Carbon steel vs Stainless steel

Carbon steel vs Stainless steel?

  • Carbon steel

    Votes: 41 52.6%

  • Stainless steel

    Votes: 37 47.4%
  • Total voters
    78
I like M4 steel a lot, but it's a pain in the rainforest because it requires so much care. 3V steel will rust, but the rust is surface rust. It comes off easily, leaving a clean blade. M4 pits. It doesn't clean up.
 
superpog said:
If I understand correctly, for knife users, the only advantages carbon over stainless nowadays are just cost and differential heat treat.

Differential heat treat just makes a knife bend under certain amount of force or beyond without break. However, I would prefer a stainless knife that won't bend at the same amount of force nor break, but may eventually break at a point that no human can achieve with bare hands which I don't care.

If we leave behind the differential heat treat, I don't think 1095 has any other physical property that can't be replaced by a stainless steel. Per Larrin's data, 1095 is just ok on toughness and several other stainless steel are much tougher that 1095, like sandvik steels, CPM154, LC200N etc. And almost all of them holds an edge at least as good as 1095 and also easy to sharpen.

I think currently lots of fixed blade are made of 1095 is more of the benefit of 1095 on knife maker side, but not much for knife users. Both "easy to sharpen" and "differential heat treat" are not quite convincing for me.
Click to expand...

The advantages are in toughness. Steels like 3v can be ground thinner and treated far worse than any stainless with similar edge retention.
 
Dr Rez said:
The advantages are in toughness. Steels like 3v can be ground thinner and treated far worse than any stainless with similar edge retention.
Click to expand...


That's not actually true, not really.

For one you aren't going to find many 3V knives that don't have pry bar geometry so it doesn't matter what steel was used.

Reason why it's NOT used in blade sports by any of the top cutters.

It just doesn't perform with thin grinds and higher hardness very well when compared to other steels like M4 and 4V.

Stainless steels like CPM 154, S35VN and ELMAX will perform better than 3V with thin grinds. Toughness is not everything when it comes to knife blades. There isn't even a word to describe how overrated toughness is for knife blades.
 
Last edited:
I love both. I have high carbon, stainless, spring steel, tool steels, ball bearing steels and a few other odds and ends.
I've used too many to list.1095, 1085, 1060, 1055,
D2, A2, 52100, CPM3v, L6, INFI, and many I don't even remember what they are.

420hc, Krupp, 440c, ats34, 154cm, CPM154, Aus8a, laminated stainless like VG1 and vg10 laminated with 420 sides. (and a whole passel of other stainless number/letter steels) AEBL (one of my current favorite stainless steels right now).

Now I have not had opportunity to use too many of the new crop of super steels for edge retention.

But I like.
Easy to sharpen, both stainless and carbon. Harder to sharpen but longer edge holding steels.... tough steels too.

I like them all. As long as I can get them sharp, and the edge does not wilt under a hard gaze, or harsh word.... I like them.


I am lucky enough to live in an area where I can carry carbon steels without much work to keep them from rotting away before my very eyes....
 
Last edited:
I live a block from the bay. I have had SAKs rust on me. I have several 1095s that have were not cleaned or oiled, left outside for a year with no rust. I have an old Barlow th.at has never rusted and a newer 440c that has dark red rust all over it, event though it has been kept oiled. That being said I treat all my knives like carbon steel and use dry boxes with desiccant packs to store all when not in use.

As far as edge retention I lean to the carbon steel, but that is just my anecdotal observations
 
Threads like these make me so happy that I care as little about blade steels as I do, nothing against those who do care it's just one less thing for me to argue about. And boy do people argue about it.


Personally If I buy a knife from one of my favored manufacturers I don't care what particular steel it's made of because I know it'll act the same as the last, I know when I've got a carbon steel or stainless blade and thats all I need to know.
 
Answers are definitley interesting.

I only ever used stainless steel in my life, from kitchen knives to some cheap knives I'd get from people as a gift. Mostly folders that I'd break very fast.

