Knife steel identification

R

rhinos

Joined
Oct 5, 2002
Messages
17
Hi All,

When considering a knife from an unknown maker and, therefore, unknown steel in it's construction, are there any ways of narrowing down what that steel might be? I guess getting it wet and seeing how long it takes and also in what way the rust forms (surface or pitting etc) will inform whether it is a carbon rather than a stainless steel but are there any other means of determining, for example, the carbon content itself or other included alloys to make a guestimate possible? I'm excluding destructive testing or other means that might damage the knife.

Cheers

Andrew
 
I'd say you're out of luck. Manufacturers seem to brag, including stamping their steel types on the blade, or clam up altogether.

A mass spectrometer could be used to determine the chemical content of the steel. Consulting a table of standard steels would give you the closest type. Of course you'd need a pretty sophisticated lab for that (bring money).
 
Would different steels throw a different type or colour of sparks from a firesteel?
 
As far as I know stainless steels throw far fewer sparks than carbon steels. (the carbon steels have higher carbon amounts?)
 
It is far easier to ask, if the maker can't or won't say then don't buy.

There are too many reputable makers out there to waste time with others.
 
FWIW, different steels don't throw different sparks from a firesteel. When you strike a firesteel, you are actually removing material from it, not from the knife/hacksaw blade/piece of glass/or whatever.

The spark from striking a flint against a piece of steel actually removes a piece of the steel, which is why you'll see a variation among types of steel. Ditto for a sanding belt.
 
rhinos said:
Would different steels throw a different type or colour of sparks from a firesteel?
Click to expand...

You would not be able to distinguish two grades of stainless , for example 440A and 154CM, by looking at the sparks without instrumentation.

These days, manufacturers who use premium steel are not shy about telling you what they use because it is a selling point that justifies a higher price. If a maker will not identify the steel, that is not a good sign.
 
rhinos said:
Would different steels throw a different type or colour of sparks from a firesteel?
Click to expand...

When you are striking a fire steel you are getting sparks from the fire steel not the blade ,if you put the blade on a grinder you can see sparks but that will only tell you if its steel ,soft or hard.
 
rhinos said:
Hi All,

When considering a knife from an unknown maker and, therefore, unknown steel in it's construction, are there any ways of narrowing down what that steel might be? I guess getting it wet and seeing how long it takes and also in what way the rust forms (surface or pitting etc) will inform whether it is a carbon rather than a stainless steel but are there any other means of determining, for example, the carbon content itself or other included alloys to make a guestimate possible? I'm excluding destructive testing or other means that might damage the knife.

Cheers

Andrew
Click to expand...
rhinos said:
Hi All,

When considering a knife from an unknown maker and, therefore, unknown steel in it's construction, are there any ways of narrowing down what that steel might be? I guess getting it wet and seeing how long it takes and also in what way the rust forms (surface or pitting etc) will inform whether it is a carbon rather than a stainless steel but are there any other means of determining, for example, the carbon content itself or other included alloys to make a guestimate possible? I'm excluding destructive testing or other means that might damage the knife.

Cheers

Andrew
Click to expand...
hey man its my undersanding best i can tell that im having the same problem cus the knife in question says its made of carbon steel...n im ..pretty shure that that means pretty much nothing..u can correct me if im wrong ..n as far as " destruction tests" i do have an idea but imnot shure if it counts as destroying it or not but what im gunna do is take a knife u kno is made of good steel and the one in question n tap the points of the blades together it will leave small divits in both blades (wich can easily be fixed eith a scrape sharpenee and 5 minutes) if the one on the good metal one is deeper then u kno u got some damn good steel if the other one is deeper take a knifw that is a complete pos cant be sharpend to even give it an edge much less keep it n tap them now n keep going until hve figured out how good it is in relation to my another knives
 
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