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
Ain't that the beauty of the hobby ! You can prefer and enjoy all you want, the choice of steels (and knives) is overwhelming. It's definitely a matter of "want" and not "need". However, there are also knife fans who definitely judge their knives by performance because they rely on them, use them intensively or are professionals of some sort (hunters, cooks, butchers, fishermen,...). Given the professional or intensive use, and considering there are today a lot of stainless steels available that perform as well as the classical carbon steels, I'd say many of them could prefer stainless for obvious reasons : ease of cleaning, ease of sharpening, hygiene (food !) and no worrying about rust.
 
Last edited:
Smiling said:
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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Favorite? AUS8 because it ticks a lot of boxes at the same time for me.

But that doesn't mean I prefer stainless. It prefer a specific stainless for that "all arounder" role.

For an old timey slipjoint I prefer carbon. For edge retention I prefer stainless. etc etc. Which I prefer depends.
 
Aesthetics is a thing, too. But an amateur thing (I mean, literally, a thing for "those who love", AKA knife nuts).
Given the performances of today's stainless steels, I see little reason to prefer carbon over stainless, in a strictly professional environment. I like my carbon blades (even in the kitchen) but I will certainly grab a stainless blade if I am in a hurry or unable to clean it reasonably in a relatively short time (even in EDC use).
 
This is a question that had relevance in the 1960’s, but not today. The level of stainless ness is more a continuum than a simple yes or no question.
 
I voted stainless, the reality is that I own and use both. Each has an intended purpose and which I choose depends upon the use case. It isn't either or, it is very much BOTH.

Plus, both contain Carbon. So the poll should actually read more or less Chromium, how much depends on where you want to draw the line today.
 
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