Do you prefer Carbon or Stainless for edc

For edc do you prefer.........

  • Carbon

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Stainless

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Total voters
    0
  • Poll closed .
Steven65

Steven65

Traditional Hog
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I was wondering how my fellow Traditional Forumites felt about the subject of Carbon vs Stainless for edc
I must confess and say....
"I prefer Stainless"

I like a nice bright blade in my pocket. Easily cared for and with a high rust resistant quality. I know I sacrifice some ease of sharpening and marginal cutting quality but for my utility use of a pocket knife that hardly matters.

Also I have to say that I am not a fan of patina on a blade........(he said while running for decent cover:D)

I noticed in the 2009 Bladeforums knife thread there were a fair number of people who voted for stainless. I thought it would be interesting to have a poll and see what the results were.

Remember this is edc not collecting........
 
I voted carbon. I have some stainless knives, but when I took stock of my users, the vast majority had carbon blades.
 
Gotta go with high carbon steel. I love developing a patina on a fresh blade, as well as the ease of sharpening. Guess that's why I keep going back to my Opinel after all this time.

Edit: To add to this, it just seems that, through sharpening and stropping, carbon steel gives better feedback. To me, it's almost as if the steel rubbing against the stone or strop is speaking. Kind of hard to explain, but just something I've noticed. Stainless doesn't really give that feeling. The carbon steel blades would speak as if to tell me that I'm getting closer to finishing and that the blade's going to be sharp.
 
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I love the patina, the ease of sharpening, and the "traditional" vibes the carbon steel gives. I own some stainless stuff too, but they're just impersonal tools compared to my carbon steel blades. They've both got their strengths and weaknesses---------and so do I! :D
 
Carbon for me, because I like the color. Early on I liked a satin finish but now I like bothe a polished and satin. Stainless has its place in my rotational use though and I like it.
 
I'll go with carbon if I have a choice.

I like a knife that ages and gets charater along with me. I like carbon for its edge holding, in general, over stainless. With the exeption of Buck, carbon seems better, especially in moderate price range working knives like Klass, Boker, Eye-Brand and Case soddies. When a knife has been around long enough for the stag scales to get that buttery yellow, or a rosewood handle gets that deep sheen from a lot of hands on polishing, a bright stainless blade on the knife looks 'un-natural'.
 
I love Carbon steel, but truth be told, most of my carry blades are Stainless or D2,
 
I am split between the two. Carbon because I always carried an Old Timer growing up because of the low price. But I do enjoy a shiny stainless blade also. I guess the carbon wins out though.
 
I generally prefer carbon steel on most factory slipjoints and stainless on customs.

The latter usually have crisp swedges and beautiful hand rubbed satin finishes that I'd like to maintain as long as possible without worrying about staining or corrosion. On the other hand, the former are usually tumbled or buffed out to the point that they're somewhat bland looking, and a nice patina gives them some welcome personality and character.
 
I like high-carbon better just for the ease of sharpening. I'm interested in trying Buck's 420HC, though.
 
Yep I voted for Carbon too.

I've got several Stainless knives as well and I do carry them, but I like both the performance and the look of carbon steel. A blade with a nice patina and a nice bright edge is just what I think looks best, and I tend to get a better edge on carbon, or at least with less work. Nothing wrong with stainless though, like I said I have several and they do get used.

syn
 
I like carbon blades better. I feel that they perform better ie.. easier to sharpen and hold an edge slightly better. No actual testing just my subjective opinion.
 
I like carbon just because I love how they age. In terms of function, I find stainless to be fine, and like that on my less traditional folders. I may try a stainless case Canoe though--I really like that model:)
 
I voted carbon steel. Its just hard to beat a carbon steel edge. That said, I really like the high end stainless out there. Ive got one of each in my pocket, a Sandvick 12C27, and 1095 carbon.

IMG_0903.jpg
 
Rick said:
I generally prefer carbon steel on most factory slipjoints and stainless on customs.

The latter usually have crisp swedges and beautiful hand rubbed satin finishes that I'd like to maintain as long as possible without worrying about staining or corrosion. On the other hand, the former are usually tumbled or buffed out to the point that they're somewhat bland looking, and a nice patina gives them some welcome personality and character.
Click to expand...

This expresses my feelings on the subject pretty well.
 
I voted carbon because its what I have been carrying, but that is not to say that I dislike stainless. If I had been carrying stainless for the last year and a half I may have voted the other way.
 
I concur with all comments that are pro carbon. I also like how a patina evolves. It seems that with the traditional fans carbon is the lead choice, but I bet the polls would be just the opposite with other knife genres.
 
I like em both , and can't say I have a strong preference either way , though if it's stainless I prefer ats-34 or cpm-154 in a slippie.
 
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