Help me pick a stainless steel for folders

J

jawilder

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Jun 27, 2006
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I just finished my first foler. It is the "Western Gentleman" lockback kit from knifekits.com. I really like it's small size and think it hides in the pocket very well. Out here, more people carry slipjoints and lockbacks than anything else, so that's what I plan to focus on for a while.

I like the pattern so much that I plan to duplicate it with better steel. I found a waterjet guy in NJ that gave me an insanly cheap quote on cutting out the blade, spring, and lockbar. He is only 30 minutes from Aldo, so that helps quite a bit.

I played around with nesting the parts on a piece of 6x24 and can get 48 knives out of the sheet but I need to pick my steel. I have mostly used HC steels and just a bit of ATS34 in the past but these need to be stainless.

These caught my attention from Aldo: CPM 154, CPM D2, CPM s35vn, 154CM, and 440C. I'm hoping to get these ground so I don't have to flatten them too much since I don't have a surface grinder just yet. I also saw that Admiral has ATS34 for a bit cheaper and I've noticed that several of the higher end folders in the exchange are made from ATS34.

What are your thoughts. I realize that most people that buy from me won't care what kind of steel it has. They don't know CPMs35vn from ATS1018, but they will notice if it keeps a good edge and is easy to sharpen, which is what I'm after.

I would like to stay with Aldo but Admiral's price is indeed nice on ATS34, and they can PG it for me. Does anyone know how much they charge to PG steel?

If you were in my shoes and about to start your first batch of small folders, which would you chose?
 
I am another fan of CPM 154. I have also used CPM S35VN and was very impressed with it's capabilities.
 
I can tell you that admirals ats 34 is very dirty,has deep pits under the scale and hard to get a nice finish on. I would go with cpm154 if you get 48 blade out of a 6x24 sheet The extra price for for a very high quality steel will be very little and so worth the extra cost.
 
At the top of my choices are M390 and Elmax. CPM154 and 154CM are next. If you are going to be going for some betterselling prices, I would stay away from BG48, ATS34, 440-C and 12C47. While at one time these were concidered good steels to use, the ones above and a couple of others have moved in and are cocidered better quality. Frank
 
CPM154 or CPMS35VN. Both fantastic steels.

The last batch of ATS34 that I purchased from Admiral was terrible. I would stick with Aldo.
 
CPM-154 from Aldo, have him surface grind it. 440C seems like a better deal (and is a good alloy in general) but it's difficult to find the good clean stuff anymore. The last few feet I bought had an orange-peel look worse than D2.
 
Elmax seems a little hard to find. I'm on the list waiting for Chuck at Alpha Knife Supply to get some more in.
 
Elmax is carried by USAknifemaker and is a steel I would love to try some day. Being from Sweden, I use RWL34 almost exclusively and am very happy with this. Since this steel is almost identical to CPM154, I would recommend that.

Brian
 
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