Please Explain S30V vs. BG42

R

rick mussey

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Aug 9, 2006
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I have an order in for six custom made fixed blade knives, all eight inches in total length; (five to be engraved.) Two will be ATS-34, mirror polished blades, two are S30V, hand rubbed finish, and the final two are BG42, hand rubbed finish. What are the advantages with each of the above-mentioned steels (S30V and BG42?) I am a collector, so none of these knives will ever be used "out there in the real world," but remain displayed in an heirloom display case for me to enjoy. Anyway, comments are really appreciated by you experts out there!
 
All good knife steels. Here is some techy info about knife steels including each of these. The higher the Cr number usually the more stain resistent. Heat treatment and blade grind is as important (or more important) often times than the type of steel used to make the knife.

http://www.ajh-knives.com/metals.html

You would never know which was which in normal EDC activities, IMHO.
 
Thank you very much, DGG, for the web site info. I'm also curious to know what differences to expect in terms of blade appearance between S30V and BG42, i.e. color differences, brightness, etc.? Also, in your opinion is BG42 "more collectable" than S30V?
 
Rick,

Just my $.02...........

BG42 takes an incredible mirror polish....noticeably better than ATS34.
All the blades I have made from S30V have been hand sanded---all my BG42blades have been mirror polished so I can't say what to expect in appearance if they are both satin finished.

-Mike-
 
BG-42 is a bearing steel and designed for such. CPM S30V is one of few that was designed specically for cuttlery. A remarkable differentiation. In addition, heat treating is as remarkably different between the two, especially in tempering tolerances. Both make great blades. BG-42 is more difficult to hit correctly in heat treating. Its tempering for our purposes is much higher in temperature than most and much tighter in temperature window (about 20 degrees F.). It is so critical that I only heat treat blades of BG-42 that are pretty short in length because of the differences in temperature within my furnace chamber. BG-42 also requires a substantially higher soak temperature during heat treat, which is not so critical in itself but helps to identiy another answer to your question.

Roger
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