Sandvik Hardening Guide

A few more, Thom.
Kabar (mabe by tecnocut in Italy)
Queen has (had?) made a couple slippies in 12C27
Theuns Prinsloo
 
Thanks, Broos!

I've heard the Next Gen used to be made with 12C27. My googlefu shall be trained (already found a booboo snipper!).
 
Hi Guys,
Haha, you guys know more makers than me. Some steel is sold through distributors, especially in Europe, so I dont have all the names. Or at least had, now I have a pretty complete list I'd say.

Regards
//Jerker
 
hardheart said:
*slaps forehead*
stainless Opinels
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Thank you so much for this info.

I knew Opinels were Sandvik, but did not know specifically that they were 12C27 - what a pleasent surprise.

I have always thought stainless steel Opinels were great - much prefering them over the much praised carbon steel version - they are some of the sharpest knives I have - now I know why :o

--
Vincent
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IIRC, the carbon Opinels are 1075, so I don't know why either would be sharper than the other. :confused:

Getting me some AEB-L chef knives soon. Wish they were 13C26, but it's nigh impossible to get the larger manufacturers to buy 13C26 once they get their hands on 19C27 (also great steel, just not 13C26 great).
 
thombrogan said:
IIRC, the carbon Opinels are 1075, so I don't know why either would be sharper than the other. :confused:
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Thom,

I agree, this is the way I always felt about the Opinels - the stainless steel versions were on par with the plain carbon -
but one only has to look back at discussions where the the overwhelming opinion here seems to be that the plain carbon was far superior to the stainless (some were not that complimentary about Opinel stainless) - I wonder if that would be different if it was better known that stainless Opinels were Sandvik 12C27?

--
Vincent
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It could be that way and I must admit that's why I chose a carbon one, too. :o Then again, it could be people seeing 0.75% carbon in one and 0.6% carbon in the other and making their choice based merely on those numbers without considering the effect of the alloying elements beyond corrosion resistance. I've seen folks ask Kershaw to "upgrade" from 13C26 to 19C27, so who knows? I even pestered poor Mr. Welk to consider switching from 154CM to 12C27 on their ZT0500 folder, but I don't pay his mortgage or have influence over the steels most ZT customers prefer.
 
thombrogan said:
I've seen folks ask Kershaw to "upgrade" from 13C26 to 19C27, so who knows?
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19C27 isn't blankable, so they would never switch to 19C27. They're already making the switch to 14C28N. Also, 14C28N is more corrosion resistant than 13C26 while 19C27 has less corrosion resistance than both. For mass produced knives sold at places like Wal-Mart, high corrosion resistance is a must.
 
Often say "never," but I don't consider 19C27 an upgrade anyways*. I've been very pleased with their 13C26 and can't wait to see how the 14C28N fares.

*= I really like 19C27 and the steels that mirror its composition, but I like 13C26 more.
 
So now I have my kitchen knives in AEB-L (sorry, Jerker) and they're magnificent (though there's a chefs knife in 13C26 I'm checking on) and my Laguiole DuBost is a very enjoyable pocketknife (is it the 12C27 and its carefree edges or is it the bumblebee?) as well as many fine Kershaws in 13C26 as well. I'm very, very impressed with these Swedish strip steels and can't wait to try more knives made from them.
 
Thanks, Jerker. Very interesting discussion, it's great to have a real-life representative of Sandvik here on BFC.

thombrogan said:
I'm very, very impressed with these Swedish strip steels and can't wait to try more knives made from them.
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Exactly the way I feel. These Sandvik steels have really changed my thinking, I just don't find myself particularly interested in anything else anymore.
 
Jerker,
Can you explain how you came up with your ratings on edge stability? I have looked into this and asked about this steel characteristic but have not got any detailed information on how it is determined or tested beyond Mr. Landes' descriptions provided here a while back (he described a test that applied a lateral load on the knife edge, but didn't explain how the results are measured or observed). I'd be interested to hear how you have rated this, or any insight you have on it.
Thanks!
 
Broos said:
Jerker,
Can you explain how you came up with your ratings on edge stability? I have looked into this and asked about this steel characteristic but have not got any detailed information on how it is determined or tested beyond Mr. Landes' descriptions provided here a while back (he described a test that applied a lateral load on the knife edge, but didn't explain how the results are measured or observed). I'd be interested to hear how you have rated this, or any insight you have on it.
Thanks!
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I'm sorry I'm not Jerker, but the Sandvik grades are easy to rank in edge stability because the more carbon it has the greater the carbide size and volume, with most of them having very tiny carbides, but 19C27 has a few larger ones. Carbide size and volume are the main things controlling edge stability. When carbides in the steels have a small variation in size, and the average size is all that changes from steel to steel, they are easy to compare such as 12C27 vs. CPM-154, where the average carbide size of 12C27 is uner 1 micron, and CPM-154 is around 4-6 microns on average; of course the 12C27 has greater toughness and edge stability, and the CPM-154 will have greater wear resistance due to the greater volume of carbides. Where the difficulty comes in is where a steel has a smaller volume of carbides but some are larger, such as 19C27, which has around half of the volume of carbides as CPM-154, and the average size is smaller, but there are some larger carbides. In general in reading Roman's book it seems that the smaller volume of carbides wins, though I assume this isn't always the case, as according to Landes CPM-154 has relatively poor edge stability (or at least RWL-34 does), though of course the edge stability and toughness is greater than plain 154CM or ATS-34.
 
I understand the theory. Like Broos, I was hoping for measurements and techniques by which they were obtained.
 
Thanks for your thoughts, Larrin. It would be interesting to learn more about it.
 
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