Choosing Steel for a Knife Copy

[Michael Black]

AEB-L is pretty much always the answer in my experience lol

It's just such an amazing all around blade steel and you can't argue with the price.

 

[Taz]

Yeah, AEB-L hits way above it's price point! Edge retention is better than what you would think with the lower carbon and it can support a thin edge at higher hardness, too. Plus it's stainless. If people like carbon steel knives, I often suggest AEB-L/Nitro V since they are tough, easy to sharpen and take a wicked fine edge, which are the advantages of carbon steels and why people like them, but it's stainless, too, without the draw backs of some stainless (harder to sharpen, doesn't sharpen up as fine, not as tough, higher costs, etc).

 

[me2]

Many steels will cut, but ARB-L is specifically intended to cut things by hand with a very fine edge. No downsides I can find yet.

 

[Horsewright]

Maybe that's why I sell so many knives in AEB-L to folks that really use em from the kitchen, to the field, to the branding pen:

Anyhoo it works.