Determining the Best Budget Knife Steel

Yes I would think VG10 would be closest to AUS10. There is a chance AUS10 could be a bit tougher with less edge retention but there are no guarantees.
 
Curious to see how some of these common steels stack up, some are know vary from “good” to “junk” depending on who is making it (D2, 8cr etc).

I read through to the part about conveyer belt furnaces earlier and then it was time to wipe.
 
Thanks Larrin for another great article.

I'd also say thank you to mora and kershaw for being the first big mfgs to use 14c28n commonly.

I also agree 52100 is the top of the non-stainless options - clean wins the day (as Larrin has discussed previously, the very low sulfur & phosphor levels help)
I'd be tempted to include m2 or m4 in there but the high tungsten % make it tough on grinding/blanking etc
 
So I should sell all my budget blades and only buy 14c28n? Roger that. :p

Great work as usual Larrin Larrin . :thumbsup:

I didn't know AEB-L was essentially 13c26 either.

ATS 34 is essentually 154cm correct? :confused: I'm still rocking some *old time* ATS 34 blades.
 
Now we just need to get this article out to all the budget knife companies. I'd love to see 14C28N replace Chinese D2 as the budget standard for brands like Bestech, CJRB, Civivi, etc. I've also been happy with Civivi's 9Cr18Mov and Tangram's Acuto 440, but I'll take 14C28N any day of the week.
 
dirc said:
Thanks Larrin for another great article.

I'd also say thank you to mora and kershaw for being the first big mfgs to use 14c28n commonly.

I also agree 52100 is the top of the non-stainless options - clean wins the day (as Larrin has discussed previously, the very low sulfur & phosphor levels help)
I'd be tempted to include m2 or m4 in there but the high tungsten % make it tough on grinding/blanking etc
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I recently sent off 4 blanks to be heat treated in M2. It's a very nice lower cost option I think.

Looking forward to getting those back and messing around with them a little.

Grinding them (and even hand sanding them) was honestly not too bad.
 
Twindog said:
Thanks for another interesting article, Larrin.

What's the attraction of O1? It's not very tough. It rusts badly. It doesn't hold an edge worth a darn. And yet it's widely used by the custom guys.
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I have an O1 slipjoint at RC61 with a convex grind. It outperforms 1095 by a long shot. It's a very tough blade designed by and for a trucker. It's seen 30 years of use with just a few marks from not being stainless.
 
Interesting read.
Where does 440A, 7CR19MoV, 9CR??MoV, 420HC, 4116*, T10, and other "budget" steels used in production budget knives rank?

For what its worth (most likely nothing) I've heard of BG42. I know Buck used it for some of the BCCI knives. I'm not sure if they ever used it as their standard production blade steel.

*mainly Cold Steel's budget knives, like the Eland, Kudu, and Pendleton Lite, among others.
 
Cognoscenti said:
what its the best between 420J and 7CR19MoV ?
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I think 420J2 is closer to 3CR15MoV or MAYBE 5CR15MoV?

I know Buck uses 420J2 on the offshore 300 series knives.

BTI Schrade-Impeial uses 3CR15MoV on most of the Imperial line.

7CR17 and 9CR18MoV on the Schrade/Old Timer/Uncle Henry lines.

My offshore Old Timer 858OT has 7CR17MoV blades, while the 858OTB with bone covers has 9CR18MoV.

Both Buck and BTI Schrade have a lifetime warranty on their offshore knives, so the 420J2 and 3CR15MoV can't be total garbage?

I don't have anything I know of with 3CR.
My offshore Buck 371 stockmans and 389 canoe hold an edge long enough to be useful, and don't chip or roll the edge when re-profiled to 10 degrees per side/20 degrees inclusive.
 
Cognoscenti said:
what its the best between 420J and 7CR19MoV ?
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420J2 is extremely low carbon so most anything would be better. “420” is a broad category of 13% chromium steels and 420J2 is a low carbon variant. I would only use it for applications that require toughness and corrosion resistance above all else (and not edge retention or resistance to deformation).
 
CarsonWayne said:
Thanks for the reply. I'll care for it more like a non stainless tool steel.
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I've used my Spyderco Shaman CTS-XHP as my go to outdoor knife for hunting, fishing, and cleaning game. Usually big game. The XHP has performed flawless and if you didn't tell me here, I would have guessed XHP was stainless. I have had absolutely no issues with corrosion with this steel and I have not pampered it by any means. It has also held it's edge very well over the past 6 months of hunting season. In the mean time, I'm just going to continue to pretend its stainless and use it accordingly.
 
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