Favorite steel?

kuraki said:
My only experience with S35vn is a Benchmade 940bk. I love that little knife but am considerably less than impressed with the blade.
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A lot of production knives run their S35vn too soft( in my opinion), often 58-59..Its needs to be up around 60-61..I run mine about 61 or even 62 for smaller knives. Much better steel that way.
 
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Lo/Rez said:
There's nothing wrong with those of us who do not use carbon steel.
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I never said there was anything wrong with using stainless steels or anything wrong with the guys that use stainless steels. Don't need to be so defensive I'm not bashing stainless, I never said one thing bad about it. I don't think there is anything bad about stainless. Up to this point I have not used any yet, I have not gotten on that boat yet so to speak "drank he koolaid. In fact I have been putting togather a stainless order for more then a month. There are things I dont like about carbon steel, rust is a big thing. Lots of my knives get cord wraps and while wrapping thy get handled ALOT and thy can get surface rust in the time it takes me to wrap my handles. I did not spend $1300 to build a heat treat oven and buy a $600 dewar for carbon steel.

There are lots of good stainless steels out there, I'm looking heavily at AEB-L to replace my 5160 in my 2nd amendment knives. I don't charge a lot for these knives and this stainless will allow me to keep the knives enexpensive. But I'm also bringing is some Z-FINIT to test as well as some CPM-154. There are some other steels on my list that will be ordered as well but the list is still in progress even though the wife keeps reminding me that I need to stop fiddling and just order what I want lol.

With Steel being what it is and how it's specialised for different tasks I'm on the hunt for the optimum meat cutting steel. Stainless or carbon does not matter, I am after one thing. This one thing is performance in meat. Especially in processing wild game. Did some testing last night as I processed a hind quarter from my buck. I tested A2, D2, 10XX (old German butcher knife) and 10V. And I must say I kept coming back to the D2 blade, last time I used it on meat I hated it. This time I removed the polished edge and hit it with the 1200 grit diamond stone and oh baby did that thing fly through meat. The 10V was nice as well and I think would have given D2 a run for its money if it was a better shape for meat. This blade is not my own and is made by spiderco. Expensive blade and I honestly never buy production knives, but this one I had to have. Any way back to the topic at hand. I'm thinking of trying some 10V in a thin fillet knife shape ground real thin. Maybe I'm barking up the wrong tree but my feeling is meat loves the edge carbides. One issue in processing game is removing a thing called silver skin. It's a thin silvery tough layer that you don't normally want to eat. The D2 would just slice under it and glide under the surface like a laser. The A2 works really well as well but it's my wife's favort knife and so she had ahold of it all night. But that one preforms really well because of its shape and being so thin.

So with all this being said, I'm sorry if I made it sound like stainless guys where crazy. Dont stress over it we are all crazy around here. And if any of you have a steel that seams to really excell in meat cutting let me know, thanks guys
 
valknut said:
AEBL is praised pretty regularly around here. I honestly think alot if that is due to devin Thomas and the preformance he's been able to bring out in it. And it's CHEAP like stupid cheap which makes it that much more appealing
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I'll throw in another vote for AEB-L and CPM 154, and while we're on it, for 12c27 in knives that require stainless and toughness over edge holding. not that the edge holding is bad, but it's not as amazing as some steels, but it's tough, easy to sharpen and takes a super fine edge since the carbides are so fine. I use it in all of my hard use combat knives in stainless as a baseline unless someone distinctly wants a different stainless for some reason. I honestly look at it as the perfect steel for a knife made for an infantryman that is likely going to misuse his blade at some point and needs it to hold up well and be easy to resharpen. I still haven't dialed in which carbon steel I will stick with but I am liking the 80CrV2 and A2 a lot, but have been very impressed with 3v in a blade from G.E. Chen. Very tough and resists rust better than I would expect.
 
AEBL has been great for me , from the kitchen to outdoor use with Peters Heat Treat at 62 RC. It is nice that you can finish it almost completely before heat treat, saving on abrasives cuz it grinds like butter. Even after heat treated it is pretty easy to hand sand, it is also very easy to sharpen.
 
I has been a little while, but the last time I sent some 3V to Peters, Brad also told me to send the AEB-L with it because they use the same austenizing temp for both at the time. They only charge you double if they have to austenize two different batches, not temper. Brad told my that is why the Hoss AEB-L formula HT would be double. He has to charge full price for the "pre hardening" 1700F quench cycle.
valknut said:
Thanks Tim that's probably what I'll go with at first my try and sneak some 3v in there :)
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Well that's good to know. I don't plan on using peters just yet because they are very pricey. I'll use tru grit or Texas knife maker
 
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