is the toughest application you have. What is the worst impact, what is the worst prying, what is the toughest cutting that you have to do. If you need to chop into cars, pry knots out of trees, and cut through bones you want simpler lower carbon steel. These point you to 5160 or 1084. You might even want to differentially heat treat the blade to get a harder edge and softer spine.

If you are willing to limit yourself to cutting through wood, meat, bone, and hide some of the harder alloys start looking better. Then 52100, A2, CPM-3V start looking excellent. If you really want edge holding and excercise some care about what you cut the harder alloys like D2 and CPM-10V will cut much longer.
 
C

Cliff Stamp

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Bart student:

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">for smaller knives I'd say 52100.</font>
Click to expand...

What abilities does 52100 have that make it stand out to you for small knives? What RC do you use it at? Do you use a differential temper? Cryo? Multiple tempers?

-Cliff
 
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