Favorite steel?

Justin Schmidt

Justin Schmidt

Joined
Feb 18, 2016
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So what's your favorite steel? Rather it's favorite steel to forge, grind, use or the beat selling? I'm interested in what you pros like and dislike. Seems the general forum guys love 3v and m390 .
Justin Schmidt
 
1080+ or 80CRV2 whichever you call it.

Every steel is a compromise. Whether cost, ease of working, edge holding, toughness, etc. You can only put so many elements in the pot, and you lose something to add something else. 80CRV2 is a great balance of all those things in my opinion. I love it.
 
John I think your the first I've seen talk about 80crv2 like that. I've heard it's pretty decent but didn't know it was THAT good. Interesting.
Ben: I've seen you push for 1075 before. What makes you like it so much?
-Justin schmidt
 
It's easier to HT than 1095, doesn't need a soak or special HT oil, it takes a wicked edge and a wonderful hamon.
 
I'm not a pro, but if I had to use only one steel for forever, it would be 15n20. I like a few better for specific purposes, but I could use it for an axe, camp knife, machete, or kitchen knife with few compromises in any application. I love it. 80CRV2 is similar that way. I haven't used it much, so I'm not as confident as with 15n20. My second choice would be W2. You can make it work for hard use applications quite well, but it really shines in applications with fine, hard edges.
 
Hitachi laminated white steel... :-) LOL
I'm laughing out loud because there's another thready going here in shoptalk somewhat related

also like W1, O1, 1084

don't have too much experience with any stainless. don't really care for it too much.

but I wouldn't consider myself a pro
 
valknut said:
John I think your the first I've seen talk about 80crv2 like that. I've heard it's pretty decent but didn't know it was THAT good. Interesting.
-Justin schmidt
Click to expand...

Again, depends on what you consider "good." I think it's a great balance between all those things we consider good. Like Willie says about 15n20. AKS knocked it out of the park if their goal was an "all around" formulation.
 
Wow I'm not gonna lie this is not what I expected at all. I was expecting alot of cpm 154, 52100, aebl, and 1095. Definitely giving me things to think about.
Now I don't mean this as a best all around steel but more of a favorite to work with and use. Easy to grind/ sharpen toughness etc
 
My favourite is W2. I'm also playing with Z-wear. It's a higher carbon version of 3v with 1% tungsten. They claim better toughness and edge holding than 3v. Improving both seems like too good to be true though. I don't do a lot of hard use knives, so giving up some toughness isn't that bad for me.
 
Willie71 said:
My favourite is W2. I'm also playing with Z-wear. It's a higher carbon version of 3v with 1% tungsten. They claim better toughness and edge holding than 3v. Improving both seems like too good to be true though. I don't do a lot of hard use knives, so giving up some toughness isn't that bad for me.
Click to expand...

That's interesting. I've head ALOT of good things about 3v so IF z wear is better it might be pretty amazing. How does it grind?
 
valknut, you made reference to the general forum guys,
curious if they are talking about and buying production knives or benchmade (handmade) knives?
seems like out in the general forum, toughness is valued.
For me toughness is a lower consideration
 
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I just switched over to AEB-L. It is easy to work, a little tricky to heat treat, as it can warp easily. Prior to that, I liked 1080+
 
Most of what I make is Damascus, but that a side, cruforge or 89crv2 for forgable, 3v or aeb-l for stock removal. Of course, that depends on what the knife is for. Like some said, everything has a trade off.
 
89crv2 is a "special" steel that only I have, all the rest of you have to settle for 80crv2. 89crv2 is 11% better😜
 
For me right now, it's ease of heat treatment as I want to do everything myself so right now I've got 1084. I also have some limitations in the HT area as I just have a propane grass burner 1.5 hard fire bricks and some regular bricks as a makeshift forge. Which actually works fairly well and gets to temp pretty quick, but other than a magnet, I'm guessing at temperatures. Second to that I want decent edge retention and ease of sharpening as what my current clientele are mainly hunters and farmers who want to be able to put an edge on it with ease and hold one fairly well. Some don't mind having to maintain it with cleaning and oiling and others that I have in the pipeline to buy want less maintenance so I am going to do a forced patina until I can get into parkerizing or HTing stainless. I did just order the parts to convert my toaster oven into a PID controlled one so my tempering is accurate, and will be soon working on an PID controlled gas forge for HT so I can get into different metals.

Def far from a pro, but one thing I hear over and over, is there are different metals preferred for different uses, and even there, different makes will go back on forth on their preferences on whats better in each case. You would almost need to add that to the question to get better results as some makers like mainly kitchen knives and other utility or hunting.
 
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