Favorite steel on traditionals?

Bladenoobie1

Bladenoobie1

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Jul 20, 2012
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I've gotten really into traditionals in the past 6 months and I'm slowly expanding my collection. That said, the steel selection on many traditional knives are limited unless you buy customs. I do enjoy patina's and carbon steels for their ease of sharpening, but of recent I noticed my o1 steel bushcraft knife had a few rust spots on the blade. I was suprised as it was completely dry and I live in Southern California where there is rarely humidity. So far I've used and sharpened 52100, 1095, o1, 154cm, ats-34, on my fixed and traditional knives and I've found to enjoy the simple stainless steels a lot as they are easy to sharpen and take a relatively keen edge.

I'll be hopefully receiving my first 1095 traditional and was curious to people's take on edcing it. As long as you oil and keep your carbon traditionals dry do you guys have any issue with rust forming? I always like carrying my knives, but I'm a little concerned on long term edc of a carbon steel as I've never edc'ed one before.

Thanks,
BN

*Decided just to start another thread for my other question*
 
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I don't really own any, but a lack of different steels is part of the reason. I wish more were available in 154CM.
 
There are several that I think are just fine: 1095 from Schrade or GEC, 440C from GEC, ATS-34 from S&M. But my favorite is Queen's D2. Nearly or just barely stainless (depending on who defines it), it takes a great edge and holds a great edge extremely well, and stays clean looking. Oh, it will grey slightly over time, but doesn't get those blatant, "dirty looking" stains like the other carbon steels do. Yes, I do use diamond hones on it, but it sharpens up easier for me than ATS-34 does, and feels better on the stones while doing it.
 
D2 (eleven Queen knives and one Canal Street) is my favorite steel used in traditional knives, followed by 14-4CrMo (two Canal Street knives), ATS-34 (three Schatt & Morgan File & Wire) and 440C (one GEC, two Bokers). I do have traditionals in 1095, C75, Tru-Sharp, CV, 420HC, 440A and X55CrMo14, that all work well for my uses, but I put a higher value on the combination of edge holding and stain resistance the first four favorites provide. Ease of sharpening doesn't come into play, since I use diamond abrasives to maintain my blades.
 
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I tend to prefer stainless steels on folders. Of the ones I have tried so far, CPM-154 would be my first choice. Yet, I'm happy with other steels as well, as long as their HT is fine (Opinel's 12c27, Buck's 420HC, GEC's 440C and so on). Not a huge fan of 1095 myself, although it does have a place (and gets alot of love).
Lately, I'm starting to develop an appreciation for D2 as well. I just bought my second knife in D2 (a Queen jack), and reprofiled my CSC. It took some time, but it was worth the work :)

Fausto
:cool:
 
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52100, D2 and 1095....in that order with the knives that i have..Blade geometry and heat treatment are generally more important to me than steel type...

Fes
 
Bladenoobie1 said:
I'll be hopefully receiving my first 1095 traditional and was curious to people's take on edcing it.....

As long as you oil and keep your carbon traditionals dry do you guys have any issue with rust forming?.....

I always like carrying my knives, but I'm a little concerned on long term edc of a carbon steel as I've never edc'ed one before.....
Click to expand...

Hi BN,

First, I really like 1095. I have used it on quite a lot of knives and I really like it. Both GEC and Moore Maker are my favourites for it at the minute. Easy to sharpen and holds an edge for a good length of time.

Secondly. Patina doesn't bother me in the slightest (I enjoy it emensely). I think people sometimes get too precious with it, I use my knives for anything and everything and don't have any problem with red rust. I oil them a couple times a year unless they get a proper soaking and there isn't any issue (I live in the wettest part of the UK too, a small windswept island off the coast of Scotland).

Thirdly, my grandfather used this for everything. Gardening, food, the lot. I was given it after he passed away. Long term EDC... No problems.





Don't fret about it, just use it :)

Paul
 
Bladenoobie1 said:
I've gotten really into traditionals in the past 6 months and I'm slowly expanding my collection. That said, the steel selection on many traditional knives are limited unless you buy customs. I do enjoy patina's and carbon steels for their ease of sharpening, but of recent I noticed my o1 steel bushcraft knife had a few rust spots on the blade. I was suprised as it was completely dry and I live in Southern California where there is rarely humidity. So far I've used and sharpened 52100, 1095, o1, 154cm, ats-34, on my fixed and traditional knives and I've found to enjoy the simple stainless steels a lot as they are easy to sharpen and take a relatively keen edge.

I'll be hopefully receiving my first 1095 traditional and was curious to people's take on edcing it. As long as you oil and keep your carbon traditionals dry do you guys have any issue with rust forming? I always like carrying my knives, but I'm a little concerned on long term edc of a carbon steel as I've never edc'ed one before.
Click to expand...

BN,

Regarding steels, I group steels into 2 (3) major buckets: fine grained, course grained, (junk).

Technically, I find very little difference between 1095 and fined grained stainless. To a point.... I do think that they respond differently in terms of heat treatment. Soft carbon steel is very tough but not gummy like some soft stainless is. Emotionally, carbon steel is fun and warm. But honestly, I like decent stainless and am moving towards it in my EDC knives. Just so easy to live with. Favorites are Opinel's 12C27, Buck's 420HC and old Schrade USA 440A (aka Schrade +). Note, I include the knife maker because I think their heat treat is an important part of the equation, more so than with carbon steels.

In terms of the rust on your bushcrafter and EDCing carbon, I think they are related. For me, carbon works best when used often. Carbon is harder to deal with when "used hard and put away wet", particularly if put away for a long time. In fact, if it's put away for a long time and it's dry, you can still have problems. In very wet hot conditions, I've surface rusted carbon blades. Think summer backpacking when carried in the pocket. But for normal day to day EDC, it's not a problem so long as the knife is used.
 
I like 420HC because is stainless. I have got knives with carbon steel but don't like it (CV, 1095, 1075 aka C75, Opinel's). On my opinion 420HC is better than ~440A used by Victorinox but it's just me :)
 
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