Overrated Steels

A

adamg01

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Dec 8, 2013
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It could be a "super steel" or an everyday type of steel like AUS8. I'm always interested in people's personal experiences with the many different types of steel. I am aware that sometimes a bad heat treatment is more responsible in some cases than the actual steel itself.

I actually really enjoy Aus8 on my Rat2 for a work knife. The one steel that I never warmed up to that had a lot of hype around it was ZDP189. It will rust easier than most steels, has a reputation for chipping, and can be a PIA to sharpen for beginners. Granted I've only had experiences with Spyderco ZDP but I've had a few of them. I've had enough experience with it to know that I would much rather have S35vn or even S30v.

Let's hear your experiences.
 
I've had good experiences with ZDP, have yet to have rust or chipping (even after dropping it point first on warehouse floor concrete) and with a diamond stone and some patience I've managed to freehand sharpen it to a shaving edge in not too much longer than the VG10 of my other Spydercos.

Now I know a certain someone who will come along to tell me how wrong I am about this, but I will say that all the AUS8 I've dealt with (from SOG, Cold Steel, and Ontario) either went dull faster than I thought it should, or chipped from normal wood working or through general warehouse use. The Cold Steel Recon 1 was the best but it still got a couple chips in it just from tearing down cardboard boxes and sometime glancing off of pallets during that. The RAT1 I had went dull very fast, and both the SOG Aegis and Seal Pup got chips in them almost before they went dull for the first time.

No other steel has performed less than my expectations.
 
KingMC said:
I've had good experiences with ZDP, have yet to have rust or chipping (even after dropping it point first on warehouse floor concrete) and with a diamond stone and some patience I've managed to freehand sharpen it to a shaving edge in not too much longer than the VG10 of my other Spydercos.

Now I know a certain someone who will come along to tell me how wrong I am about this, but I will say that all the AUS8 I've dealt with (from SOG, Cold Steel, and Ontario) either went dull faster than I thought it should, or chipped from normal wood working or through general warehouse use. The Cold Steel Recon 1 was the best but it still got a couple chips in it just from tearing down cardboard boxes and sometime glancing off of pallets during that. The RAT1 I had went dull very fast, and both the SOG Aegis and Seal Pup got chips in them almost before they went dull for the first time.

No other steel has performed less than my expectations.
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Interesting. I have never had a knife chip on me in 38+ years. I guess that I know how to use a knife properly. Probably not a fault of the steel.
 
manowar669 said:
Interesting. I have never had a knife chip on me in 38+ years. I guess that I know how to use a knife properly. Probably not a fault of the steel.
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Really not sure why you think it's user error, but please don't take this thread off-topic for such a petty discussion as that, it's barely even started.

I've used 20 different steels, only one has chipped on me.
 
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"Overrated" might be an exaggeration, but Hitachi blue #2 is a little underwhelming to me-at least compared to 52100 or O-1.
 
Personally I think s30v is overrated.. Yes yes,I know at one point it was the end all be all steel.. and it might've been.. but that just shows how well the development in knife edges and steel have come.. I don't think anyone will be taking about s30v 10 years from saying how great a steel it was.. like we do with 440c..

Idk, I'm just rambling.. nice thread OP
 
Big fan of zdp...sharpens and cuts like o1, have had a few small spots of corrosion...guess my perspiration is a bit much.
 
High carbide stainless PM steel like S110V, S90V and 20CR-4V type are overrated.
 
shqxk said:
High carbide stainless PM steel like S110V, S90V and 20CR-4V type are overrated.
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I probably only own one knife that is made of a steel that would be considered a super steel of today and that is a 940-1 in S90v. I haven't really put it through its paces but it is definitely a very hard steel. I don't use a knife as hard as some on here so I could easily get by with VG10 which is one of my favorites.
 
1095 is the most overrated I know of. It's good stuff, but some people will tell you about how they used their prize 1095 blade to pry open their old oak door on their way to cut a few thousand feet of bailing wire, hammered in into a tree to use as a foothold so they could get some low hanging beehive for the honey, batoned through a 3 foot thick log and then spent 4 hours whittling it on down to a tinder bundle so they could have some toast with their honey, then headed home and used that very same edge to shave their face before they go to bed.
 
J W Bensinger said:
"Overrated" might be an exaggeration, but Hitachi blue #2 is a little underwhelming to me-at least compared to 52100 or O-1.
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Why do you say that? Elemental breakdown shows 52100 and blue 2 as being pretty similar. It just didn't hold an edge as well?
 
Insipid Moniker said:
1095 is the most overrated I know of. It's good stuff, but some people will tell you about how they used their prize 1095 blade to pry open their old oak door on their way to cut a few thousand feet of bailing wire, hammered in into a tree to use as a foothold so they could get some low hanging beehive for the honey, batoned through a 3 foot thick log and then spent 4 hours whittling it on down to a tinder bundle so they could have some toast with their honey, then headed home and used that very same edge to shave their face before they go to bed.
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I got a chuckle out of this sir. 1095 could possibly be a little overrated.
 
