New to knives, trying to figure out ideal steel

knarfeng said:
My standard recommendation for new folks is for them to find a design you like made by one of the top production houses and let the production house choose an appropriate alloy. They choose knife alloys for a living.

There are so many alloys which will work just fine as a knife blade. I'm a steel junky myself, but I'm the first to say that too much attention is paid to a single design parameter, when there are so many other more important parameters that make a good knife.

Top knife companies include, but are not limited to:
Benchmade
Spyderco
Kershaw
Click to expand...

One of the best and truest pieces of advice I've seen!

Like all of us you have to start somewhere. With the Internet and BFC there can be information overload. Thing is you really have to have some knowledge base from usage and experience first to really appreciate all the information available.

As suggested, find a knife you like, from one of the top production makers like, Benchmade, Spyderco, Kershaw, just to name a few and see how you like the knife. The steel really is secondary as they all use quality premium steels in their knives.

Then over time you may start to develop steel preferences based on your usage. Don't worry so much about steel right off the bat. That will come later.

You can't go wrong going with a knife from one of the better companies and will gain valuable experience that will help you going forward in deciding which steel is "best" for you. You may find like many of us there are several. Give it some time though and concentrate on finding a good quality knife that you like.

All the best!
 
I've found S30V to be a bit chippy. My personal favorites are:
Elmax
154CM
S35VN
S90V
110V
M390 / 20CV / 204P
M4

All of those are tough steels with good edge retention - and all take very fine edges. M4 is a tool steel and is not particularly rust-resistant, however a little tuff-glide on the blade and you're golden.

That said, there is no one steel for every task. I usually carry two knives - one for hard use and one for fine cutting. My Cold Steel Tuff Lite functions very well despite having a mid-grade steel. I often pair that with a knife made out of one of the aforementioned steels so I'll have a fine yet durable edge handy.
 
Start with an easy to sharpen steel and learn how to sharpen. If you can't sharpen there's no point getting steels that are "more difficult" to sharpen (more wear resistant). If you want stainless try AUS-8, VG-10, Buck's 420HC, or even a cheap Kershaw or Enlan in 8cr13mov. For easy to sharpen non-stainless steels try 1095, 1084 or another "simple carbon steel". Don't start off with S90V, S110V, or any other steel with high wear resistance.

Invest in some sharpening equipment. Either pick up a coarse/fine Norton Crystolon stone to freehand or try a Spyderco Sharpmaker. Once you can get a knife to shave hair and slice newsprint easily then go ahead and broaden your collection.
 
Fanglekai said:
Start with an easy to sharpen steel and learn how to sharpen. If you can't sharpen there's no point getting steels that are "more difficult" to sharpen (more wear resistant). If you want stainless try AUS-8, VG-10, Buck's 420HC, or even a cheap Kershaw or Enlan in 8cr13mov. For easy to sharpen non-stainless steels try 1095, 1084 or another "simple carbon steel". Don't start off with S90V, S110V, or any other steel with high wear resistance.

Invest in some sharpening equipment. Either pick up a coarse/fine Norton Crystolon stone to freehand or try a Spyderco Sharpmaker. Once you can get a knife to shave hair and slice newsprint easily then go ahead and broaden your collection.
Click to expand...

Good advice - I might add Sandvik steels to the list of decent-but-easily-sharpened steels. 12c27 and 13c26 are great steels, often used by Kershaw in their mid-priced knives.
 
Last edited:
One of my favorite steels for an edc knife is Spydercos VG10. It is easy to sharpen, takes a great edge, holds that edge for a good while, and is extremely corrosion resistant over all its just great.

You can get a Delica or Endura in this steel or if you want something a bit nicer you can get the Caly 3.5 (my main edc knife).
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top