I would like to know what steel is the best from a resharpening stand point? I have a old timer and a camillus airforce survival knife that resharpen veery easy but I don't know what kind of steel is used in ether of them so is there any one with any good ideas on which is the best or the better if say there is no best of the best so to speak?
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Best blade steel from resharpening stand point
- Thread starter eaglehi1
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Both Camillus and many Old Timers use 1095 steel that is hardened to 56-58 so it holds an edge well enough but is tough and easy to sharpen. As I understand it the chromium carbides produced in stainless steels are quite hard and make the blade more difficult to sharpen.They are also larger than the other carbides in the mix ( ferric and vanadium, etc) so many stainless steels don't take as fine an edge. AUS8 though seems to take a very edge.
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O1!!!!!Plain, simple, easy to work with, holds a good edge and is easy to sharpen!!!
I made my first knives out of 01 and my personal using hunter is made of this material. Most of my prototypes are made with it because it's inexpensive and easy to grind. It takes some care for rust prevention but I think it's well worth it.
Neil
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I made my first knives out of 01 and my personal using hunter is made of this material. Most of my prototypes are made with it because it's inexpensive and easy to grind. It takes some care for rust prevention but I think it's well worth it.
Neil
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Steels that are easy to sharpen have a fine grain structure and the minimum of oversized carbide lumps. If not moderated by special alloying or processing the chromium in stainless steel makes it much harder to sharpen than non-stainless. Things that can improve the grain structure of stainless steels include alloying with vanadium and elaborate heat treatment with cryo quenching. My experience is that adding molybdenum to alloys without adding vanadium makes them harder to sharpen.
Anyway, highly sharpenable alloys include: 1095 and 5160 (simple high carbon steels), O1, 50100B, and Cold Steel's Carbon V (high carbon steels with vanadium), A2 (a tool steel with moderate molybdenum and vanadium plus some chrome), Sandvik 12C27 (a high purity medium carbon stainless steel), AUS-8, AUS-10, VG-10 (high carbon stainless steels with moderate molybdenum plus vanadium).
I consider all the preceding to be easy to get razor sharp. A couple types that are a distinct notch harder to sharpen, but also a distinct notch tougher are the high vanadium super stainlesses BG42 (vacuum remelted) and 440V (powder metalurgy) alloys.
[This message has been edited by Jeff Clark (edited 16 November 1999).]
Anyway, highly sharpenable alloys include: 1095 and 5160 (simple high carbon steels), O1, 50100B, and Cold Steel's Carbon V (high carbon steels with vanadium), A2 (a tool steel with moderate molybdenum and vanadium plus some chrome), Sandvik 12C27 (a high purity medium carbon stainless steel), AUS-8, AUS-10, VG-10 (high carbon stainless steels with moderate molybdenum plus vanadium).
I consider all the preceding to be easy to get razor sharp. A couple types that are a distinct notch harder to sharpen, but also a distinct notch tougher are the high vanadium super stainlesses BG42 (vacuum remelted) and 440V (powder metalurgy) alloys.
[This message has been edited by Jeff Clark (edited 16 November 1999).]
Cliff Stamp
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While steels range in wear resistance significantly and their resistance to being cut by soft hones can be greatly effected by this and the hardness, all steels are mushy soft compared to Diamond or SiC. If you do the initial bevel work with a large Diamond or SiC hone, all blades will get very sharp, very fast, even such steels as 420V, 10V and INFI.
-Cliff
-Cliff
I would like to thank all the people who took time to answer my post it is deeply appreciated. This will help in the dicision as to what knife to bring into the field should I be able to venture out once again.I don't mind sharpening my knives but I don't like spending a lot of time on just one knife because it take a lot to sharpen. It borders on being lazy but I also have a lot of babbies to care for. Thank you all again, Bill
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Cliff,
I saw your post here and in another thread on sharpening re Diamond and Silicon Carbide hones being hard enough to cut throuh carbides in steel to allow getting a good edge. Do you feel that the alumina particles, or synthetic saphires, in the Sharpmaker and similar products can do this? Spyderco states that "these ceramics are hard materials - measuring up to 9.22 in hardness on the Mohs Scale."
