knife steel question?

It's not what it "IS" that matters, it's what it "ISN'T", and it isn't any decent steel. Go into the cheapest restaurant in town, look at the fork or spoon that they give you, that is "stainless steel". If a knife doesn't give you more information about what it is, it might not be any better than that fork or spoon.
 
Chipped Karambit said:
440a is cheap sometimes 440c from my experience
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Heh? "400 steel" is usually cheap 440a, but unless the manufacturer is lying, 440a is 440a and 440c is 440c.

And if you get a knife that is labeled as 440a and it is actually 440c...let me know what it is, because I want one.
 
marcinek said:
Heh? "400 steel" is usually cheap 440a, but unless the manufacturer is lying, 440a is 440a and 440c is 440c.

And if you get a knife that is labeled as 440a and it is actually 440c...let me know what it is, because I want one.
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I edited this because I wanted to.
 
I bought a couple of cheap Kitchen knives at Wally World last week: A Chicago Cutlery chef knife, and an Essenstahl (I think) paring knife. Both are made of nameless "stainless steel", I think the chef's knife is "superior" stainless and the paring knife is "German" stainless. I wasn't expecting much, but I have to say both steels would qualify as at least "decent". I imagine its 420 or equivalent. It takes a good edge without problematic burrs, and after laying back the edge bevels to around 20 degrees inclusive, they do not have massive edge problems. Both are quite stainless. They will work fine until I make up my mind on which nice kitchen knives I want to buy.

Still, I do not really take a knife manufacturer seriously if they do not list the specific type of steel used. They are obviously not marketing the knives to serious knife users, so I would expect the quality to be lower.
 
There are important aspects of this besides the steel chemistry, such as the edge geometry and the heat treat. I think if a manufacturer isn't going to tell you the steel type then you can't count on them to pay a lot of attention to heat treat or edge geometry either. I was always under the impression that Buck used a lot of 420 in their knives but they probably did a good job with heat treat and edge geometry.
 
Bobthemotorcycle said:
If you are referring to really cheap blades that are found in gum ball machines or are sometimes like the Pakistan knives? I was under the impression that they were a really cheap 420A stainless.

In my knowledge and opinion I thought 420A was the worst stainless there is. It’s soft and does not hold an edge very well.

I am almost sure this is what you want to know.

440 is sometime an ok stainless, not great but ok in some applications.
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420A? Maybe you mean 420HC or 420J2?

And "440" is not an OK stainless....it is not a stainless steel at all. 440a is...440c is....bit "440" is not.
 
bdmicarta said:
There are important aspects of this besides the steel chemistry, such as the edge geometry and the heat treat. I think if a manufacturer isn't going to tell you the steel type then you can't count on them to pay a lot of attention to heat treat or edge geometry either. I was always under the impression that Buck used a lot of 420 in their knives but they probably did a good job with heat treat and edge geometry.
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Yes. Buck/Bos did excellent work in heat treating 420HC. But not 420J2, if I recall.

These numbers and letters matter...
 
I think people start these threads to get a reaction.....
Op should go star a thread about cold steel hating now!
 
General rule of thumb is expect it to be crap if it says that. However that's not ALWAYS the case. Plenty of manufacturers of traditional, slipjoint style knives will only list something as "SS" but often have quite decent steel. Not "super steel" territory, but serviceable. So if it's a trusted brand like Buck, Case, etc... it's probably not bad.
 
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