Rust vs. egde

H

Hawkings

Joined
Mar 31, 2006
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880
Well I'm not sure if this is the right forum or not but here goes.

To start off I'll say that I have knifes in diffrents steels, high carbon and stainless alike.

Now what I like to know is this, I have seen a lot of post where the person is asking opion on a survival/EDC knife or a pure survival knife. And the general opion is that a non-stainless, with a high egde holding steel is the way to go here.

This seems strange to me (But I'll etmit that I have no survival knoglegde what so ever ) As I would think that a stainless steel would be better because you would not have to clean the blade every time you had used it (and in a survival situation , might not have the means or the extra resourses) And a dirty high carbon steel = rust. And a rustie egde = dull egde.
Another point is that in general (yes yes a big general I know) the better egde holding the harder it is to sharpen.

So to clear up my point a little ( I hope) in terms of a survival knife steel
Non-stainless = a rustie dull knife
S30V = No rust, but you may not have the means sharpen it when it goes dull.
SAK steel (No, not the knifes, but the steel its made of) =No rust, and once it goes dull, you would be able use a natural stone ( Or other common resours) to get a workable egde (Not shaving sharp, but cutting sharp)

I'm sure I'm wrong here, but I like to know why I'm wrong.
 
Stainless blades require less care to prevent rust.

But many non-stainless steels have advantages over stainless steels.

Often (but not always) a carbon or tool steel is tougher than any decent stainless steel.

It is easier to prevent rust than it is to sharpen out a chipped edge.

Both stainless and non-stainless steels have pros and cons. They both have their place.
 
The main problem is that stainless steels are generally significantly more brittle than properly heat-treated carbon steels. A snapped blade is the last thing you'd want in a SHTF scenario.

Also, most carbon steel survival knives have a fairly durable coating (Swamp Rat, Becker,...) that helps keep rust at bay.
 
I guess my comment would be that yes stainless is great, but people were using knives for "survival" long before stainless ever came to be. The difference is that they understood that you have to take care of it. Yes the carbon steel blade will tarnish/stain, but if you wipe them down or take care of them in some way, they are great. Steven
 
Hawkings said:
SAK steel (No, not the knifes, but the steel its made of) =No rust, and once it goes dull, you would be able use a natural stone ( Or other common resours) to get a workable egde (Not shaving sharp, but cutting sharp)
Click to expand...

What you said about being able to sharpen a knife on a rock you find in the wild is true, but I have noticed that many carbon steels sharpen up like SAK steel, but hold the edge much longer. My ideal survival blade is a 4" carbon steel mora. I usually carry a diamond stone or sand paper with it, but I can sharpen a mora blade on a smooth stone as easly as a 440A blade. That being said, I would much prefer a SAK steel blade if my kit was going to be around salt water.
 
I've had A2 and M2 edges go duller from being stored in such a way that the edge wasn't wiped down with what was on the rest of the blade. That certainly wasn't the steels fault, it was mine. I no longer make that mistake, even on axes.

Different kinds of steels have strengths and weaknesses. Carbon steels will go dull just sitting in a closet or safe. Despite that I still prefer them. JL
 
My $.02. A 'survival' knife is usually exposed to more abuse than a pocket knife used to cut up cardboard. People generally use carbon steel because it can withstand more lateral stress and just plain heavy abuse better than most stainless.
 
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