Carbon or stainless in a custom fixed blade

Justin Schmidt

Justin Schmidt

Joined
Feb 18, 2016
Messages
2,209
Howdy gents my first on this side of the forum. I'm a new knife maker and wanted some input from you gurus. If you were to purchase a custom fixed blade in the $150 range. What would you prefer? High carbon 1095, 52100 or stainless aebl, CPM 154. These would be all purpose edc drop point knives in the 7in range 1/8 thick professional heat treat. Thank you in advance
 
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7" OAL or 7" blade? I like all those steels. I think the camphor 154 might smell good too.
Aeb-l at a high hardness is a lot of fun.
Russ
 
7in OAL haha didn't see that camphor typo. Thanks for the heads up. Yeah AEBL really shines at about 62. And it's cheap! Lol
 
If I was going to use it I would pick 52100 out of the ones you list, unless circumstances were such that corrosion was very likely. If it was for a collection and light use I would go for 154.
 
Make it 7-8 in OAL. OK thanks BD. I'm in West central florida so for us corrosion SUCKS. But some maintenance with 3in 1 oil normally helps that
 
AEB L or CPM 154 are pretty great steels for humid/wet conditions!! The other two are great steels, but will require care. I would go with either of the stainless steels if it was my choice. Hope your knife turns out good!
 
ATJ999 said:
AEB L or CPM 154 are pretty great steels for humid/wet conditions!! The other two are great steels, but will require care. I would go with either of the stainless steels if it was my choice. Hope your knife turns out good!
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Pretty much my thinking only thing is 1095 us about half the price of AEBL and a whole lot cheaper than cpm 154 :)
So I'll probably start with the 1095 and move on to CPM 154 later
 
Yeah, makes sense. I would do that too, at least until I got my technique down.
 
There are other choices that are not quite stainless but as tough as the carbon. S7 is a favorite of mine as well as D2. Make sure the maker has experience with the steel choice. Try to note how other knives you have have been lacking and work from there.
 
Thanks for the help guys. Should have some blades done in a few months. I'm gonna put em on the exchange for testing so like $20 bucks plus shipping and try to get good feed back and go from there.

Haha hermit your good man kinda had me confused for a sec
 
I'm a carbon steel guy who enjoys using 1095 and have gotten good use out of 52100. Careful though I have been these knives do have some patina - it comes witht he steel I suppose.

154 is good as is a split-the-difference sort of steel like D2.
 
Most guys on here seem to prefer carbon. I have a buddy that owns a AR custom shop and I could have him cerakote them if need be. But that's only if that some what most of the customers would want
 
Any of them :D

They are all great!

Which ever one the maker can heat treat the best and has the.most experience with :)
 
I like it. Like I said I'll be making these and send them off for professional HT. and have some of yall test em out for only like 20 bucks so I can at least keep buying metal. Gonna just do a simple paracord wrap handle to keep costs down. And I wanna make knives at a cheap price that users can love.
 
valknut said:
I like it. Like I said I'll be making these and send them off for professional HT. and have some of yall test em out for only like 20 bucks so I can at least keep buying metal. Gonna just do a simple paracord wrap handle to keep costs down. And I wanna make knives at a cheap price that users can love.
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Please don't advertise selling anything until you have the correct membership.

Thanks

Jason
 
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