Favorite knife steel

V

Vegas Blade

Joined
Feb 9, 2012
Messages
902
I actually used the search button because I thought this would have been beat up. I didn't find anything in about four pages. So, what's everyone's favorite knife steel and why?? Lets go one more and say favorite stainless and favorite non stainless. There is no right or wrong, just opinions.

I will start. My favorite stainless is M-390, and my favorite non stainless is CPM M-4. The M-390 takes a good, toothy edge and holds it well, and seems impervious to rust. The M4 is just insane. Takes an edge, holds it well, and will cut a good long time.

What do y'all like?
 
I like benchmades D2 , its easy to sharpen for me and holds a edge well, id like to try m390 or m4
 
M390 because it has proven to be the best performer for my variety of uses and stays sharp for a long time.
And 1095 because it is a pleasure to sharpen and is very predictable as to how it will react when cutting certain materials.
 
154cm has always worked well for me. Takes a razor edge and is easy to get there. I don't have any experience with the super steels though. My knives are all either 154cm, S30V, ATS-34 and a few of the 8CR13MOV's. Oh yeah and one N690C on a Sigtac Rangemaster I have. That one is actually pretty good too. The D2 on my Benchmade 3300 Infidel has never been used to cut anything. It is more of a play toy for me ;)
 
Any honyaki japanese carbon steel.

hrc average 65-67 and $1000 for cheap knife.

Will make your knife look like a wooden spoon.
 
Doesn't that make it too brittle though? I don't know a whole lot about knives, but I thought that the higher it is on the RC scale the more brittle it becomes.
 
Yes it can be brittle.

however these knives can also be very strong if correct angle is made with edge.

True katanas are all honyaki with very high hrc yet have been recorded to slice through 5 human pelvis in 1 swing. Average is one human pelvis.

id say brittle wasnt an issue once appleseed convex is perfected.
 
When it's hard enough, S35vn is my favorite for my uses.

...now I'm gonna go run for cover.
 
M390, ZDP-189 (when clad with another more flexible steel), Duratec 20cv. Oh, and Damasteel.
 
But anything with high carbon feels like glass on my high polish stones.

When cutting food, high carbon glides through protiens that stainless dreams about.
 
1) Very fine grained (uniform steel grain size at max 3 microns) eutectic carbon steel, practically can't get much harder than 62 Rockwell C. However 16K stone is still useful (Hosokawa-Alpine -sieved Almatis A-16SG alpha-alumina rules in any binder, even with Shapton's Sorel's cement one)

2) Hitachi ZDP-189, because it is so lovely perverted steel alloy porn. I can't never comprehend how on earth it escaped from their labs. So few heat treating facilities in the whole world are able to handle it properly.

samu
 
1. AUS-8/8CR13MOV

When properly done, I love them. They can achieve very high sharpness, accept abuse pretty readily, and are very easy to resharpen. I am a novice to sharpening, so my 8CR/AUS-8 knives provide me with some practice.

2. 154CM

A good stainless steel, takes a very nice edge and is fairly easy to resharpen. Seems to hold a decent edge. I own a fair number of 154CM knives, have been impressed. I wish there was more stuff in ATS-34 though. I would like to try that.

3. S35VN

No real complaints about S35VN, other than the fact that it behaves similar to 154CM.
 
-S30V for my work blades, it holds an edge well and is corrosion resistant, only thing that bugs me is that it takes a little longer to sharpen.
-AUS-8 for basic EDC, nothing fancy, it does the job for me. It holds the edge until the end of the day, and before I go to sleep everynight, I pass it along a very fine ceramic, then lightly strop it, good as new.
 
Hands down favorite steel is S90V. I have made a lot of knives from it and the performance always impresses me.
Runners-up are in no particular order: 10V, 3V, M4, 4V, and S35VN.
I just made a knife from M390 and I am really looking forward to putting it to some use.
 
I can't wait to see how your 4V knife does in Ankerson's test.

My favorites are S90V (Big Chris), 3V (Koster) and 154CM (various knives).
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top