Blade steel, it's all good.

[jdk1]

That depends on the knife and I wouldn't be amazed what those cheap steels can do because I have seen what well made knives in the better steels can do.

Nothing really amazing at all really in fact.

I think he was speaking of sharpening. That those who were skilled at sharpening special steels would be amazed how what they (the sharpener) could do with a simple steel. While I can't really comment, since I'm not much of a sharpener, it makes since. I do think some might also be surprised at the performance. Most here using super steels likely have a lot of experience with the basics, but if someone jumped into the super steel game and had never used, say good 1095, they may just be amazed what simple steels could do. Not that they'd be better, but that they give outstanding performance, especially per dollar. Going back to that lowly Tramontina machete. I never would have thought that $5 worth of 1070 would be so tough. It was my own ignorance, but I was "amazed". Others might be as well if they tried some cheap classics. Take care.

 

[davek14]

Yep. Nothing on a knife cuts except where the two sides of the blade meet at the apex. All the other material is in the way of cutting, but provides strength, stiffness and toughness. Think of a wire cheese cutter, all that is needed to cut is the wire, but the frame behind it is necessary to keep the wire straight and prevent it from flopping around instead of cutting through the cheese. The amount of steel you need to get a job done without destroying your knife is all you should have in front of the handle. The least force needed to make a cut will come with the thinnest blade stock, ground to the thinnest dimensions before sharpening, and sharpened at the lowest angle.

Tactical knives today are often sold on being thick and heavy duty, but that does nothing to improve cutting ability, no matter the alloy.

Thanks.

I keep wanting to throw in to threads on "supersteels" and the need for them such as this one that you don't have just "good" steel and "bad" steel.

You have poor, medium, and great steel and really everyting in between. Many of us own multiple levels of steel for multiple uses.

My perfect knife would have a good 1095 main blade and a small blade harder than woodpecker lips for tough stuff.

 

[Ankerson]

I think he was speaking of sharpening. That those who were skilled at sharpening special steels would be amazed how what they (the sharpener) could do with a simple steel. While I can't really comment, since I'm not much of a sharpener, it makes since. I do think some might also be surprised at the performance. Most here using super steels likely have a lot of experience with the basics, but if someone jumped into the super steel game and had never used, say good 1095, they may just be amazed what simple steels could do. Not that they'd be better, but that they give outstanding performance, especially per dollar. Going back to that lowly Tramontina machete. I never would have thought that $5 worth of 1070 would be so tough. It was my own ignorance, but I was "amazed". Others might be as well if they tried some cheap classics. Take care.

Yes, there are a lot of us here that have had a lot of experience with the more simple steels and for some of us that is the very reason why some of us went to the better steels in the 1st place, because the simpler steels just don't perform as well.

They didn't perform back then (Use was because we didn't have anything better), and they still really don't compared to what is available today.

Sure a well designed knife with great blade and edge geometry will perform better than one that is shaped like a brick, or should I say a wire will cut better than a brick and there is nothing new or profound in that at all as it's just common since.

As far as the sharpening thing goes, that is what it is, most people are sharpening challenged.

It's not so much the super steels can't be sharpened, it's that those people are trying to sharpen a super steel on their grandfathers oil stone or some wally world $5 special and wonder why they are having problems.

One isn't going to use a screw driver to pound nails......

Some things are really simple and have been known for hundreds of years, only now we have some who try and make those very things sound more complicated than they really are just to pat their egos.

It doesn't take a PHD or a Scientist to figure out why a knife performs and what will make them perform better because those things have been known for a very long time.

It's really not all that complicated..

That's also the reason why when I do testing I keep things on a level plane when comparing knives and steels, or I compare apples to apples.

It makes no since at all to compare a knife that is shaped like a brick to one that is shaped like a wire because I already know what knife will perform better, that's just common since so I just don't because it's a waste of time and energy, materials and money.

In the end it's the knives and how they are designed, edge and blade geometry that really matter the most and yes I do have the data to back it up from testing.

The steel comes into play when comparing knives that are similar, not so much when comparing a brick to a wire like some tend to do because they have other agendas.

 

[stabman]

But I will buy a knife with a tough lock that has a great steel and superior edge geometry.

Me too.

 

[Gator97]

...The steel comes into play when comparing knives that are similar, not so much when comparing a brick to a wire like some tend to do because they have other agendas.

Exactly! Don't you wonder why is it so often when discussion goes about two steels, one ends up with top notch HT(good old whatever alloy) and another(whatever modern/exotic/high end) is implied to have sub-par HT... What kind of comparison is that. Might as well compare with broken knife.

 

[hardheart]

I really can't stand the HT argument. HT is easy for 90% of the alloys used. They're mostly air hardening, the companies doing the HT do it day in and day out for years, and even for steels needing a fast quench or touchy soak times, these things are "thick" at a quarter inch - data sheets talk about hold times based on inches of thickness.

I don't think anyone should avoid 'better' steel, but they should maybe try better geometry first. That you can change and experiment with yourself on the same piece of steel, so no questions about variances in composition between melts, or HT differences from one company to the next.

 

[Ankerson]

Exactly! Don't you wonder why is it so often when discussion goes about two steels, one ends up with top notch HT(good old whatever alloy) and another(whatever modern/exotic/high end) is implied to have sub-par HT... What kind of comparison is that. Might as well compare with broken knife.

Yeah we see a lot of that.