Carbon steel vs stainless steel

If I lived next to the sea and spent a lot of time along the shore I would probably use a knife with H1 steel. Inland, it doesn't matter as much unless you neglect your knives. I would opt for a stainless knife if I was spending time in a rain forest.
 
Thanks for the educational info I always thought carbon steels where used by old school knife makers now I understand there is a place for carbon steels and stainless steels
 
I was a commercial fisherman in north Florida when I stared making knives. I used carbon steel knives around saltwater without rust. I also sold Dexter Russel knives to the seafood industry From St.Marks to Port St.Joe and most users wanted the carbon steel verity. This was back in the 80s' and I'm sure stuff has changed a little bit since then. Stainless has it's place, but I much prefer carbon...
 
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Most of our personal knives have been carbon steels though phillp made himself a small bird&trout from AEB-L that he really likes..He wade fishes a lot so that knife may be under water for hours at a time..He also made a kydex sheath for that reason too..Im not saying that carbon wouldent work just fine but knowing him Im guessing he likes just taking the knife off and throwing in the console of the truck when hes done.
 
Almost laughed out loud when I read that the reason for choosing one steel over another could be based entirely on appearance...say it ain't so??

As a knife user my main frustration with stainless is micro chipping along the edge. I buy dexter-russel stainLESS (haven't seen a carbon version yet) halibut dressing knives that I use the whole commercial season, I sharpen my knife every hour or so on deck so I don't see any gain in edge retention due to how hard it is but it sure chips out and gills aren't that tough to cut through. The only reason I haven't made myself a decent W2 or cru-forge blade is that they tend to get washed overboard now and then (and overall procrastination). My Dad uses a custom high carbon heading knife for cod and he just sprays it with oil and shoves it in a piece of foam when he's done. I have all carbon knives in the kitchen and for hunting/sport fishing, we live in a rainforest next to the ocean :) My knives aren't rusty at all and if I feel like spiffing up the kitchen blades a few swipes with a new scothbrite kitchen pad makes them shiny again.

I have no doubt from my experience that carbon out performs at least the kind of stainless I've used in knives. There is probably some amazing high tech stainless out there they just aren't wasting it on the fishing fleet.

My favorite use of stainless is on the Ruger M77 all weather model rifles...can't have too many of those around the saltwater.
-Haley
 
^^I'd like to point out that Haley is awesome...... and a bit scary.^^
 
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