The first Spyderco purchased was a Peter Herbst folder. This knife has a blade steel of ATS-55. The last Spyderco purchased was a Titanium Salsa, with a ATS-34. I also noticed the other Salsa's have a blade steel of ATS-8. My question is what is the different between the various blade steel. I have reviewed the steel chart at Spyderco, but its greek to me. Can someone explain in laymen what makes one blade better than another.
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Blade Steel
- Thread starter HenryClay
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boobar
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Check out this link, it is the steel chart from our beloved bladeforums website. Hope this helps and welcome to the forums.
http://www.bladeforums.com/features/faqsteel.shtml
http://www.bladeforums.com/features/faqsteel.shtml
- Joined
- Apr 27, 1999
- Messages
- 6,117
Here is a table that lists a few alloys which relates composition to hardness (RC). A lot of wear resistance comes from hardness.
http://linder.itchi.de/s/static/en/stahltabelle.html
http://linder.itchi.de/s/static/en/stahltabelle.html
Generally speaking, all the steels that you mentioned are stainless steels. This means that the steel has a chromium content of 12% or higher.
As the chromium content goes up, rust resistance increases. Edgeholding, toughness, and flexibility decreases.
ATS34, ATS55, 154CM, 440C, BG42, S30V, S90V(420V), AUS8, AUS6, RWS34 are all examples stainless steel that is used in widespread production.
They will differ from each other in terms of edge holding, toughness. These two attributes will effect its relative ease of sharpening, and general usefulness.
For instance, S90V is engineered so that it gets very sharp and holds an edge for a long time after cutting many things, but don't chop anything as you will chip out the edge.
To make matters even more complex, S30V and RWS34 are "powdered" steels which gives them a finer and more uniform grain. The usefulness of this additional step is still a matter of debate.
In practice, ATS34 or 154CM is the benchmark for a good stainless steel.
440C loses its edge easily, very tough, hard to sharpen, very good stain resistance; doesn't really get very sharp.
AUS8 loses its edge easily, easy to sharpen, very good stain resistance; gets pretty sharp.
ATS 34 loses its edge to easily, moderately tough, but is fairly easy to sharpen, good stain resistance: gets pretty sharp.
BG42, holds its edge will, is a bit tougher than ATS34, not so easy to sharpen, and has good stain resistance; gets very sharp.
S30V, holds its edge very well, is very tough, is easy to sharpen, tends to rust faster than BG42 and ATS34; gets very sharp.
This comparison will be skewed depending on the heat treating that the steel undergoes. A proprietary heat treat will bring out certain characteristics at the expense of others. This may vary from maker to maker.
Also, in mass produced knives like benchmade, spyderco, etc, the heattreat of any particular knife is uncertain as they are batch processed and randomly selected for quality. Therefore, the chances of filtering out a defective knife will be lower.
On the other hand, some companies will test each knife individually before letting them out of the factory, usually the prices will more than reflect the added time and effort.