H1 steel question

[Revolverrodger]

Ok it would seem that H1 steel is very stainless, can be made pretty hard so I was wondering if it was tough enough to be used in a big chopping blade.
I'm very intregued about H1 I'd like your opinion on that steel.
Thanks

 

[Dorito Monk]

Ok it would seem that H1 steel is very stainless, can be made pretty hard so I was wondering if it was tough enough to be used in a big chopping blade.
I'm very intregued about H1 I'd like your opinion on that steel.
Thanks

Well, it was used in the Rock Salt, which was a large chopper. I'm not sure if they're using it in the upcoming re-hash of that knife or not...

 

[verisharp]

Well, it was used in the Rock Salt, which was a large chopper. I'm not sure if they're using it in the upcoming re-hash of that knife or not...

Unfortunately, H1 is no longer used in the spyderco ROCK SALT, or as it's now called the SHEMPP ROCK. The "ROCK" now holds a VG-10 Blade, which is my opinion is an upgrade. VG-10 is also very rust resistant, even in salt water, but it holds a better edge than H1. Hope this helps! BTW I may purchase the shempp rock myself

 

[Joshua J.]

While the edge of an H-1 knife can indeed be very hard, the blade as a whole does not seem to be very flexible. That is to say, it seems to deform plastically much sooner than your average steel, so batoning it through a hard knot would probably warp the blade. The upside is that it's so bendable that it never seems to break. H-1 is probably less likely to catastrophically fail than any other steel.

Still, I say stick to low alloy carbon steel for choppers.

 

[J_Curd]

H1, for all the super cool things it is, is NOT a hard use steel. Great for cutting and all sorts of moisture/chemical abuse...but the buck stops there.

 

[Hombre Secreto]

There are production issues involved with getting H1 in thicknesses over 3-4mm. This is why Spyderco is dropping it in large knives.

FWIW, the Rock Salt isn't really a "large chopper", say compared to the Hossom designed Forager or Forrester. If you want a fairly rust resistant stainless chopper, you could look for one of those. Other steels readily available, but not stainless might be 5160, S7, L6 and 3V.