I saw your post here and in another thread on sharpening re Diamond and Silicon Carbide hones being hard enough to cut throuh carbides in steel to allow getting a good edge. Do you feel that the alumina particles, or synthetic saphires, in the Sharpmaker and similar products can do this? Spyderco states that "these ceramics are hard materials - measuring up to 9.22 in hardness on the Mohs Scale."
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m-
I would rank D2 as harder to sharpen than the other steels in my list. It is pretty heavily loaded with hardening elements. Carbon is up between 1 and 1.5%, it has almost as much chrome as a stainless, it has a lot of vanadium and significant molybdenum. You might expect it to be easier to sharpen than BG-42, but it is not as highly refined as BG-42. It is a very tough steel.
I would think that if you had a source of specially refined D2 it would take a great edge with medium effort.
I would rank D2 as harder to sharpen than the other steels in my list. It is pretty heavily loaded with hardening elements. Carbon is up between 1 and 1.5%, it has almost as much chrome as a stainless, it has a lot of vanadium and significant molybdenum. You might expect it to be easier to sharpen than BG-42, but it is not as highly refined as BG-42. It is a very tough steel.
I would think that if you had a source of specially refined D2 it would take a great edge with medium effort.
Jeff-
Thanks for the reply.I just got my first D2 blade a few days ago-an Uluchet-and it seems to stay shaving sharp even after chopping.It also seems to chop out of proportion to its size and weight (only 10.5 oz. I think) and still cut better than a lot of knives with thinner edges.I haven't been able to really put it thru it's paces yet,but when I do I will try to take the time to post my findings.
-m
Thanks for the reply.I just got my first D2 blade a few days ago-an Uluchet-and it seems to stay shaving sharp even after chopping.It also seems to chop out of proportion to its size and weight (only 10.5 oz. I think) and still cut better than a lot of knives with thinner edges.I haven't been able to really put it thru it's paces yet,but when I do I will try to take the time to post my findings.
-m
Cliff Stamp
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Donald, SiC is around 9 on the Mohs scale as well so in theory the Sharpmaker should work fine. However my experience with ceramic rods (not Spyderco) is otherwise. After a period of sharpening with them I start to see honing make less of an impact, when this happens I recut the bevel.
-Cliff
-Cliff
sevenedges
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the easiest knives to sharpen i own are my benchmade spike and my microtech socoms. the spike is made of ATS-34 while the socoms are made of 154-CM a near clone. however heat treatment and blade shape and type have a lot to do with it. as i have many other ATS-34 knives that are much harder to sharpen.
high carbon steels are easy but need care so as not to rust. good luck
high carbon steels are easy but need care so as not to rust. good luck
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There is a related question in my post entitled:
Sharpmaker 204 Diamond Sleeves and hardness related question for Sal Glesser, etc.
at http://www.bladeforums.com/ubb/Forum20/HTML/001679.html
I mention it because when I posted my question here to Cliff re carbides, I could not find the thread I recalled at the time. After much searching, I found it also, and the link is there, along with one back to this topic. If anyone is interested in the Sharpmaker question, they can post their interest there. It does seem that the Spyderco forum has less traffic than usual, I assume because of the holidays.
Sharpmaker 204 Diamond Sleeves and hardness related question for Sal Glesser, etc.
at http://www.bladeforums.com/ubb/Forum20/HTML/001679.html
I mention it because when I posted my question here to Cliff re carbides, I could not find the thread I recalled at the time. After much searching, I found it also, and the link is there, along with one back to this topic. If anyone is interested in the Sharpmaker question, they can post their interest there. It does seem that the Spyderco forum has less traffic than usual, I assume because of the holidays.