Some questions on Japanese steel

V

viking252200

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Mar 2, 2009
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The summer holiday is coming up and for a month and a half, I'll just be twiddling my thumbs...so I came up with this crazy idea of making a knife:D

However, living as I do, in Japan, the access to steel is rather limited, but they do have some steels that I, despite searching, can't really find any info on..

I plan to make a bushcraft knife with a 4-5 inch blade..

The steels that I can get are:

ATS-34
440C
D-2
0-1
VG-10
CRMO-7
CV-134
HMS-67

Those last 3 steel, have left me stumped...I can't find any info on them:confused:

Has anyone heard of these steels before?

Of the above mentioned steels, which one would you choose?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!
 
I would use either 01 or D2 because they are both tough steels.The D2 will be the harder of the 2 to sharpen though
 
I learned that ATS34 is a steel used by Benchmade. I have Gerber I really like and I have proven that the Gerber 440C is harder than any other 440C in any of te shops. The only knife that made a mark in my Gerber was a benchmade and the Bench came out without the slightest mark. GREAT STAINLESS blade steel but I am sure there are harder high carbon stainless.

Think of the cost tradeoffs. For some of that steel you will have buy the entire piece of raw stock. 2 or 3 hundred bucks for some of that stuff! That is part of your comparison. I think ease of sharpening is a less weighty issue.
Good luck on your project.

John
 
I would go with ATS-34.
It is reasonably tough,takes a good edge, is stainless, and reasonably priced. It works with hand tools fairly easily,too. HT can be done by any commercial HT vendor.
 
Being in Japan, have you thought about using the blue or white steels? Or are they harder to get/more expensive than the rest? I think the big factor in your decision would be the access to heat treatment. The first 4 you list require slightly different temps and techniques with O1 being the easiest I believe. Not sure about the last 4 though.
 
Unless you outsource the heat treating, or you have a numeric control electric oven, most steels you cited are too difficult to use, as they require strict heat treating.
I'm sure you can find very good plain carbon steel in the .50-.85 range in Japan.
 
tattooedfreak said:
Being in Japan, have you thought about using the blue or white steels? Or are they harder to get/more expensive than the rest? I think the big factor in your decision would be the access to heat treatment. The first 4 you list require slightly different temps and techniques with O1 being the easiest I believe. Not sure about the last 4 though.
Click to expand...

blue and white steel are hard to get, even for japanese knife makers
 
if I'm not mistaken, there's a knife store in Ginza near the Kabuki-ka that sells knifemaking supplies.
 
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