Ranking various high-quality steels?

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Hadji Flip Me Over

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There's a couple of steels out there that I'm not very familiar with. I'm hoping you guys can put them in order of what you think is the best, or just say what you think is best in the list. Here we go (in no particular order):

INFI (or SR-77/101)
S30V
Various San Mai steels
ATS34
BG42
154CM
D2
etc.
 
There are different categories.
Non-stainless:
INFI then SR101/D2 then SR77

The closest comparison to INFI that I know of is CPM 3V. Very tough with good wear resistance.
101 is basically 52100, so you'll find more about that with that name. It may be slightly modified and with a great heat treat.
Same thing for the sr77 and S7. These are shock steels. Great for impacts.

CPM 3v is almost as good with shock, while being between D2 and M4 in wear resistance.

Stainless:
S30V is the best stainless listed

154cm, bg42, and ats34 are all very similar (154cm is USA version/ats34 is Japanese version of same steel)
These are all decent steels. Old recipe, easy to sharpen, will rust with neglect. Don't confuse 154cm with CPM154. While they are the same formula, CPM154 uses Crucible's particle technology and will be similar to S30V.

There are 3 big things with steel: corrosion resistance, toughness, wear resistance. With the carbon steels you listed, you give up corrosion resistance for the other 2. Same trade with the stainless steels. You lose toughness for corrosion resistance.
 
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crktm1612m said:
There are different categories.
Non-stainless:
INFI then SR101/D2 then SR77

The closest comparison to INFI that I know of is CPM 3V. Very tough with good wear resistance.
101 is basically 52100, so you'll find more about that with that name. It may be slightly modified and with a great heat treat.
Same thing for the sr77 and S7. These are shock steels. Great for impacts.

CPM 3v is almost as good with shock, while being between D2 and M4 in wear resistance.

Stainless:
S30V is the best stainless listed

154cm, bg42, and ats34 are all very similar (154cm is USA version/ats34 is Japanese version of same steel)
These are all decent steels. Old recipe, easy to sharpen, will rust with neglect. Don't confuse 154cm with CPM154. While they are the same formula, CPM154 uses Crucible's particle technology and will be similar to S30V.

There are 3 big things with steel: corrosion resistance, toughness, wear resistance. With the carbon steels you listed, you give up corrosion resistance for the other 2. Same trade with the stainless steels. You lose toughness for corrosion resistance.
Click to expand...
This was very helpful. Thanks for your time.
 
If you can oil your blade once in a while, CPM 3v is about the best you'll find. I think it is "stain-resistant"; meaning not quite stainless. It will be difficult to sharpen though. Perfect for fixed blades, especially larger ones.

If you want stainless, shoot for something CPM too. The ones ending in "v" (s30v, s90v, s110v) will hold edges and be harder to sharpen as you go through that order. CPM154 is nice too. Great for folders.
 
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"Best" at what? For my uses, I need something with outstanding corrosion resistance. Since sharpening doesn't seem all that hard for me even with extremely wear resistant steels, I like steels like S110V, S90V, and CTS-20CP with 9% vanadium content. M390 is also good since it seems like a good "all-rounder" with decent toughness, great wear resistance, high attainable hardness(RC 60-62), and great corrosion resistance. Toughness doesn't really matter to me, as I don't do hard enough cutting to need it.
 
It boils down to what you like in a steel, what your using it for and how it was heat treated.

I have had most of the super steels listed and thought no better of INFI than the SR101 or the SR77 used on the next lines down in the Busse knives, those are all very good steels.

In real world use you are going to be hard pressed to find a functional difference between the Uber steels and say a good high carbon steel like 1085-1095. Actually, to be blunt, the CPM steels are awesome to brag about on forum boards but in practical use, they suck, are hard to sharpen, the S30V's I have come across chip out under hard use and can be brittle.

For a laminated steel, I like the 420 sandwiched VG1 of the San Mai 3 of Cold Steel, it seems to hold an edge well (not as well as the VG10 cored laminates).

This is all just from personal experience camping and edc'n knives for a long time.

The steel gods like Knarfeng and Ank will break it on down to the microscopic levels and youtube videos to prove their points.
 
Hadji Flip Me Over said:
There's a couple of steels out there that I'm not very familiar with. I'm hoping you guys can put them in order of what you think is the best, or just say what you think is best in the list. Here we go (in no particular order):

INFI (or SR-77/101)
S30V
Various San Mai steels
ATS34
BG42
154CM
D2
etc.
Click to expand...

Best for what use, you have stainless and non stainless in there and is it that you really want to know?

Some of those steels are so close in performance that under normal use most people could never tell the differences between them if the steel info wasn't printed on the blades.
 
Zombie Zeke said:
In real world use you are going to be hard pressed to find a functional difference between the Uber steels and say a good high carbon steel like 1085-1095. Actually, to be blunt, the CPM steels are awesome to brag about on forum boards but in practical use, they suck, are hard to sharpen, the S30V's I have come across chip out under hard use and can be brittle.
Click to expand...

You are right in saying that one might be hard-pressed to notice a difference in many of the higher-quality steels. In comparing high-quality steels, CPM steels are at the top of the game. S30V with a good heat treatment shouldn't be brittle. There is a youtube video of a guy testing ZT's. He batons them through the all kinds of things, including steel bolts. The S30V blade tested did very well.

It's hard to get into these kinds of conversations without pissing matches and "I know best" or "from my vast experience" type of thing.
 
I put alot of stock in the heat treat, but thats been played before

The "best" I own is CPM3V, seems awesome
 
Here's my .02, of course a lot depends on edge geometry and heat treat...

INFI (or SR-77/101)-
on a continuum, Toughest SR-77(S7)>INFI>SR-101(52100)>1095 Edge Holding SR-101(52100)>INFI>1095>SR-77(S7)
S30V Good All arounder, had chipping problems several years ago when it first came out and manufacturers were still getting the heat treat down, works great now though, perceptible step up from 154cm, ats-34, bg-42 in edge holding, but equal in just about everything else.

Various San Mai steels- san mai just means layered/sandwiched so it depends on what the outside layer steel is and the inside layer steel is, usually a softer tougher steel on the outside, like 420J2 or Vg-1 or Vg-10, and something harder with good edge holding on the inside like Vg-10, zdp-189, SGPS.

ATS34-japanese version of 154cm, no noticeable difference
BG42-halfway between ats-34/154cm and s30v
154CM=ats-34
D2- basically s30v minus some corrosion resistance and 1/4 step up in edge holding, toothier edge, maybe a slightly tougher.
 
Zombie Zeke said:
In real world use you are going to be hard pressed to find a functional difference between the Uber steels and say a good high carbon steel like 1085-1095. Actually, to be blunt, the CPM steels are awesome to brag about on forum boards but in practical use, they suck, are hard to sharpen, the S30V's I have come across chip out under hard use and can be brittle.
Click to expand...
This has not been my experience at all. They sharpen fine and the S30V blades I've owned were thin slicers and not "heavy use" knives. Use the steel for what it's designed for and you won't have a problem.

As for what steel is the best that's not a question that can be answered IMO. Knives consist of 4 things. Steel, heat treat, geometry, and a user who isn't a dink. All 4 need to work together for a knife to be good. If one of those is sub-par, the knife will suck plain and simple.
 
San-mai is a type of "Awase" or cladding, the others being warikomi and ni-mai. It has nothing to do with steel qualities, the core (or hagane) can be any alloy listed above.
Here's a diagram to make things clearer - Japanese knife cladding types.
 
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