Is there any federal regulation on the name "stainless" and "high carbon?"

Remember that from an engineering point of view the word "stainless" is pretty meaningless. There are too many different alloys in that category, and some them corrode faster than others.

Imagine if I was designing a knife and just ordered some "stainless" steel for it. I'd be pretty unhappy if I ended up using something like 18-8. In fact, I'd probably be better off with a "non-stainless" like D2.

When I order steel, I make sure it comes from a reputable supplier. I can't afford to test all of my steel when it comes in, but if something ever seemed fishy I would. If the company sold me something other than what they promised, that's fraud.
 
As others have clearly stated, even though there is no federal regulation, the steel industry in America (and abroad) is well regulated by the industrial standards that exist in the industry.

The ease of modern lab analysis only make verification of metallury easier then ever.

Steel makers who might try to "fake" any steels properties would soon be out of business.

Please realize that knife steel is just a very small drop in the bucket when it comes to total production.

As a knife user I am more concerned about heat treatment and edge geometry then worrying about the amount of alloying elements in my knife steel, as these are the areas that seperate the top knife makers from the run of the mill.




Big Mike
 
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on this subject, I also heard there is actually no law that states that you must print the correct steel on the blade

i know i definitely have seen a folding knife (chinese made) that was printed 1095 that i am POSITIVE was not.. seemed more like 420HC or something.. did not keep an edge at all and did not rust at all like you would expect 1095 would

maybe that is just china, but i think somebody told me somewhere along the way that the US doesn't have a law like that either
 
res1cue said:
on this subject, I also heard there is actually no law that states that you must print the correct steel on the blade

i know i definitely have seen a folding knife (chinese made) that was printed 1095 that i am POSITIVE was not.. seemed more like 420HC or something.. did not keep an edge at all and did not rust at all like you would expect 1095 would

maybe that is just china, but i think somebody told me somewhere along the way that the US doesn't have a law like that either
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Companies taking advantage of this wouldn't last long at all. If any would actually do it, that is.
 
right, thats the point IIRC, that natural selection of companies would make it worthwhile to be honest

but still thats what i was told, cant remember where.. i'll try to dig it up
 
o.k so heres a question for you guys what is the relationship between Cr % and corrosion resistance. is it roughly linear, or exponential, or does it do something funny around 12%.

also is D2 is not usually considerd "stainless" but is it as corrosion resistant as other "stainless" steels? its supposed to have 11%-13% Cr
 
If you plot the %Cr vs weight loss due to corrosion, it's sort of linear up to a point, then there will be a change in loss, the some more linear, then a big change at ~12%. Look in Verhoeven's book in the stainless steels section. There is a good graph there. I'm going from memory. It is close to linear, but there are several sections of "lines" with different slopes, or rates of material loss. The 11% - 13% range comes from the rounded transitions from one rate of loss to another. Also note that these %Cr vs Weight Loss graphs are highly dependent on the test solution. Nitric acid has a very different graph from sulphuric acid.

D2 brings in the free chromium issue. It has just below to just above the required amount of Cr, but quite a bit of the Cr is tied up in carbides, thus reducing the free %Cr below the magic range. D2 is not as corrosion resistant as the martinsitic stainless steels, and much less than ferritic or austenitic stainless. This is for standard heat treatments of D2. It can be made stainless, but there will be little or no chromium carbide for wear resistance. This is how the friction forged Diamond Blade knives get a stainless cutting edge using D2 steel. The friction processing heats the steel enough to dissolve most or maybe all of the chromium carbides, thus giving enough free chromium to be stainless. Almost all the edge holding ability of these knives is from the high hardness of the edge. You could just austenize D2 in an oven at a very high temperature and get the same result (stainless), but the grains would be huge and the amount of retained austenite would be spectacular.
 
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