I've become a steel snob!

P

paulwesley

Joined
Sep 5, 2005
Messages
655
It all started out with buying knives just because they looked cool and weren't that much. lotsa united cutlery and so on. Didnt care so much about the steel. S&W, Colt etc. Then I printed pages and pages of steel facts and faq's. Then I realized most of my stuff was of inferior steel. 440 stainless, 440A ,420J2 .So I moved up to 440C and AUS6-8. That wasnt good enough. Then I bought a Delica with VG-10 and was hooked. S30V was next and my pocketbook got thinner. 440c and AUS8 are still okay though in a good package and I hear 440A properly heat treated is okay.Same with 420hc
Got rid of all the crap and started to buy better stuff. After being here all I buy is BM, Spyderco etc. Now I wont be satisfied until I have that native american sebenza doggonit. ANYBODY GONE THROUGH THIS SAME PROCESS?? Man its been a real learning experience and i've learned most of it on here. Thank Yall!!..........Merry Christmas...paul
 
Yeah, I went through about the same evolution as you. Started with a Smokey Mountain knifeworks catalogue and ordered tons of cheap knives. Recently I lugged them out of my parents attic, container after container, and they are now in my basement. What a pile of S. I went through them looking for something HALF decent. Some of the United Cutlery movie knives are kinda cool to look at.

Now I'm much more concerned with materials, design, etc.
 
imo for the "normal" (normal = not the knife for collection) knife the steel is not as important as the comfortable grip or the blade shape itself
 
Before I started buying knives I came here and read up on stuff. I started with 440C and AUS-8, now have moved to 154CM and inevitably will end up with the better steels. As I said before, it never ends.
 
bad shape of the blade OR
bad balance OR
hyper-mega-ultra-cool-very-expensive blade steel and rubbish plastic handle OR
badly tempred hyper-mega-ultra-cool-very-expensive steel

makes the knife MUCH worse than a knife with poor cheapo steel with all the above well done
 
Sal Glesser said:
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh.

A new junky developing tastes in steel. :p

sal
Click to expand...

Sal is hearing the cha ching of the cash register.:D :D

I went through the same process. The ZDP 189 was my last fix. Ohhh what a rush that ZDP 189 Caly was.:cool:
 
I can totally relate to what you are saying Paul!! I am sure we all can identify with you!!! I can't wait for my ZDP Delica to arrive!! And my DDR's and Flashover!! I LOVE titanium too!!
 
Super-steels are fun, and to me most are well worth the money. I really like my VG-10, S30V, D2, and M2.

Just for a reality check, go pick up an Opinel sometime and try to see how sharp you can get it then test it. They're less than $10 ...
 
Sal Glesser is a pusherman, and you're a junkie...just like everybody else here. I will say this, though; I went through the steel snobbery, but then discovered there's a place for every steel. If I want to scrape tar off my bumper, I'm gonna use that $4 knife made out of Pakistani beer cans. I wouldn't be caught dead with it in my pocket, but for scut work, cheap knives and crappy steel are the way to go.
 
My fave knife is made of 1095 steel!
What the heck is "Carbon V" anyway?
440C is great on my pocket knife EDC.
I too look for balance & shun any "handle-heavy" blades.
My collection is for hard use, not show.
Someday I'll own a Randall Stag Bowie & a Dozier Fighter.
So many knives..so little money...!!
 
My evolution pretty much follows yours, except that running parallel to my knife steel growth, is a sharpening quest. I have spent a lot of money but have finally settled on an Edge Pro PRO, Sharpmaker, Hand American two sided leather strop and a coarse Japanese waterstone (oh yeh, the cardboard wheel/grinder set up in the basement).

Oh well, it keeps me out of the bars and off of drugs (except for that cholesterol stuff as I guess that I'm a beef junkie as well).

I think that the best part of this whole deal is this forum where I learned everything.

Merry Christmas everyone.
 
I kinda approach things as warden does. Sometimes a softer steel is not all that bad if the knife is being used for more than cutting or slicing critters. But I do like the good quality steel blades. D2 is just an excellent steel and I've never owned anything with 154CM though that may change this year.
 
I wouldn't say I've become a steel snob, just a more educated knife buyer/user. The first consideration is what am I really going to use the knife for. I don't need a super steel for anything I do like cut fruit, cardboard, rope, etc, etc, etc. But of the knives I do have, the manufacturer and their heat treatment becomes a major factor. For instance, my Boker carbon steel blades, Bucks, Victorinox, Spyderco Jester, couple of Kershaws don't have what anyone would consider super steels. But the respective manufacturers do a nice job with the steels they are using. I have found that I get by really nicely with these lesser steels. Now don't get me wrong, I am in no way poo-poo'ing the newer steels and they are certainly nice. My Benchmade mini-grip in D2 is nice but it's 440C counterpart is every bit as usable.
 
Mr. Rims...super steel aside, I absolutely love 154CM. I make knives part time, and that's the steel I use. Heat treated by Paul Bos, I get outstanding service out of it. I think it's a great steel, despite all these 'super steels' out today. A long time ago, *it* was the super steel, and worked just fine. I really can't wait to get my grubby little hands on some of the CPM154CM. I've seen the RWL34 and it had an outrageously beautiful grain when polished. Seemed to outperform the standard ATS34 in tests I read, too. CPM154CM oughta be the same.
 
I became one too. Then it passed and now I'm more of a sharpening junky. Other than testing you'll find it's hard to tell much of a difference between all the steels except the poorly heat treated ones. And some of the "lower grade" steels get really sharp even more so than the "super steels".
 
I agree with Huugh, the last 2 knives I bought were both Ti and S30V, but I'm still carrying around G-10 and 154CM because of the ergo's. I do believe S30V is an amazing steel, but the steel don't mean squat if it isn't a useful design.
 
I'd like to see price comparisons on the raw steels like the price on the blades alone before they're ground.
 
I've been buying S30V of late. As an earlier poster mentioned, I went through my Smokey Mountain stage and ended up giving most of those to friends for "car or truck" knives. One thing I have noticed, and it may well be me, is that some S30 seems easy to bring to hair splitting while other examples seem extremely difficult. Even in blades with similar geometry. Strange.
Now after reading this thread I must go look up ZDP 189. Thanks alot guys.:D

Brian

Next purchase: BM Rukus 610
 
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