Insipid Moniker said:
1095 is the most overrated I know of. It's good stuff, but some people will tell you about how they used their prize 1095 blade to pry open their old oak door on their way to cut a few thousand feet of bailing wire, hammered in into a tree to use as a foothold so they could get some low hanging beehive for the honey, batoned through a 3 foot thick log and then spent 4 hours whittling it on down to a tinder bundle so they could have some toast with their honey, then headed home and used that very same edge to shave their face before they go to bed.
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Same goes for a lot of the lower alloy steels really.

Pretty much the same stories I heard over 40 years ago, there are just more of them now and they tend to grow kinda like fish stories do.

I really never pay them much attention in the end because I know they are FOS just like ones I used to hear told 40 years ago.

I am more of a realist so I don't believe most of them because they just aren't believable.

However people can believe what they choose to believe. ;)
 
Insipid Moniker said:
1095 is the most overrated I know of. It's good stuff, but some people will tell you about how they used their prize 1095 blade to pry open their old oak door on their way to cut a few thousand feet of bailing wire, hammered in into a tree to use as a foothold so they could get some low hanging beehive for the honey, batoned through a 3 foot thick log and then spent 4 hours whittling it on down to a tinder bundle so they could have some toast with their honey, then headed home and used that very same edge to shave their face before they go to bed.
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Sure got a chuckle from this too. I have also had similar experience with people and their 1095 but also aus 8 and how its "just as good as any of my steels"

bodog said:
Why do you say that? Elemental breakdown shows 52100 and blue 2 as being pretty similar. It just didn't hold an edge as well?
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Could've been those particular heat treats.
 
The most overrated steel of all time, "surgical" stainless
 
I like 1095 for what it is good for- IMHO its one of the better all around steels out there if you dont live underwater with Aquaman, tough, cheap and holds a decent edge. Some people do like to over talk it though.

"Fish stories" also abound about things like S110v- "Nah man I battoned through like 10 logs cross grain and it still cut 37 miles of cardboard, and would have done more but I got tired" or really a lot of stuff Ive read about infi ( I know its tough but you didnt baton it through a 73 Impala bumper with an 18 pound sledge with 0 edge damage then dress 13 mule bucks with it before it saw a stone.)
I personally think overrated comes more into play in peoples heads at times, I dont know how many times I have read that cold steels (for example) aus 8a is soooo much better than everyone elses- that 8a is different than 8, that they have A8 down soo much better, or Bucks 420hc is soo much better-
Heat treat is important, I know. But no one has magic, either. You are talking about single digit percents of differences between the steels performance from good/average to best in most cases from good manufacturers.
 
Insipid Moniker said:
1095 is the most overrated I know of. It's good stuff, but some people will tell you about how they used their prize 1095 blade to pry open their old oak door on their way to cut a few thousand feet of bailing wire, hammered in into a tree to use as a foothold so they could get some low hanging beehive for the honey, batoned through a 3 foot thick log and then spent 4 hours whittling it on down to a tinder bundle so they could have some toast with their honey, then headed home and used that very same edge to shave their face before they go to bed.
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I did all that once, and after I shaved I took a shower and scraped my feet, cut my nails. And butchered a hog for breakfast bacon, and used the knife as a spoon to eat my yogurt...

But it was 440c though :o
 
The only truly over-rated steels today are old leaf-springs, files, and other stuff that might be laying around the farm or scrapyard. The "common wisdom" is, they're old so they must be good steel. That's simply not true in the first place, and even when you do find high-quality old steel, there's a pretty good chance that it's been so abused and beaten-up that it may be riddled with stress fractures and fatigue that even the best bladesmith can't "fix".

I don't use them in my shop, but honestly "cheap, lowly" stuff like 420HC and 440A are actually pretty darn good alloys, if they're heat-treated right. As are "traditional carbon" alloys like 1095 and O1. As knifemakers and knife fans, we're really spoiled in the standards we set for the knives we carry and use every day.
 
bodog said:
Why do you say that? Elemental breakdown shows 52100 and blue 2 as being pretty similar. It just didn't hold an edge as well?
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Mostly because it seems to be fussier to HT, and way more expensive...and like you said, isn't too elementally different-either when I HT it, the Japanese do it or Spyderco does it. I don't dislike the stuff, just not sure what the point is-but that's true of many steels.
We don't need as many cutlery steels as we have, and probably none of us need as many knives as we own...but the variety is endlessly interesting.
The appeal of the low (or lower) alloyed carbon steels to me is that I don't need to run a kiln for five hours to HT them (thinking of 3V here...3V is an exceptional material. I own a couple in 3v, I've made some in 3v)...but it seems to me that that's a LOT of energy going into something that isn't going to be that noticably different in use.
 
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