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? for cliff
- Thread starter donny b
- Start date
- Joined
- Nov 30, 2002
- Messages
- 1,106
depends, if you want edge retention (at the cost of lengthier sharpening time) S30v. IMO.
- Joined
- Jun 30, 2004
- Messages
- 313
edge retention, toughness, strength, corrosivity. I've had 440C, VG-10 and 154CM. And of those 3, I like the VG-10 the best.
Cliff Stamp
BANNED
- Joined
- Oct 5, 1998
- Messages
- 17,562
If I had to pick blind, with a completely wide open use criteria, I would choose something similar to 12C27M. This offers a decent hardness, about 59/60 HRC at maximum and is fairly tough (for a stainless steel) and very corrosion resistant. It is also easy to sharpen to a fine edge and thus combines a high level of cutting ability and durability plus the corrosion resistance offers stability of function in extreme enviroments.
However the lack of retained primary carbides after austenization which is what gives it the toughness and also reduces the extended wear resistance compared to steels like VG-10 and especially ZDP-189 which offer extended cutting ability at low sharpness. However you can compensate for this by the natural ability of the 12C27M to be ground very thin and use of very low grits to enhance long term slicing aggression.
Once you refine the selection criteria, you can generally pick a more focused steel. It would be similar for example if you asked a carpenter to just pick a hammer for an average day's work most would pick something very similar to a standard 16 oz straight claw. However once you told them exactly what they had to do they might change it significantly and either go heavier or lighter, or round the claws.
It can be very daunting to approach cutlery selection given the literally dozens of steels and geometries which all claim to be superior/optimal and try to sort out truth from hype. What is even more complicated is that how steels are hardened can significantly influence their behavior as well as how they are ground so you can't expect the same thing from a specific steel in every knife.
It isn't as bad as it seems though, the easiest way to classify stainless steels is based on the amount of carbide they contain because this tends to be very dominant in behavior. Once you use this to roughly separate the steels you then look at hardness and corrosion resistance. Once you get a feel for a specific steel you then have a general idea of how similar steels will behave.
http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=425161
The numbers and mention of saturation / tie-lines can be a bit to sort through so basically at first just consider as the steels move away from the solid lines then the amount of carbide increases so they get much more wear resistance and thus will stay sharper at low sharpness longer, but be more brittle, and much harder to grind. As the steels move to the right and down they get harder but lose corrosion resistance, as they move to the left and up then they get softer but get more corrosion resistance. If the move up and to the right or down and to the left, then the hardness/corrosion resistance doesn't change they just get more and less carbide respectively.
-Cliff
However the lack of retained primary carbides after austenization which is what gives it the toughness and also reduces the extended wear resistance compared to steels like VG-10 and especially ZDP-189 which offer extended cutting ability at low sharpness. However you can compensate for this by the natural ability of the 12C27M to be ground very thin and use of very low grits to enhance long term slicing aggression.
Once you refine the selection criteria, you can generally pick a more focused steel. It would be similar for example if you asked a carpenter to just pick a hammer for an average day's work most would pick something very similar to a standard 16 oz straight claw. However once you told them exactly what they had to do they might change it significantly and either go heavier or lighter, or round the claws.
It can be very daunting to approach cutlery selection given the literally dozens of steels and geometries which all claim to be superior/optimal and try to sort out truth from hype. What is even more complicated is that how steels are hardened can significantly influence their behavior as well as how they are ground so you can't expect the same thing from a specific steel in every knife.
It isn't as bad as it seems though, the easiest way to classify stainless steels is based on the amount of carbide they contain because this tends to be very dominant in behavior. Once you use this to roughly separate the steels you then look at hardness and corrosion resistance. Once you get a feel for a specific steel you then have a general idea of how similar steels will behave.
http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=425161
The numbers and mention of saturation / tie-lines can be a bit to sort through so basically at first just consider as the steels move away from the solid lines then the amount of carbide increases so they get much more wear resistance and thus will stay sharper at low sharpness longer, but be more brittle, and much harder to grind. As the steels move to the right and down they get harder but lose corrosion resistance, as they move to the left and up then they get softer but get more corrosion resistance. If the move up and to the right or down and to the left, then the hardness/corrosion resistance doesn't change they just get more and less carbide respectively.
-Cliff