Custom Knife: I'm Dithering on the Steel, help me out please

Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith said:
I made hundreds of knives from CPM154/154CM/ATS 34/RL34. It is a good steel.

I moved up to CPMS35VN and CPM-S45VN. which is what I make almost all my stainless knives from now. AEBL is for some lower cost stainless knives. AEBL is also a good steel.
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Nick-D said:
I work with both (well rwl 34 & nitro v, almost identical steels).

Cpm 154/rwl 34 is a fantastic steel. I love it for my own hunting and outdoor knives, as do the hunters who use my knives.

I battoned wood just 2 nights ago with my rwl 34 test knife splitting apple for the smoker. I've had no issues with toughness or edge issues as the geometry is suitable for outdoor tasks

It hold an edge noticeably better than my nitro v hunting knife skinning and boning deer and pigs.

I prefer nitro v over rwl 34 in the kitchen as the extra toughness means it can be taken very thin at high hardness and still have good edge stability for kitchen tasks.

I prefer rwl 34 in the field for that extra bit of edge keeping.

Both sharpen and finish easily.
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Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith said:
I made hundreds of knives from CPM154/154CM/ATS 34/RL34. It is a good steel.

I moved up to CPMS35VN and CPM-S45VN. which is what I make almost all my stainless knives from now. AEBL is for some lower cost stainless knives. AEBL is also a good steel.
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My thanks to both of you, this is the knind of info I was looking for.

Thank you!

[beer]
 
You might think about CPM Magnacut (a newer steel) that sounds very good for both toughness and edge holding. I am going to standardize on it as soon as my S35VN is gone.
 
Albin said:
Interesting first answer.

Questions: Are you a maker? If so, what's your experience with CPM-154? What type of knives do you make out of CPM-154?

Thanks!
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I'm not a maker, I just research steels for knives. It's a hobby for me really.
 
Diego_B said:
Hands down would go with AEB-L. Plus, I highly doubt this is the last custom knife you buy because we all know that we cant just have one. 😅
Pick what will suffice at the moment.
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Ok, so I've bit my tongue answering this for over a day, but now I'm just gonna spit it out: This isn't helpful. In fact, it's the opposite of helpful.

It's so unhelpful that the only possible way to make it more unhelpful is if "someone" started posting pics of their hand forged knives. I know you're not gonna do that, 'cause you want to be "helpful". Amirite or amirite?

There, I've said it: Suck it up Buttercup!

Ooops! I forgot this: :)
 
Albin said:
Ok, so I've bit my tongue answering this for over a day, but now I'm just gonna spit it out: This isn't helpful. In fact, it's the opposite of helpful.

It's so unhelpful that the only possible way to make it more unhelpful is if "someone" started posting pics of their hand forged knives. I know you're not gonna do that, 'cause you want to be "helpful". Amirite or amirite?

There, I've said it: Suck it up Buttercup!

Ooops! I forgot this: :)
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Sheesh? 🙂. Here ya go. 2 of 3 blades for some family friends FORGED from O-1.


IMG_2357 (1).jpg
 
You know ... ill chime in here at this point. And .... i do mean this comment as a literal statement, *not* judgement or criticism.

These steels differ, but at a high level they are not *that* different. It takes a certain amount of exposure to them, using them, subjecting them to your own way of using (or abusing) them to bring out and see their differences. If your own experience is not enough to allow you to say right up front "i want X alloy and not Y alloy", then you are not likely to recognize any big differences in the final product. So the steel does not matter, except maybe what the maker recommends (for whatever reasons - they have better luck grinding and processing one alloy versus or maybe they just happen to have one alloy on hand!)

Later on you might start seeing differences between alloys, but will you really right now?
 
Cushing H. said:
You know ... ill chime in here at this point. And .... i do mean this comment as a literal statement, *not* judgement or criticism.

These steels differ, but at a high level they are not *that* different. It takes a certain amount of exposure to them, using them, subjecting them to your own way of using (or abusing) them to bring out and see their differences. If your own experience is not enough to allow you to say right up front "i want X alloy and not Y alloy", then you are not likely to recognize any big differences in the final product. So the steel does not matter, except maybe what the maker recommends (for whatever reasons - they have better luck grinding and processing one alloy versus or maybe they just happen to have one alloy on hand!)

Later on you might start seeing differences between alloys, but will you really right now?
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The dithering level has dropped quite a bit. Thanks,


So question about the 2nd chart shown in the OP: Are there any numbers that stick out to anyone as being way out of whack? Like something rated a "5" and it should be IYO a 2 or a 8? In other words, do you agree/disagree with the ratings?

Thanks!
 
My 2 cents, having worked with CPM154 a bit and various carbon steels: if you're not sure go with the CPM154. It will be a little bit more prone to chipping than the others but for that sort of knife you can get around that issue with edge geometry.
That said i would choose the 80crv because i prefer carbon steels, and properly heat treated AEBL should work. No wrong choice here
 
If you are getting a hard use knife where toughness is going to be a big deal go with AEB-L I think its the toughest. The CPM 154 will have the est edge retention and probably be the best choice. 80CrV2 is inferior unless you want the look of patina or forging. Its purely looks.

A well heat treated custom knife with a good grind will perform on another level from production knives. Newer stainless steels are far tougher and take better edges than old school stainless with large chromium carbides that gave stainless a bad name. CPM-154 shouldn't need the diamonds that are really nice to have with the vanadium alloys but they still work well and you should be able to sharpen it in under a minute no matter what it is so I wouldn't worry about that if it was your issue.
 
Ordered the flattop version of this Woodsman from Flat Rock Forge in CPM-154:

K2QoWZU.jpg



Thanks for the comments and suggestions: They were a huge help!
 
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