High Carbon Stainless Steel

Ethan Becker said:
Hey Patrick and Auraria.....

My head is beginning to hurt.... LOL...... Of course the what ifs are the very meat of so many of our best conversations...... What was Snap's question again....???????........More laughter...... We just can't help it can we....LMAO....

All Best...

Ethan
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Of course we can't!
We just want better and better styles and ideas of blades LOL!
D2 needs more love I agree.
Excellent steel that's been tried and true for a very long time.
 
borrow all the wonderful insight you can from these guys. because wisdom & experance is priceless. and you seem to have already figured out that this isn't lotr. seeing as you own a bk7 ( nod to you ) and bk 16. there is no one knife to rule them all. there are so many variables like personal opinion & or P.O.U., maker, steel type, price, weight & etc. frankly you miss out if you stick with one type of steel, size or style. to honestly balance the knife scales you can either. buy the best knives that suit what you do. or wait forever for the perfect knife to be made.

I personally have owned quiet a few knives. my buck 119 that I bought in 98 and still own is a good option to skin and process food. very low maintance that is very easy to sharpen with a good fine diamond stone. but my kabar 1211 I would use process some wood or dig up potatoes , roots or even mines lol. but takes more work to sharpen and keep sharp. because the kydex sheath dulls the hell out of a hair popping sharp edge. and the leather just takes longer to do the same.. but mind you I don't convex even though I should.

do your research (look at lots of knife porn) and be weary of makers & websites that lack important data. don't go high end unless your a rich yuppie who drives a bmw and wants a se(Ben)za. buy lots of reasonably priced blades and fill your nitches. don't feel like a knife whore about it either. buy a good pocket clip stainless steel 3-4" blade folder for edc. (that includes when you have a big knife with you too & no plastic frames) and find you wood processing, mine hunting beast. bk2,7(which I own) and 9 come to mind. and enjoy!
 
james terrio said:
it's difficult to really be accurate with such broad statements.
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You're absolutely right. I supposed I'm trying to (over)generalize enough to quiet the part of my brain that wants to stay up all night reading about steel. But in that case, maybe I shouldn't be asking these kinds of questions.

Ethan Becker said:
I think that 1095 offers one of, if not the best combinations of edge retention, ease of sharpening, cost and ease of manufacture and aggressive cutting....... This last is, I think somewhat overlooked by some of the theoreticians in our community......
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Ethan, what did you mean by "aggressive cutting"? Are you referring to knife use? Or manufacturing (cutting the steel)?
 
HuntBomb said:
No D2 love? High carbon and semi stainless.
I like it for edc and dirty work anyway.
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I used to love D2 until I tried M4. That's what great about 1095 no matter how many new things I try it is so rare to find a steel that blends price to performance the way a good 1095 does. The only steel I have found that balances this as well as 1095 is 52100 maybe that's they are two of my favorites.


Also I would venture to say what Ethan meant by aggressive cutting is how well 1095 cuts when it has a nice toothy edge.
 
Hey Snap.....

Some steels make a much more aggressive cut..... Some steels just do not ........A2 as a for instance cuts more aggressively than a screaming witch.......

E
 
Huntbomb,
You are correct that D2 is an excellent steel with a high degree of stainless-ness. In Europe some consider it to be a stainless steel. At any rate, I have found blades in D2 steel to be excellent performers if heat treated properly. But I have had a few blades in D2 snap which I attributed to the heat treated and not use. I say this because I have had other knives of similar construction/design that have held up to similar stress without a problem. Oddly, I have found many people dismiss 1095, albeit too quickly. I have found 1095 to have a good price to performance ratio, good durability, and it is easy to sharp in the field. In closing, Ethan is right about A2 being an aggressive cutter. I have some full height convex blades in A2 and they zip through most materials with ease, and while they hold an edge reasonably well they are not as easy to sharpen in the field as 1095 - especially if you don't maintain the edge.
CC
 
depending on the size you want for your blade. I say carry both like me. but you can always go for the ideal & more expensive D2 . or even find someone who can electro plate carbon steel w/stainless. and if you do find him let us know lol.
 
There are a few steels that act like carbon steels but are stainless. J saw some mentioned but the sandvik line, 12c27, 13c26, 14c28n and 19c27 are great stainless steels that sharpen up easy, take a nice keen edge and are fairly tough, especially 19c27. A great steel but expensive and hard to find is nitrobe 77(one day I'll get my hands on some). Irs like the sandvik steels, except has a very fine pm structure and grain thus the high cost. D2 is another great steel, I consider it stainless, I don't care that it has 1%less cr than the necessary cut off line, it does a lot better than zdp 189 that has 20 % cr and rusts easy. Vg10 is another steel thst has a lot of high carbon traits but its less tough. Cpm 154 also but same as vg 10 has less toughness. Im really liking hss and cpm tool steels now, cpm m4, cpm 3v and cpm cruwear are the best of both worlds imo. Better corrosion resistance than 10xx steels and alike, really tough, 3v and cruwear are way tougher than 10xx steels and have higher wear resistance by far. They do suffer in ease of sharpening though, cruwear isn't too bad but 3v and m4 take a good while on my edge pro. But I still like them ad well as elmax and super blue(1095 on steroids imo). Id recommend trying out sandvik steels and try cruwear and 3v, I'll be surprised if they dont impress.
 
Most of my decent kitchen knives, (Wustoff, Henckels, Forschner, Global, etc), were sold as "high carbon stainless".
Most have excellent edge retention, amazing stain/rust-resisting ability, and are relatively easy to sharpen. They have all served me very well over years of professional, daily use.
Not sure if this contributes much to the conversation, but if you go with a good brand, high quality knife, I don't think you will go wrong with either stainless or just plain high-carbon.
It's mostly inexpensive knives made with Chinese/Pakistani stainless steels you should be wary of.
 
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