More Corrosion Resistant Blade Steel than 1080, yet still not too difficult to treat

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dzlvs8

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Jun 13, 2013
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I am looking for a better steel to use on my knives. I first bought a long piece of 1080 to make knives. Now that that is used up, I am looking for a better steel to use. I am most concerned with finding a steel that is the most corrosion resistant without becoming extremely difficult to heat treat. Are there non stainless steels that are considerably more corrosion resistant than 1080?

I would appreciate any suggestions on steels, and their advantages vs difficultly to heat treat. All I know is that 1080 is supposed to be the easiest and I have investigated heat treating stainless steels but it is a process that is too expensive for me to get into right now.

FYI - I have a gas forge with no PID control. I also have a thermocouple and readout that will read up to 2000F....if that's worth anything.
 
The only steel I could think of would be A2. Has a small about of chrome but not enough to call stainless. it will color over time if not cared for but does not rust like 1080. HT is pretty simple with air quench.
 
Alright then. So, I need to buy my next batch of steel, if none of the "non stainless steels" have better corrosion resistance properties that 1080, what is a better steel to use than 1080? is 1095 the best??? What ever steel holds an edge the longest and still isnt difficult to heat treat would be my preference.
Basically I would like to branch out from 1080 as I have had more "practice" heat treating.

Also, what are peoples preference in steel thickness to order for 2.5" to 4" blades. My first batch was a purchase of .125" steel and I more often than not ground them down to something thinner than I wanted on the blade. :/
 
Asking which steel is best is like asking which color is best. 1095 should have a little better edge retention due to the slightly higher carbon content, but making a great knife with 1084 or 1080 (for an inexperienced heat treater) is easier to do. 1095 under perfect ht can be "better", but it's also easy to get a less than optimal heat treat without a proper schedule. I think people see that 1084 is recommended as a "beginner" steel and assume that it's not excellent. I don't believe that that's quite accurate.
 
52100, W2, and CruForgeV are three of my favorite simpler steels. Not as simple as 1080, and CruForge certainly is not very stain resisitant. If you are wanting to explore a little further in steels and HT perhaps one of these would do.
 
You can get an excellent blade with 15n20, its heat treat is close enough to 1084 that many of us use the two of them together for Damascus, it is somewhat fine grained and does not have carbide formers that make chunky edges

-Page
 
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