High carbon stainless?

[JustSomeGuy]

I saw this knife in the kitchenette of a customer. What exactly is "High Carbon Stainless Steel"?

 

[goodeyesniper]

It's a stainless steel with high percentage of carbon. Aka nearly every modern cutlery steel used today. It is a very generic term, and I don't believe there is any rule as to the percentage necessary to carry that title. Normally only crappier knives are labeled in such a way.

 

[jmflem]

Yeah like goodeye said high carbon stainless is just stainless steel with more carbon content. Like 420HC, the "HC" stands for carbon, so 420HC is 420 stainless with added carbon. It adds edge retention and hardness but makes it less rust resistant. High carbon stainless will have less rust resistance than other stainless steels but will still be much more rust resistant than carbon steels.

 

[me2]

High carbon steel is classically defined as 0.6 %C or greater. Not much by today's standards, but there are some changes evident under a microscope that start around that level.

 

[nccole]

It is Euro style though Looks to be a junk steel. See how the edge is all rolled up? Probably run way too soft.

 

[Ankerson]

Basically a marketing term for a low alloy Stainless steel, usually a lower cost steel used in economical knives to avoid stating what the actual steel really is.

 

[dkb45]

High carbon stainless is a BS lie of a marketing term. It can cover everything from 420J2 to Elmax. It is usually used on knives made out of garbage steel, because if they used anything good it would he wise to say you do. Usually high carbon stainless refers to steel between 420J2 and 2Cr, although it can even cover 410 stainless because of how badly the term has been bastardized.

Honestly, the industry needs to take back that term, and make high carbon actually mean high carbon, with a minimum of .6% (right now it can be used in anything over around .1%) so most of these garbage steels can be properly categorized... As "metal".

 

[flarp]

As best as I can figure, "high carbon stainless steel" would be steel that has at least 0.6% carbon and 10.5% chromium. I've seen the chromium numbers range from 10.5% to 13% minimum to be classified as "stainless" (the Wikipedia article on Stainless steel says 10.5%). I've seen numbers ranging from 0.45% to 0.6% minimum to be classified as "high carbon" (the Wikipedia article on Carbon steel says 0.6%).

I don't know if these are defined standards or just generally agreed-upon values for the different classifications.

 

[Gator97]

As knife marketing defines it, high carbon means >= 0.50% carbon, which isn't really that high these days.

 

[JustSomeGuy]

Yeah, I knew it was a crappy knife, I just thought that "carbon" and "stainless" were opposites. Thanks for the info, guys!

 

[Poez]

My guess: it has as much to do with high carbon as surgical steel has to do with surgeons.

 

[nccole]

Yeah, I knew it was a crappy knife, I just thought that "carbon" and "stainless" were opposites. Thanks for the info, guys!

Typically a knife gets classified as "stainless" when it has a minimum 12%-13% Chromium. Although there are some steels with less Chromium that would actually have more corrosion resistance than others with less. Heat treat and other alloying elements dictate that. Some call non-stainless steels "carbon" knives, but that really is not proper.

 

[goodeyesniper]

Yeah, us knife nuts reference non stainless as "carbon steel" which is inaccurate and confusing, considering carbon is what makes steel steel... So just about any steel should be able to be called carbon steel. High carbon it's another issue.

I guess the cliff notes are that steel categorization ate often widely gray areas

 

[Shotgun]

Yeah, I knew it was a crappy knife, I just thought that "carbon" and "stainless" were opposites. Thanks for the info, guys!

A better way to say it is stainless steel and non-stainless steel. They're both technically high carbon assuming a decent steel. Carbon is just easier to type than non-stainless.