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
Indeed toughness is one thing but edge stability is another

To try to answer the OP, lets remember that the real woodsmen of old days had knives made of steel that was much inferior to basic steels we use these days

they did just fine...

Sometimes we place too much emphasis on steel type compared to the blade design

Ankerson said:
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.
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I prefer stainless on folding knives. As far as fixed blades go, it depends on the knife. I like fixed blades in either stainless or carbon, but even then, I generally prefer stainless.

As far as knives like machetes go, for me non-stainless is the only way to go.

Jim
 
"Buy the knife" is as poor a strategy as "buy the steel" because it forces you to ignore a major factor in knife performance.

Modern, well heat treated steels offer considerable advantages. Randall is one knife that I'll never buy again because the company uses low-performance, soft steels that have poor edge stability. "Buy the reputation" is another bad strategy.

In the kitchen, I use a chef's knife with 440C steel. I love the knife because of its balance, comfort and aggressive geometry. But the steel doesn't hold an edge well. If I find a similar knife with better steel, I'll jump on it. Both steel and knife design are important. To not consider both is self-defeating if you're looking for optimal performance.

Who cares if pioneers got by with simple steels. They got by with muskets, too. And they died hard deaths at a young age. They wrote letters rather than emails. They did just fine, but I haven't written a letter in a long time and don't want to. Emails are better than Pony Express.
 
I guess the question is do we want to just get by, do we want optimal performance, do we want a balance of performance, low maintenance, etc.
 
I chose AEB-L because it is stainless and performs like carbon. So in a way both, I guess.
 
Twindog said:
"Buy the knife" is as poor a strategy as "buy the steel" because it forces you to ignore a major factor in knife performance.
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If you buy a knife you like in ANY modern steel with even marginal heat treat it'll get sharp, it'll cut stuff, it'll get dull, and it'll get sharp again; what more do you need? Maybe you want something that stays sharp longer, but if it's not available in the knife you like you're SOL. So if you're not buying a knife you like because it doesn't come in a steel you approve of, you're the only one losing out.

At the point where you're buying a knife for a specific job (i.e. a specific tool like a scalpel, a plane, chisel, shears, bushcraft blade, sentry silencing dagger, whale flenser, whatever the job...) any reputable manufacturer of quality tools should be using adequate steel in their edged tools (especially those built for a specific purpose) and should be able to heat treat such appropriately. So in the end you're better off buying the tool you like since it's the tool that gets the job done (of which the steel is only one component).

On the other hand I agree that 'buying the steel' is a terribly poor strategy. It doesn't matter if you have a glass hard, indestructable, 2* edge geometry light saber blade forged by Zeus if you can't use it because it's an uncomfortable or unsafe design.
 
NapalmCheese said:
...it'll get sharp, it'll cut stuff, it'll get dull, and it'll get sharp again; what more do you need? ...
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A flint knife will do that. A bronze-age knife will do that. A credit card will do that. But we're all different. Your expectations are just lower than mine.

For me, this forum isn't about accepting the lowest performance knife available. It's about finding the highest performing knives that are useful to my backwoods lifestyle.
 
Twindog said:
Your expectations are just lower than mine.
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I rather doubt that, guessing instead that you do not value the same performance attributes I do such that we would find each other's knife choices generally adequate but sub-optimal.
 
I have no strong preference either way on a carbon vs stainless steel preference. Most of my slip joints are carbon steel. My SAKs are stainless. Most of my modern knives are stainless..... Fixed blades are both.
 
Meh ... they both work. If the knife I want only comes in one, I'll buy it. If it comes with a choice (like a Mora Number 1, for example) I generally choose the carbon steel, if only because it is more"traditional".
 
It's a problem- I like characteristics of both types. My favorite steels are M4 and S110V. In my experience they are more similar in edgeholding than they might be in careful testing. I think of M4 as a tough tool steel that I use for a working knife although it isn't all that tough compared to some others. I usually carry my M4 blade when working in the yard and although I don't have much trouble with maintenance of M4 it really doesn't react well if I sweat on it.

I like a steel with good edgeholding. I can sharpen a blade fairly well and get it much sharper than I need, but I don't really like sharpening and will put it off as long as I can.

I'm an engineer and I understand toughness. I believe it is an important attribute for some knives although there are so many variables of blade shape and heat treat that it is hard to determine what behavior is specifically due to metallurgy and not something else. Plus I know not to abuse a knife so I'm careful to use a knife as a knife and not something else. I might be just as well off with a steel with poor toughness as a steel with good toughness.

But there was one incident that bothers me because I don't understand it. My wife bought some temporary window shades that came with a thin bladed knife to cut them to length. I was testing this knife by cutting a cardboard box and broke the blade simply slicing ordinary corrugated cardboard. I thought a cheap piece of carbon steel that isn't overyly hardened would not be that fragile, maybe its heat treat was off.
 
yeah, technically I would fall into the 'non-stainless' side, but since it's m4 and 3v, I wouldn't call them simple carbon steel either ; )

some of my fav stainless, which I prefer with food prep is 12c27 and aeb-l, and even vg10... and ofc s35vn
 
I live 20 miles from gulf and all our inland lakes are salt or brackish water so most of the time it’s stainless steels for me. But like others here have stated I also prefer carbon steels for fixed blades I use in the woods. It’s easier to maintain an edge with a pocket stone on the go.

If I could only choose one knife for the rest of my life it would be a fixed blade in some flavor of carbon steel. But that’s just me.
 
Well, it depends on a lot of things.

There are guys on here that can make a knife from a leaf spring off a ‘77 El Camino that will significantly outperform many cheap stainless knives you can buy from Cutco and the like.
 
I like carbon steel, because of the ways that it shows character with age. Depending on what you use your knife for; food prep, hunting, edc tasks....etc. The patina from one knife to the next will always be different. So as long as you do proper maintenance rust should be a non issue. So for me carbon steel is a win-win. It gives me an excuse to play with my knives more, and they show more character the more I use it.
 
marcinek said:
Prefer for what?

For rust-resistance, I'd have to go stainless.
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General use, whatever you use your knives for, I know that you can have more knives and use them for various tasks, but also majority of people will have their preference, they'll prefer one over the other. Lots of people will even have a favourite steel.
 
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