question about blade steel.

D

digital love421

Joined
Sep 13, 2008
Messages
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Hey everyone New to the forum. A lot of great info on here. but since I cant use the search right now, sorry to ask a question that im sure has had tons of info on. Well I have always been a knife guy since i was a kid, but just recently start to get into a "better" quality knives(for the price). Currently I have a few CRKT The First Strike which has 440A steel, CRKT M21-14sf G10 and M16-13sf G10 both with 8cr14 and the crkt triump with 3Cr13 steel.( i really like the look and feel of CRKT) and all of the knives i got for under $65.


Just wondering if some one could just simply explain, the pros and cons?
 
heat treat is allmost everything. cheaper knives tend to have less quality then moderatly priced knives.
 
digital love421 said:
Hey everyone New to the forum. A lot of great info on here. but since I cant use the search right now, sorry to ask a question that im sure has had tons of info on. Well I have always been a knife guy since i was a kid, but just recently start to get into a "better" quality knives(for the price). Currently I have a few CRKT The First Strike which has 440A steel, CRKT M21-14sf G10 and M16-13sf G10 both with 8cr14 and the crkt triump with 3Cr13 steel.( i really like the look and feel of CRKT) and all of the knives i got for under $65.

Just wondering if some one could just simply explain, the pros and cons?
Click to expand...

um, pros and cons of what?

I have listed the steels in decreasing order of edge retention.

--CRKT M21-14sf has AUS8 steel. Decent steel that has a fine grain structure. This means you can get an excellent edge on it. It also is a bit more robust than a coarser grained steel. I believe the max tempered hardness for AUS8 is ~60. I do not know how hard CRKT runs their blades. There have been reports that they run them a bit low. To my knowledge, the reports have not been substantiated by measurements.

--8CR14. Chinese steel with properties similar to those of AUS8, although my guess is that the performance is a bit more variable.

--440A. Works fine for a lot of everday uses. Has a coarser grain structure than AUS8. Also has less carbon. Max hardness for 440A is 56-57HRC. I have seen some knife blade specs that cited a hardness range for 440A of 54-56. I have a 440A blade tempered to the high end of the hardness range that holds an edge well. 440A at the south end does not.

--3Cr13. Marginal steel for cutlery. Easy to sharpen, but loses the sharpness quickly. Have not seen a hardness range and have no interest in finding one. The steel holds no interest for me.

Krieger provided some nice links. Here is one more
http://www.britishblades.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1190
 
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