Do you care who makes the steel in your knives?

[hardheart]

For steels like S90V/CTS-20CP, M390/20CV/CTS-204P, ATS-34/154CM, CPM154/RWL34, 13C26/AEB-L, CPM 10V/K294, there are proprietary names given to similar alloys, so we know who made the steel. But for A2, D2, 440C, 1095, etc., does anyone ever request from the manufacturer to find out which foundry produced the steel?

 

[imbryan715]

not a big deal to me....... if one is heat treated better i will take it. the only one i can think of that i really like is xhp > d2. my d2 knives rust all of the dang time. i dont even buy d2 knives any more. im glad to see more and more knives featuring xhp. i would like to pick up a millie and a para in xhp but dont have the coin right now. i think i would take a 20cv hinderer over the xhp hinderer though.

 

[The Mastiff]

I like having as much information as I can get. Quite often though we can get nothing more than the steel type. If It's CPM 154 it's obvious who made it but if it's D2, or 440C, then who knows. I'm not sure if producers consider it proprietary information but they tend to be closed lip about much of the information and process. We often don't get hardness figures until someone takes it upon themselve to get it tested.

And we are the enthusiasts too.

Spyderco and Kershaw are pretty good at informing and trying to educate their customers to an extent but there is still much left unsaid.

Joe