Carbon Steel?

D

Dr van Nostrom

Joined
May 8, 2001
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536
A lot of the slipjoints I have bought are labelled as having Carbon Steel blades or Solingen Steel blades - is this a generic term (like Stainless Steel) or is Carbon Steel an acknowledged type of steel - like 440C or ATS 34? Where does it rank for edge holding and rust resistance? Well I can probably answer the rust one, living in humid ol' Houston seems if I look at a carbon steel blade too long it rusts before my eyes!!!
Recently took delivery of a Queen Stockman in Cocobolo with D2 blades - D2 is not a steel I am familiar with how does this hold up to rust? Thanks for any input!
 
Hi Dr. van Norstrom,

Yep, Carbon has become a sort of catch all generic term. I personally define carbon steel as any steel(1095, 5160, 1084, etc...) that does'nt have enough Chromium to qualify as stainless(under 13%, I believe).

Some carbon tool steel can be very stain resistant. For example, D-2 is darn close to being stainless, but will tarnish/rust if left uncared for. ATS-34 is just over the stainless line, and will rust a bit easily for being in the stainless class. Carbon steel because of the lower Chromium content is generally though to be easier to sharpen.



HTH:D:).
 
Check out the steel FAQ by Joe Talmage, one of the most useful sources of information on types of steel, IMHO. I prefer carbon steels: 1095, 52100 (the best in edge holding) and Carbon V (50100), and its current manifestation in Camillus' superb Becker series, along with W75 (Roselli uses this steel, made by Krupp) for ease of sharpening and edge holding qualities. The very best stainless steels come close to 'good' (not superb) carbon steels in edge holding, but are somewhat more difficult to sharpen. These include VG-10, ATS-34, BG-42 -- I'm not conversant enough with the new names/generation of Crucible steels. European steels are somewhat of a mystery to me, but Sandvik 12C27 is a fine grained stainless steel made for cutlery, which is used in a wide variety of Scandinavian blades. Frosts of Sweden uses 12C27 and also an excellent carbon steel in its blades. Hope this helps.
 
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I would go along with "carbon steel" being probably 1095. If the steel was 52100 or 5160 or A2 or L6 or M2 the maker would likely point that out. The term "Solingen stainless steel" is almost certainly gonna be 420...just plain "Solingen steel" is likely to be 1095. Again, if the steel is 440C, the maker is going to say so...probably also tell ya even if it's that very average 440A stuff.

As another Forumite mentioned above, and as I've heard, chromium content has a lot to do with rust resistance. Most of the "carbon" steels have very little chromium and will rust easily if not cared for (except around here...it's so dry 1095 won't even rust!!)

The only thing I can add is that A2 has more chromium than the other mentioned carbons, and is therefore a little more rust resistant..but still a long way from being in the "stainless" category.
 
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