Good hard use steel

C

coyotes72

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Feb 23, 2016
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I want to make my first knife soon, but couldn't decide on what steel to use. I will be using the stock removal method. It will be a fighter and may see some bushcraft use. I will send it away for ht, and put black micarta handles. I would prefer stainless steel, but carbon, tool or spring steel would be fine. I was thinking about A2, 9260, 3V or CPM154. Recommendations on which steel, hardness and where to send it for ht are welcome. I am also not sure if i posted this in the right place, so if i screwed up, please move it, thanks.


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Each Koster knife I've owned was made of 3V and I believe hardened to HRC 60. They all performed superbly. No chipping or rolling under lots of use (but not abuse). Not sure where the best place to send it for heat treatment though. Peter's?
 
S7... Poorman's 3V.

A2 is an awesome "all around" steel.
 
two things chief, firs on is that it's way easier to get adequate answers when you spend a bit of time getting your question narrowed down, as what might be hard use to you might be daily for someone else and abuse to any given third party so describe what "hard use" means to you and what the intended purpose for that use is. second thing is at the top right of your screen is a search function boss... not trying to be rude by no means but this topic has been discussed at great length on many many threads on here and this will keep you reading for hours. if you prefer stainless then you pretty much answered your own question if your leaning toward the ones you listed as cpm 154 is the only stainless one and it's more than adequate for hard use up to and including what many would consider abuse. here's a few things to consider: if you are making it, your geometry will play way more of a role than your steel choice ultimately, as will your heat treat in the end. Well, while i'm here i'll give you a couple things to think about.


i had these knives out just today to play with them and whatnot and i did a bit of comparison cutting and a bit of abuse to see how each ones characteristics fared and from left to right we have a plain carbon mora, a fallkniven S1 ( VG10 laminated) gerber bear grylls ultimate (9cr13MoV ), spartan Harsey Defensa (CPM S35N), G.E. Chen Duty in 3V, and two of my own, first small bushcraft is in 12c27 and the larger wood handled one has been my work knife since 2010 in 440c. I spent the day hacking brush, making fuzz sticks, traps and batonning firewood with all of them minus the mora and even for giggles, i hammered each one about an inch and a half into an old stump and stood on the handles to see if they could take it... I'm currently 201Lbs buck naked and i stood or bounced on each one until it came out... broken or not, and they all did with all of them prying out a huge chunk of the wood rather than breaking, minus the mora which i obviously wasnt going to stand on at 1/16" thick, it woudn't have been much sense. To be honest i was worried that one of them might break but the worst that happened was the gerber bent and took a pretty good set (pictures on the "knife reviews and testing" forum since i just had to know how the gerber would hold up after hearing all the hate). I knew the 440c one would be fine since it's a full 1/4" at the center although it does taper distally toward both handle and tip, but the others i was not as sure since they were all thinner at around 3/16 and had finer tips, but they all came out with hardly a set to them. All that to say that it's possible to get a lot of hard use out of a wide variety of steels given the proper HT and geometry. could something as fine as the G.E. Chen survive if it were 440c instead of 3V? i can't say but with the geometry i used and Rob's awesome HT it is more than formidable and i've never felt like i've been lacking in the blade department since i started carrying it back in 2010.

Anyway, take it or leave it but it's one mans ramblings of an opinion
 
CPM 3V has pretty decent corrosion resistance! So easy to sharpen and holds a good edge, oh and gets very sharp.
 
Hey OP - First of all, good luck w your 1st knife man!

Of course, the questions you're asking have been asked a bazillion times here on BF, but that is absolutely no reason not to ask them anew, yourself. New eyes will see your post, time passes & technological/procedural advancements are made, yadayadayada. Plus, if you just use the search function, you miss out on the great interactions amongst the members here, & BF is jam packed with super guys....& like 2 or 3 gals.

I too prefer SS for the most part, & esp. since you're having the HT done professionally, your steel type options are pretty damn abundant. In SS, anything from 440C to AEB-L to CPM154/90v/s35vn/20cv/Elmax would work great for you, I personally really dig CruForge-V & 52100. Their fine structures allow them to get very keen very easily, & they've got great all-around properties as well, & my experience has been very good w cor. resistance even though they're not stainless. 3v is great, but seemingly everyone knows about 3v now, A2 is great as you point out. Some makers can get an awful lot out of D2, but I've had mixed results. I've had nothing but great results from Aldo's 1084, 1095 would be a good choice, as would 01...but I have to keep those steels religiously waxed.

I have multiple fixed in all of the steels I mention above, & of course there are many more to choose from....my main point is that you've got a # of steels that will make a great 1st knife for you & hold up to hard knife use. I'd suggest you go with a stainless, as you mention it's a preference. If $$ is an issue, use something like AEB-L, if not so much, maybe a CPM product or even Elmax.
 
if you want it for as hard use as a decent edge holding stainless gets and toughness is a priority then i have 12c27 here if you want a piece for a knife... let me know. i'll give you enough for a decent sized user and you can just pay the shipping. it's very similar to AEB-L, with a little better corrosion resistence, a little less edge holding and a little more toughness. Great steel IMHO.
 
I made my first knife with 3V and wont look back. Regardless of what steel if you send it to Peter's it will be 27$ for one knife. I would go with 3V and use the newer HT like Survie is using from Peters.

Advice:
measure twice cut once. Cut larger and grind what you don't need. use Micarta for your first knife. Use simple fasteners not a fixed handle so you can remove the handle and fix the fuckups from learning.
Buy Belts and buy good ones and throw them away when they stop working for your 1x42 (assuming)
Do as much work before Heat Treat. You are new and doing it after gets discouraging. Grind free hand in good light and work slow. Let the steel rest instead of getting it hot and dipping it. Try to maintain a reasonable heat.
Hand sharpen cause you will burn the HT as a novice.
 
3V
52100
1095
S7
A2

Proper HT and geometry for a "hard use" application is as key as the steel....
 
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