Overrated Steels

I don't think any particular steel is significantly overrated but I do think there are a number of steels with characteristics that are overvalued. Mainly the ability to hold an edge. Seems to me that edge holding ability came about because too many people simply don't know how to sharpen their knives. So instead of learning, they want a knife that they believe will never get dull while cutting through sheet metal and hickory axe handles.
 
I honestly dont pay much mind to steel choice unless the price warrants an upgrade but I can take it or leave it. My needs for a knife rarely would have me notice the upgrade and most likely would be overshadowed by my disdain for sharpening. I use my knives daily. But I am not building shelters or cutting up logs. And I dont mean that as a slight to those who do. What I do is I buy a knife based on looks, ergos and options that I like and I let my use of it determine whether it is suitable rather than data points. I realize some may say well if you arent "hard using" your knife then you just have jewelry. But I believe no matter how much you use your knife there will always be someone who does and knows more. So I only worry about works for me. And what works for me is judging each knife on a knife by knife basis. As long as it performs to my satisfaction I pay little attention to blade material as I know there are too many variables to make pigeon hole anything.
 
Anyone who has used a lot of different steels may have an opinion about one or two that are "overrated" ......
Thing is, that opinion would most likely be very different from another person who has used those same steels.

Everyone is right and everyone is wrong, it's just what works for you and for what you do with your knives...
 
I'm of the belief that 98% of folks could be handed 3 identical blades made from the same steel, marked with different names, and find reasons to say why one was better than the other two. I think that blade geometry and handle ergonomics are, for most people, far more important than Super Steel A vs Super Steel B. (With the exception of corrosion resistance which is often fairly obvious.) Are there differences in steels? Of course there are. But, outside of doing specific testing to identify those differences, in daily use, not that many folks would really notice that much of a difference.

(Of course, those who get offended by such a claim are clearly in the 2% of the highly enlightened.)
 
(clearly in the 2% of the highly enlightened.)

That's me. I stick with Ankerson's tables, and have been quite content.
 
Sonnydaze said:
(clearly in the 2% of the highly enlightened.)

That's me. I stick with Ankerson's tables, and have been quite content.
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I hope there where more then 100 people surveyed, or Don and I have just made up that 2%!!

I have used a large variety of steels very hard, and the difference between almost all of them is very obvious for what works for me and what does not.

The thing is...'what works for me' is why it's impossible to call any steel overrated.....
 
james terrio said:
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.
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How true. :)

For me it's more about realism.

I believe that most people like to talk up (enter knife here) in (enter steel here) by (enter company here) that they own and that's natural.

People do the same things with most items they own and like.

When I was at Blade walking around and talking to people etc. when I would walk up to a table or both or someone outside I would automatically get the marketing pitch, you know blah, blah, blah.....

Then I would give them the look....... They looked at my badge........ Then things would get more real and in a real hurry..... ;)

Then the conversation would get a lot more interesting. :thumbup:

I think need to take their audience into consideration when they start talking or posting like on a forum.
 
From my experience zdp189 is brittle and chips far too easily. Case in point: I've used knives of all kinds for decades to open tin cans when I can't find a dedicated opener. Never had a problem. I recently tried to open a can of tuna with a zdp189 blade from a trusted maker. It caused small chips on the leading edge on the first plunge. Did I abuse the knife? Maybe, but my conclusion is that zdp189 is great for cutting packaging, food prep, toenails or whatever but is suspect as a steel for a general utilitarian knife. Except on a "gentlemans" folder, I'd leave the zdp189 at home.
 
Among the "common folk" it's damascus steel. It doesn't matter if the "hand forged in the fires of hell" damascus puukko is made of aluminum and budk sword, but as long as it has that magical pattern, that blade can perform the most abusive cutting tasks for years without sharpening. If any town hick is so pompous to boast and buy this magical steel, it is of course then put to cabinet because such art is shameful to use. And nobody ever does use them, and then the mythos of magical damascus lives on.

Seriously here, any man is master in forging and puukko knowledge here. I never try to speak knowledge, for imagination is stronger than knowledge and words of reason go to vain. It's religion really. And stainless steel never beats hand forged. Never.
 
