Best Knife steel

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I am buying a scandi buschraft knife. What steel will be the best for sharpness and edge retention but also not impossible to sharpen. The steels are Elmax, O1, D2, N690 and San Mai. I am leaning towards o1 or Elmax.
 
I think you're going to find that no matter what steel you choose the heat treat is going to be a much larger factor in the qualities of the blade than the steel used. It might be helpful if you listed the knives that you're considering and what your specific uses are going to be. What I call bushcraft and what somebody else calls bushcraft might be two completely different things.

If I were forced to answer the question under the most generic of terms, as it has been posed, I'd go with O-1. That could quickly change as we get into the details though.
 
for bushcraft, you might want say vg10 like the Fallkniven S1
easy to sharpen and versatile.
 
Diamond hones will sharpen any kind of steel -- I carry a DMT Diafold in the field -- so the type of steel that would work best for your application would depend on other factors: geometry, thickness, heat treat, toughness, etc. I'd choose a high carbon steel like 1070, 1095, 50100 or 52100.
 
I'd go with Elmax, especially at 60-62 Rc. It's a high-tech, fine-grained powder steel that is stainless and super tough. It will take a keen edge and hold it for a long time. It's pretty easy to sharpen. D2 and O1 have a long history as good steels for traditional bushcraft knives. I'd like D2 over O1, just because it holds an edge better than O1 and is about as tough (resistant to chipping and breaking). D2 is coarse grained, so your edge is not likely to be as keen after normal sharpening.

I think stainless is a major asset for a bushcraft knife, especially if you can get a stainless steel as tough as Elmax and one that holds an edge for a long time.
 
San Mai is not a type of steel. It is a method of blade construction. It just means that the knife is constructed of 3 layers of metal, usually a harder core sandwiched between two softer layers, or a reactive core clad with outer layers of stainless. You would need to know what steels were used and what hardness to know specifically how your "San Mai" is going to perform.
 
Sounds like you're considering at least a few versions of the Enzo Trapper?

I really like O1 for a scandi. Easy to maintain yet very strong and great edge retention. D2 can be a bit chippy in scandi grind, not sure about Enzo's HT on them but O1 would be my choice for a carbon steel version.

Stainless does have it's advantages though, Elmax would be my choice there too purely based on research but no hands on experience yet so far unfortunately.

I'm sure either one will not disappoint you though.
 
If you can keep the blade dry and oiled or put a patina on it O1 is a great steel. I like carbon steels because they are tough and get very sharp quite easily. For a bushcraft knife you might be batonning with carbon steels are less brittle.

N690's composition is something like VG10 or 440c. It is a very good steel. I find I like steels like N690 which contain cobalt they seem to get very sharp. Elmax is the better stainless of the selections.

I LOVE D2!! BThe steel does not chip nearly as easily as people think. Being a semi-stainless steel D2 also has to be dry and oiled or patinaed to prevent rust. grrrrhh
 
If you want corrosion resistance. N690 and Elmax are great steels if heat treated properly!
 
Since the knife is European I'd probably go N690 since that's probably what they have the most experience with.
 
So well heat treated O1 is the way to go! You need to allways clean the blade because O1 can rust. I usually stay away from stainless, but N690 and Elmax are ok.
 
I'm actually going to say AUS-6...especially from the older CRKT Knives.It's nothing overly remarkable but it does three things well...

*It takes a razor edge and it's easy to sharpen

*It's tough

*As a general pocket knife steel for someone who uses their knife when they actually need it...AUS-6 has adequate edge retention.

This video for example is of a guy testing 14C28N against VG-10 with interesting results.You'll see just how much hype is destroyed as VG-10 being a 'premium steel'.




The bottom line here is either it be AUS-6,AUS-8,grades of Sandvik,7Cr17MoV/440A...they perform well enough for real world knife use.Actual premium steels like ATS-34/154CM,BG-42, and S30V do have their place to heavy use on coarse materials.But if the knife companies tossed out traditional steels and went premium completely?I'd start hunting down models I liked in the 'outdated' steel.
 
AlexT808 said:
I am buying a scandi buschraft knife. What steel will be the best for sharpness and edge retention but also not impossible to sharpen. The steels are Elmax, O1, D2, N690 and San Mai. I am leaning towards o1 or Elmax.
Click to expand...

I love O1 as a bushcraft steel, the edge retention on my O1 FF Bushfinger is better than the 1095cv I have on my other fixed blades, and the ease of sharpening is wonderful. But, I would say that Elmax or N690 will have better edge retention than O1 and won't rust if left alone in damp conditions, at the cost of being a bit harder to sharpen. neither N690 nor Elmax are necessarily hard to sharpen, it's just that O1 is easier than either of those.
 
So seems Elmax is the way to go!

If Aebl was an option, it would be my choice. Tough (maybe the toughest stainless, given the ultra small grain) and with adequate edge retention. This steel is frequently considered inferior when compared with the top pm contenders, but with a good heat treatment it is the first choice of people that I respect a lot in The metallurgy world.
 
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