Blade steel then and now

I

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I hope this is the proper forum for this topic. I've read in Horace Kepharts book "Camping and Woodcraft" about needing the best steel for your knife, axe, hatchet. This being obvious. How do the steels used circa 1900's or earlier compare with what we have today? What would the best steel for the time compared with today. With all the advances in metallurgy and machining are we that far ahead? Is todays 1095 or 440C much better than what they had then? Thanks.


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JC

The superior man is modest in his speech but excels in his actions.

Confucius


 
I don't actually know what system of clasification was used at the turn of the century for steels, but a short answer to the question "are steels better now than in 1900" would "they are so much better you can't believe it."

Stainless steels didn't come into use until after the First World War. HSS steels were a major advancement of this centurt and the powder metal process made new alloys possible as of the 1970's.

Advances in heat treating have also been enormous.

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www.wilkins-knives.com


 
the smelting process we use is cleaner, becuase of atmopshere controled furnaces. less impurities are an advantage of it also.
 
Kevin; an excellent informative post. I do believe, however, that you are referring to particle metallurgy, not powder metallurgy.

Particle metallurgy is steel made by the CPM process. Powder metallurgy is sintering of mild steel powder to produce inexpensive parts. Am I right about this? Walt
 
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