And when I bought real deal bigger knife I ended up with carbon (SK-5, basically Japanese 1080) and I really like it. There is just something in maintaining carbon steel blade that makes that feel special. Other knife I have is made 52100 which is ball bearing steel. Again, it needs maintenance.
 
Hickory n steel said:
If it ain't broke don't fix it :D
Click to expand...

Maybe lend it a few bucks though. ;)

I make knives that I would want to own and use, so it's AEB-L for me. It's the stainless I work with when making stainless knives and in my limited experiences so far, it takes stable super thin edges at moderately high hardness (61) that will roll instead of chip under extreme force. They get scary sharp, hold it well enough for all but the most abrasive cutting tasks, and sharpens very easily. AEB-L seems like a less corrosion resistant but harder and better wearing H1 in use. If I could heat treat it less expensively, all my knives would be in AEB-L, from my edc sized knives to my chef's knives to my choppers and short swords.

Of course, a goal of mine is to advance to using Z-Finite for the same types of knives, but that would be much more expensive than even AEB-L for me. Most of my knives are in 1080 or 1084 right now, and I am perfectly happy with it and have no problem using it interchangeably with AEB-L in any of my designs. But for what I can practically use and make knives with, AEB-L stainless is currently my favorite.
 
Personally, I'll use both (which is to say I generally don't care in particular about the steel). I am more interested in how the blade is designed, manufactured and whether it is suitable for a given task than what steel it is made from. If I like a knife and it is well regarded as a quality tool, chances are the steel matters littles to me.
 
It isn't a deal breaker for me but I prefer stainless for a folder and fixed now.
 
And for carbon blades, for ease of maintenance, I like a coated blade and just very occasionally, or after damp use, simply rub a thin layer of coconut oil on the edge.

They won't rust this way and after use, a simple stropping with green compound gets them super sharp again.
 
Well, in my opinion stainless is the way to go for most of folders.

But, for fixed blades, especially big ones intended for harder use - carbon would be the choice. Unless you're at sea... that changes it.
 
I like both.

But my rule of thumb on stainless steel is it must be what's considered "low end" bracket of 0.45-0.75 in carbon. I'm flexible between it being Japanese, German,or American steel. If you're going to put down a carbon steel blade you might as well go with a stainless steel that can compete with 1095 on sharpening ease/versatility on any abrasive surfaces while giving good edge results.
 
Frotier76 said:
I like both.

But my rule of thumb on stainless steel is it must be what's considered "low end" bracket of 0.45-0.75 in carbon. I'm flexible between it being Japanese, German,or American steel. If you're going to put down a carbon steel blade you might as well go with a stainless steel that can compete with 1095 on sharpening ease/versatility on any abrasive surfaces while giving good edge results.
Click to expand...

I consider the Sandvik 12c27 to be somewhat similar to 1095 in terms of ease of sharpening and ability to take a great edge.

Kruup 4116 might also be close as well.
 
Bigfattyt said:
I love both. I have high carbon, stainless, spring steel, tool steels, ball bearing steels and a few other odds and ends.
I've used too many to list.1095, 1085, 1060, 1055,
D2, A2, 52100, CPM3v, L6, INFI, and many I don't even remember what they are.

420hc, Krupp, 440c, ats34, 154cm, CPM154, Aus8a, laminated stainless like VG1 and vg10 laminated with 420 sides. (and a whole passel of other stainless number/letter steels) AEBL (one of my current favorite stainless steels right now).

Now I have not had opportunity to use too many of the new crop of super steels for edge retention.

But I like.
Easy to sharpen, both stainless and carbon. Harder to sharpen but longer edge holding steels.... tough steels too.

I like them all. As long as I can get them sharp, and the edge does not wilt under a hard gaze, or harsh word.... I like them.


I am lucky enough to live in an area where I can carry carbon steels without much work to keep them from rotting away before my very eyes....
Click to expand...


I buy the knife for the design, not so much the steel. As long as the steel is heat treated correctly and is suited for the design of the knives intended purpose it's fine.

Here are 5 completely different knives in 5 different steels as an example.

Top to bottom: 440B, 4V, INFI, 3V and MAXAMET.


 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top