Knife Steel Question...440a Vs. Sandvik 13C26..the same?

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Oreyeon

Joined
Jun 22, 2008
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I bought a Kershaw Leek off of Ebay. The auction description says the blade is 440a Stainless. Kershaw's website, and many review sites state the blade is Sandvik 13C26. Other sites selling the knife say 440a Stainless. My question is this. Is 440a Stainless the same as Sandvik 13C26? Did I get jipped by buying the one off of Ebay? If they are not the same steel, which one is better? If I bought the cruddy one, I'm going to be mad, because I can't afford another one, and I can't send this one back once it arrives. :(
 
Don't worry about it Oreyeon. The older runs of Leeks were done in 440A stainless. The vendors that you see listing theirs as 440A either have old stock on hand, or they haven't updated their knowledge of the products they're selling.;)

The Sandvik 13C26 stainless is perfectly fine, and in my opinion a nice upgrade from the 440A. It is said to have slightly less than optimum corrosion resistance, but I have dozens and dozens of Kershaws with 13C26 blades, and I have had zero problems with rust and/or corrosion of any kind.
As far as edge retention goes, definitely an improvement over 440A. The Sandvik takes a very very nice edge and holds it well. Not quite as well as say, S30V or VG-10, but darn good.

You got the "non-cruddy" version, so no worries:D Enjoy it. And just so you know, Kershaw will very soon be releasing knives with an even newer version of Sandvik stainless called 14C28N which will be even better:thumbup:

Cheers,
Jon

PS, go check out the Kershaw sub-forum some time. You'll enjoy it.
 
I'm sorry, but I think you may have misunderstood me. The knife that I have on the way is the one with the 440a blade. So that means I did get the crappy one. :( Sux.
 
There's always been a misscommunication on websites etc on which steel the Kershaws have. When the knife gets home, check the born on date on the blade. Pre- Jul 07 is 440. Jul 07 and post, is Sandvic.
 
Kershaw uses a very good 440A steel. It takes an edge easily and holds it for a decent amount of time. It is also very corrosion resistant. If you touch it up with a ceramic rod after a good days use it will stay very sharp. It takes less than a minute to do and the rods are cheap. The 13C26 will hold an edge longer but is slightly less corrosion resistant. Go ahead and use it often, it will grow on you.
 
Oreyeon said:
I'm sorry, but I think you may have misunderstood me. The knife that I have on the way is the one with the 440a blade. So that means I did get the crappy one. :( Sux.
Click to expand...

Yes, it seems I did. Sorry about that.:o Like I said though, many vendors, especially ones on ebay haven't bothered to update their information, so you very well could be getting one in 13C26, just have to wait and see:D
 
_____13C26_____440A
C____0.68_____0.65-0.75
Cr___13.0_____16.00-18.00
Mo___---_____ ___0.75

The 13C26 is said to have a finer grain structure. Because of the higher carbon to Chromium ratio, you can take it to a higher hardness than 440A because less carbon combines to form Chromium carbides.

The 440A likely has higher corrosion resistance and more carbides to provide higher wear resistance.

The Sandvik approach is to provide a high hardness fine grained steel. They feel this provides superior performance to the more common approach of using steels with carbides that are coarser and provide wear resistance.

I have not yet tried any Sandvik steel and therefore cannot tell you from personal experience which approach has worked better for me. But I do have knives in 440A that have provided reasonable EDC performance.
 
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