Blade steel charts?

K

KC8QVO

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Apr 7, 2011
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I have been looking around at some different steels. Is there an all-inclusive chart that compares toughness and wear resistance across all steels (stainless and carbon)?

I would like to see 154CM, S30V, S35VN, S90V, A2, D2, CPM-3V, 12C27. I haven't found a chart that puts them all in perspective, but I have found a couple that show several on the list.
 
I haven't seen one for the steels listed. There are a lot of variables that you can take into consideration when comparing the steels. What other variables do you want to look at or hold constant?
 
Partially depends on the hardness and the heat treat. Some of the stainless steels have 2 harness humps in their tempering temps.

I am a D2 guy so I will use it to illustrate. If I take one blade to 1850f, plate quench and temper at 440f I will be at between 60-61. I could take another blade to 1950f and temper at 900f for the same 60-61 or go to 1000f for 63. Even the 2 at the same hardness would be different as far as toughness and corrosion resistance. The higher treated blade being tougher yet less corrosion resistant. Go to the 1000f and change more things. Then I could do the 1850f, the sub zero, a 400f temper and come out above 62RC, grind it thinner for more flex and have a chippy edge, and not have the same thing as if I made the same knife with the same hardness with around a 1000f temper.
 
Go to knife reviews and testing in this forum and read what Mr. Ankerson writes from his testing. Frank
 
Great information here!

I'd like to add that often the charts compare steels at different hardness, make sure you can find the HRC listed to give you a reference.

As pointed out there is a lot to it.
 
There is a lot to it. I have noticed even different charts comparing toughness and wear resistance for the same steels show different amounts for the same steel in both charts (not a numeric value, but say the toughness and wear resistance are in a bar graph that appears even between them the other chart may show the toughness higher than the wear resistance bar).

This could be a fun project - gather up as much data as possible on the different steels and graph them by property per HRC. It would be interesting to see.
 
It wouldn't work too well, in my opinion. Some steels can have a higher Rc and not suffer because of that and as well become bertter blades. Frank
 
Frank Niro said:
It wouldn't work too well, in my opinion. Some steels can have a higher Rc and not suffer because of that and as well become bertter blades. Frank
Click to expand...

That's exactly what I mean.

Instead of having a fixed point wear resistance and toughness graph put a curve to them across different HRC numbers. The HRC range won't be the same, nor will any of the curves (unique to the steels). Have an HRC range of, say, 40-70. If a steel becomes too brittle after 64 then use that as the high point. If it is too soft below 53 use that as the low point. Between 53 and 64 you could surely fit a curve for both the wear resistance and toughness. Put HRC along the horizontal axis and either wear resistance or toughness along the vertical axis.
 
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