Do you guys use your high end knives made out of the so called super stainless steels

F

from sweden

Joined
Mar 28, 2005
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Hi im originally from sweden but i live in Australia now .
I was never a fan of the vg10 steel in larger knives ,like the a1 series< also found the finger guard to be little bit short on that series ..
Yes very sharp holds edge well, when cutting soft stuff ,but any chopping battoning and you get chipping in blade..
or even drop it, and yes that happens ..and i have seen it on friends vg10 knives mostly fallkniven .. and the a1 is marketed as survival knife
reason is i use my knives, and i always had edges chip with fallkniven a1 .. i hade 2 , they were very brittle , i re profiled the blades edges
to a traditional flat v grind non convex and sold them ..
i do like the looks of the northern light thor odin , but id be scared to spend that much $ to find that when i use it its brittle ..
dont get me wrong im not bashing a particular brand ,its more vg10 and other so called super stainless steels .
just not what i would consider a good steel for bigger blades .. and in my experience the stainless steels that many
consider inferior like some of the 440b 440a stainless steels or puma 1.4116 i found to be very good when you actually
using the knife .. i love 1095 and randalls 01 .. o1 wich i think is fantastic easy to resharpen quickly not brittle at al but they do rust but easy to resharpen and they very tough ..
i under stand that heat treatment plays a big part like a 440 b can be heat treated to be real good tough steel for a stainless steel .. but is it just me or is vg 10 a really bad choice for larger fixed blade knives ..
i know the newer fallknivens are laminated with 420 stainless vg10 core ..

also now when i live in australia i found if you have a camp knife aussie wood is very hard and some steels are like a joke
once you actually use them ..
i used to work in forest sweden when i was young ,, chain saw ..it was like cutting true butter.. first time i tried cutting aussie trees
eucalyptus and other native trees i thought what the hell is this ..
and some of the other steels like d2 , even if its not a true stainless it has very good resistance to rust but very hard to sharpen in my opinion
ease of sharpening in the field non brittle is more important to me than super hard steels that holds edge longer but is brittle and hard to sharpen ..
i wish they would of made the odin thor fallkniven in carbon steel .. or used something instead of vg10

Cheers
 
Define "super"...

If D2 is too hard to sharpen then either your technique is bad or your sharpening equipment is. Something like a ceramic stone will be way harder than any of your steel blades and will remove material with ease.

I don't see why we wouldn't use a "premium" steel. If it's premium, then it should perform better at cutting or chopping. Why have something that was intended for use, and not use it?
 
Yes I absolutely do use them. Why else would I buy them? Where is Phil Wilson when we need him...
 
I wouldn't exactly call vg10 a super steel anymore. don't get me wrong it is an exceptional steel but with all of the new stuff coming' out these days it has taken the back seat just a tad...

But hey, thats just my opinion.

I use my "super" steels everyday... My new preferred carry knife is a Manix 2 LW S110V.

The steel is a joy to use and I haven't had to touch it up yet!
 
Yes I use them. That said, I use the appropriate steel and knife for the right job. I'm not going to smash up a bunch of wood with my VG10 blades as I consider that a very good folder steel. If I want to bash things apart will use 3v, INFI, SR101, 1095, SK5, A2.
 
Wallet size diamond sharpening stones have made the excuse for not having high carbide knife steel due to hard sharpening obsolete, 20 years ago.
D2 is a cake walk compared to some steels.
 
My favorite knives are the ZT0777 (M390) and the ZT0620 (M390). I use them all the time to cut all sorts of things. Why else own a knife?
 
Perhaps the OP could be more clear. As I am understanding this question, he is talking about fixed blades.
 
well i thought it would be interesting hearing if anyone else hade issues with larger
vg 10 blades chipping im not talking about folders .. and yes i can sharpen pretty much anything,
and yes i understand edge angle needs to be correct depending on what tasks knife is used for
on my kitchen knives i use norton oil stones <wusthof> ..and japanese wet stones when my friends need their jap knives sharpened
and i use a tormek water stone for sharpening friends tools chisels stuf and non knife cutting tools .. i sharpen cut throat razors to on japanese
wet stones . but i struggle around the chin i tend to cut my self around that area when im not careful ..
 
I had to re-read it. I think the gist of it is(and please OP correct me if I'm wrong) that he doesn't like the steel on his Falkniven A1, VG-10,, and doesn't think it's fit for harder woods, that it's chippy.

I have no dog in the fight,, just trying to understand what he's saying.
 
CPM4V. I use/carry it every day.

 
from sweden said:
well i thought it would be interesting hearing if anyone else hade issues with larger
vg 10 blades chipping im not talking about folders .. and yes i can sharpen pretty much anything,
and yes i understand edge angle needs to be correct depending on what tasks knife is used for
on my kitchen knives i use norton oil stones <wusthof> ..and japanese wet stones when my friends need their jap knives sharpened
and i use a tormek water stone for sharpening friends tools chisels stuf and non knife cutting tools .. i sharpen cut throat razors to on japanese
wet stones . but i struggle around the chin i tend to cut my self around that area when im not careful ..
Click to expand...

VG-10 would not be what I would want in a large hard use knife. Wouldn't even consider it really. There are much better options for what I use a large camp knife for.
 
thx sorry for bad spelling grammar commas and all that .. i did have a cold steel trail master once . i did like it exept
foor the kraton grip it wore out pretty fast on me the grip i mean it was comfortable when it was new did rust on me few times but still good
lost it canoeing with friend .. left it camp spot we could not go back straight away it was gone once i made it back ..
like i said i like the looks of the fallkniven thor odin i like the leather handles reminds me eastwing hammers and leather handles are comfortable ..
i just dont understand why they use vg10 for those knives and market them as outdoor knives cause in my experience they very brittle ..
 
rcb2000 said:
I had to re-read it. I think the gist of it is(and please OP correct me if I'm wrong) that he doesn't like the steel on his Falkniven A1, VG-10,, and doesn't think it's fit for harder woods, that it's chippy.

I have no dog in the fight,, just trying to understand what he's saying.
Click to expand...

I would agree that VG10, especially when compared to some of the latest materials used in many of the new production knives, shouldn't be considered a super steel per se. But I've found the VG10 in my Fallkniven A1 to work wonderfully, even when used on hard woods. IMO the A1's blade is heavy enough that one doesn't need to have a thin razors edge to be usable. View attachment 605658
 
I use S110V, S90V and S35VN in the kitchen, mostly S110V though.

S35VN as my primary EDC.
 
To not use such steels would be an offence to the mighty knife gods! They were not only made to be used, but were often made just for knives. Get a Sharpmaker.
 
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from sweden said:
thx sorry for bad spelling grammar commas and all that .. i did have a cold steel trail master once . i did like it exept
foor the kraton grip it wore out pretty fast on me the grip i mean it was comfortable when it was new did rust on me few times but still good
lost it canoeing with friend .. left it camp spot we could not go back straight away it was gone once i made it back ..
like i said i like the looks of the fallkniven thor odin i like the leather handles reminds me eastwing hammers and leather handles are comfortable ..
i just dont understand why they use vg10 for those knives and market them as outdoor knives cause in my experience they very brittle ..
Click to expand...

Why VG10? Because it takes a great edge and is very corrison resistant and has decent wear resistance.

It doesn't chip on proper cutting mediums.

Some dudes just need tougher knives.


Some dudes expections for how a knife should be used doesn't agree with any sharp edges regardless of steel.

Perhaps CPM 3v with a 40 dps edge will do.
 
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