Least favorite knife steel

Lennyo3034 said:
Not sure what happened, but the edge is obviously chipped:


Good point. I'd imagine not a lot of steels wouldn't chip on that blade design.
Click to expand...


Not surprising that happened on a factory edge........

Sharpen the knife a few times to get to fresh steel and that won't happen again..
 
Kershaws said:
My cousin saved up and bought a couple of them from the same dealer, one for him to keep and others as gifts, he decided to take it with him camping. He was batoning what I believe was oak, after a few minutes the blade snapped cleanly in half near the handle in the middle of batoning, I brought along the other one he bought, batoned fine, used it for the whole trip. When we got home I inspected it and the blade just didn't feel right, after putting pressure on it the blade just slipped/snapped off. I did some searching online and found many other people who had the same problem, people here on BF as well.
Click to expand...

i have a usmc ka bar that survived a female induced rage. i used a 3 lb mallet on the spine while visiting a friends junk pile to relieve a very immature flash of anger and drove the knife through a steel bed frame, a corner of some concrete, wood, fiberglass mower deck... knife is fine. just needed a sander to sharpen the inicial bevel. this knife is also thrown the most and pryed with.
 
Lionsteel's D2

I had actual, red, rust spots after carrying it for two days. It was well oiled and hadn't cut anything other than a couple strings and one cardboard box.
 
zeroed4x said:
8ce13mov is Chinese steel. Its not as bad as 440a and I believe it has similar qualities to 440c.
Click to expand...

essentially if you just dumb it down, or lessen what percentages of what elements 8cr has. 440c has higher amounts of the chromium, carbon, ect. thats what i was trying to spit out. third shift is impairing my brain
 
Raylas said:
For me: Any steel heavily prone to rust. 1095,5160,51-200, D2, and M4 are all in this category. Why? Simple: I. Do. Not. Like. Rust. Nothing bugs me more than seeing a great design..... and seeing it in a corrosion prone steel.

My sweat eats any steel that lacks a significant degree of chromium in it, the steels rust from air, it's humid during the summer where I dwell, and they don't hold a candle to modern stainless in edge retention or corrosion resistance.
Click to expand...

Sounds like you need to do some patinas. They stop rust in its tracks.
 
Sounds like you need to do some patinas. They stop rust in its tracks.
Click to expand...

No thanks, I'll cut out the middleman and just buy modern stainless. Patina isn't appealing to me, and it makes my food taste..... bad.
 
I think we are being spoiled by modern powder steels these days. I know I am. 204P, S90V, ELMAX, 10V, etc. Plus CPM154 betters plain D2 in both wear resistance and toughness according to Crucibles very vague charts. M4 gives us high toughness at mid 60s Rockwells and great wear resistance. Heck, 1V (if I ever get my hands on any...) has twice the toughness of S7 according to Jerry Hossom.

Just think of what powder metallurgy could do to Cold Steels AUS-8 (there may be an analog, I don't know).

At this point, any steel in a $100 knife ought to be powder steel. Obvious exceptions are the more traditional knives or knifemakers and custom type knives. I would barf if I saw a 3V Randall or S30V GEC.
 
I have lots (15+) of knives with 8Cr13MoV steel, it is used in budget knives and gives great value for money. Easy to sharpen to a very sharp edge and a stropping or light touch up on a diamond slipstone keeps it that way.
It is a good steel for starting to learn sharpening techniques and get the "muscle memory" to sharpen more expensive steels.
If you don't ask too much of it then it can be a very good choice, often getting more bang per buck than higher end steels.
Just thought I'd throw in, I have a couple of folding knives with ceramic blades, still cutting as good as the day I bought them, I use them regularly but within their limits, no side pressure and not using them on something that needs a saw or quality steel.
Use your knives within their limits and they will last a very long time.
I'd take 8Cr13MoV over the 440 range any day. I also have a couple of knives in Krupp 4116 that aren't bad.
All the above given the heat treat is good of course.
 
1V (if I ever get my hands on any...) has twice the toughness of S7 according to Jerry Hossom.
Click to expand...

I thought Jerry stated it didn't work out in knife blades though. It's one that looks good on paper but in real life doesn't work.

Just think of what powder metallurgy could do to Cold Steels AUS-8 (there may be an analog, I don't know)
Click to expand...

I don't think there is any advantage to be gained in making a powder steel version of Aus 8. It's already pretty fine grained, tough and as clean as they can make it for the cost. Going the extra expense for such a low alloy steel really wouldn't make it worth while IMO. Now 440C is different. The grain on that could stand lots of improvement. CTS ( Carpenter ) has come out with one too. CTS-40CP is essentially powder 440C. CTS XHP is 440XH, etc.

I'm of the opinion that powder steel really doesn't help all steels for knives. In steels that get their performance out of their coarse grain structure powder process will add toughness but take away some of the cutting ability on SOME materials such as meat/flesh on skinning and caping knives, cutting some kinds of rope. It does come out tougher though. In steels that are highly alloyed and or steels that couldn't exist without powder processing you can see the advantages. Not so some other steels.
 
Saw my name mentioned so I'll comment. Yeah, CPM-1V sucks as a blade steel. My interest in it was for swords, but it is just too weak for any blade purpose. The edge deforms with very little impact force, and I'm sure the blade would bend without a whole lot of effort. Also, the carbide content is too low to expect much wear resistance. Was an expensive experiment that went nowhere.

My least favorite steel? It's those four billets of CPM-M4 that sit in the corner of my shop taunting me each day. I KNOW it's a great steel, but I also know what it's like to finish. I hate it because it proves I'm both lazy and a coward... :)
 
Benchmade's 154cm. If it didn't cost me 80 bucks for my Griptilian I might like it more. But for the cheap feeling handle scales and dull blade, I figured they would make up for the price with a better blade steel. Once I sharpened the blade I found that it dulls way to easily IMHO (at least when slicing through cardboard on a wood deck). Once the knife gets dull I found it difficult to get the blade sharp again (hand sharpening on a stone). Since the blade steel got dull so quickly, I figure it would be easier to sharpen (even benchmade could not manage to sharpen this little guy).
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top