In your opinion....

B

blarry2

Joined
Aug 26, 2004
Messages
9
Corrosion resistance aside, what is the best steel for holding an edge and ease of sharpening? These are the qualities I need most in any every day carry knife. I have used most of the high carbon stainless steels and my vote still goes to D2.
 
I'd have to agree with you about D2, in my experience it does perform in that middle ground between ease of sharpening and edge holding. For me personally I don't mind sharpening my knives but I don't like doing it in the middle of a chore and D2 works great. I know knives made with the CPM steels like S60V and S90V can hold an edge forever (it seems) but they can be a real b!#@! to sharpen with regular stones. I guess I'd rather have steels that take an edge fairly quick so steels like AUS 8, 440C, 154CM, VG10, and D2 work well for me and seem to be a good compromise. I don't buy any knife made of AUS 6 or 440A (too soft) and I don't have any knives with blades more wear resistant than S30V. I'm sure there are other steels out there that I would like I just haven't tried them yet. Just my $.02.
 
Knight939 makes an excellent point about steel choice versus task-at-hand.

I chopped out some pine roots that had spread into my wife's garden, using a 440V blade. Some small stones were encountered, which badly chipped the edge of the 440V blade, costing me a great deal of time to repair that brittle 440V edge.

The next time I pursue a similar task, I'll use a decent carbon steel such as a Becker carbon steel blade. Repairing the carbon steel blade is much more easily accomplished.
 
CPM-10V. I was pleasantly surprised by the ease of sharpening, and toughness of my little 2.5" 10V fixed blade @61Rc, and its edgeholding smokes D2 at similar hardness.
It's my cardboard knife, and it laughs at cardboard ;)
 
Thank you for your replies. Owenm, where can knives, preferably folders, be found that are made of 10v? :confused:
 
440C - nothing fancy, but it works. Very easy to resharpen and holds an edge well, no matter what high-tech steel afficionados try to tell you. And there are many production knives out there that come with a 440C blade.
 
i cannot say.
my best edge-holders are my S30V Dodo and D2 Arclite.

then some blades that come close are my 154CM Nimravus, VG10 Calypso Jr, and 0170-6C Becker Necker.

after those blades, the one's that don't hold quite as great of an edge are my ATS-55 Cricket and 154CM Cuda Jr. but @ this point, these two blades still hold a wonderful edge.

then @ the bottom of the pack are my 8A Ka-Bar/Dozier Folder and 6A CRKT M16-03. which are decent, but are clearly separated from the rest of the pack under heavy and rough use.

but since we probly aren't all putting our knives under the exact same stresses, your mileage may vary. :D
 
Putting corosion resistance aside, then, I'd have to say any of the high carbon steels like 1095, 50100B/C (a.k.a. Carbon V), A2* or 52100. *A2 is pretty corrosion resistant in my experience.
 
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