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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That might be just a tad of an exaggeration but 1095 is affordable, serviceable, rugged enough, durable enough and easy to sharpen. I suppose that I do not have enough first hand experience with a sufficient sampling of the modern day whiz-bang Super Steels to say which ones are living up to expectations and which ones are overrated as I have been satisfied with (here I go again) 1095/1095CroVan, 52100/SR-101, 440C, A2, BG-42, ATS34/CPM154 and yes, even AUS8 that maybe I just don't know what I am missing. Mind you I try to use my knives within the spectrum of what a knife (or a particular knife) is designed for, keep the edge reasonably keen and am OK with the fact that my blades cannot spit three foot logs nor dissect insects - but they serve me just fine, at least for my tastes.
 
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I do all that and then just wipe it down with parachute silk dipped in 40-year-old Scotch to restore the edge.
 
Steels aren't over rated. A knife with the wrong steel is. S30V is a poor choice for a Puukko or hard use blade, but perfect in a folder doing kitchen duty or opening packages

The sad part is people demand knives be made in the wrong steel and even worse is manufacturers sometimes end up making them. Another problem is fixers. People who regrind, re profile a steel, sometimes on accident or on purpose then declare its crappy. I've seen people thin out wood splitting woods crafting blades with 1095 like its zdp used to open letters or whittle hair. Then shout from the highest mountain it's the worst ever.

Just like the blade itself, steel has designed purposes. The right blade and right steel for the task at hand is what ends any steel being over rated. The fun part is learning for yourself.
 
3v.

I don't get to use my knives too often, mostly just on camping trips i go on every few weeks. Recently obtained my first 3v blade. I don't think many steels get more hype than this one. My example is hardened to 58-59. Just from some wood processing I have a chip, a few micro chips, and some serious rolling. I have a blade in PD1 that's undergone similar use and is still hair popping sharp... Just my limited experience though.

I have read that sometimes the edge can become brittle due to initially sharpening. Maybe I'll amend my impression after I get this factory edge sharpened.
 
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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laughing! I think what you describe is fairly common, and more a factor of the raconteur, than the steel. :rolleyes:
 
Properties of the blade are so heavily influenced by heat treat, that it is hard to distinguish whether the reason for under-performing blade is wrong choice of steel or wrong heat treat. Example - VG-10 is pretty standard for Japanese kitchen knives (made for western market). It got a bad name for being chippy because of Shun knives where apparently Shun did not get the HT right. I did have one knife of theirs for several years and yeas, it was chippy. Then I got a VG-10 Tojiro (pretty much a low-ish end on Japanese kitchen knives) and it performed worlds better. The same is true for AEB-L steel. Not particularly special steel nobody cared too much about - and then Devin Thomas found out the way to HT and it gives the steel really nice edge holding, toughness and relative ease of sharpening at the same time.

I have made very good experience with SKD steel (D2) with knives from Yoshikane. They HT it to about HRC64 so it gets a little on brittle side and I use micro-bevel to keep chipping in check (the knife is Hakata Santoku I use to chop vegetables - so plenty of relatively hard contact with cutting board). The edge holding is excellent and sharpening easy.

I had used super-blue steel knives from Spyderco and the edge holding was just OK. The steel can give excellent properties (I really like my Masakage Koishi), but at higher HRC. IMO not the best choice for a pocket knife.

It is probably no surprise that the modern super steels with high content of all metals you can think of are not easy to work with and can be less-than-impressive if they are not treated well.

So - are super steels overrated? Unless there is at least one maker that can make given 'super steel' shine, than probably not. It is much more probable that super steels are ... over-expected ;)
 
TrojanSteel said:
3v.

I don't get to use my knives too often, mostly just on camping trips i go on every few weeks. Recently obtained my first 3v blade. I don't think many steels get more hype than this one. My example is hardened to 58-59. Just from some wood processing I have a chip, a few micro chips, and some serious rolling. I have a blade in PD1 that's undergone similar use and is still hair popping sharp... Just my limited experience though.

I have read that sometimes the edge can become brittle due to initially sharpening. Maybe I'll amend my impression after I get this factory edge sharpened.
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If the problems persist, someone did your 3V wrong. My Skookum Bush Tool in 3V has been bombproof with a zero degree edge on it.

My personal "overrated" steel is D2, mostly for its indifference to getting or staying razor sharp. It does usably sharp for a long time just fine, but I want more.
 
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