Something that's been annoying me for a while ...

The main places I've personally seen the 'stainless steel is inferior' argument in recent years has been in a few books on outdoors/hiking/camping, etc., in the chapters about equipment/knives, where the authors say that stainless steels won't take or hold an edge. The books in question are recent, so the authors who've said that are clearly way out of touch, and probably only parroting what they've heard about knives from decades ago.

On the opposite end, on forums, there are also those who say that only knives made from the very latest 'super' steels are of any use, and anything that isn't is junk steel. As if people in times past who actually used their knives hard for a living didn't know what they were doing at all. They will even refer to some steels that were recently considered 'super' as useless, because they're no longer the latest-greatest steel of the week.

Jim
 
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Hrimnir said:
As you also mentioned it's easy to get into a hobby and bechome hippstery.
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It's how it goes in any hobby. carbon steel v. stainless is no different than:
Ford v. Chevy
Harley v. Indian
9mm v. .45ACP
Apple v. Microsoft

etc... you get the idea.
 
The only place where I still really see the debate is with kitchen knives the carbon folks believe that one can get a sharper edge on a carbon knife even though it will not hold that edge like the super stainless steels and needs to be sharpen more often.
 
James Y said:
The main places I've personally seen the 'stainless steel is inferior' argument in recent years has been in a few books on outdoors/hiking/camping, etc., in the chapters about equipment/knives, where the authors say that stainless steels won't take or hold an edge. The books in question are recent, so the authors who've said that are clearly way out of touch, and probably only parroting what they've heard about knives from decades ago.

On the opposite end, on forums, there are also those who say that only knives made from the very latest 'super' steels are of any use, and anything that isn't is junk steel. As if people in times past who actually used their knives hard for a living didn't know what they were doing at all. They will even refer to some steels that were recently considered 'super' as useless, because they're no longer the latest-greatest steel of the week.

Jim
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When a "subject matter expert" writes on a topic that has been written on quite a lot, if they are not careful, they simply regurgitate what they have been taught. There is old and bad info in every field that gets handed gently to each new generation for safekeeping, but hasn't been relevant for a very long time. Especially when there is a topic that is just slightly adjacent to the main knowledge base. For example, I've still seen people describing what is possibly work-hardening as a risk when using aluminum caribiners over time. They don't know what it is, but they know that alloy 'biners should be retired. When, no one knows, but certainly they get microscopic fractures or something.... Load of old road apples for any modern gear. Unless there is physical damage, you're fine. Same thing for a great many other industries, ethanol in brand new cars, the various home remedies for every insect bite and sting known to mankind. All the stuff for protecting your carbon fiber fishing-rod that is from when they were first released onto the market and were a few days wage instead of a couple hours. Also its in some other expert's book, so I shouldn't contradict my idol, or worse, if I don't put it in, everyone will think I'm not as knowledgeable as my competitor! It creeps in everywhere if we are not careful. Joys of the internet "Citation Please".
 
Landshark99 said:
The only place where I still really see the debate is with kitchen knives the carbon folks believe that one can get a sharper edge on a carbon knife even though it will not hold that edge like the super stainless steels and needs to be sharpen more often.
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unless it's hitachi super blue or m4... (these non-stainless steels actually will kick butt from that perspective, but technically they are super-non-stainless; )
 
Regarding kitchen knives, my personal preference is neither straight carbon steel nor high-end, 'super steel' stainless. I prefer and use a 'simple', soft stainless (Victorinox kitchen knives). They work perfectly for my uses, hold an edge for a decent amount of time, and can be brought back to razor sharpness easily, in literally seconds, on my white Sharpmaker rods.

In the past, I tried some Old Hickory carbon steel kitchen knives, and found they weren't my preference.

Jim
 
All steel is carbon steel. Carbon is what turns iron into STEEL. Simple. How much carbon(and other elements) determines the characteristics of the end product. For all practical purposes, knife steels are all high carbon, tho a perfectly serviceable knife can be made from some of the so-called medium-carbon steel alloys. And then there are alloys like D2, considered SEMI-stainless to think about. A wise man (Blackie Collins) once told me that there's no such thing as a bad knife steel. If an alloy, stainless or not, can be hardened above about 54-55RC, it will make a decent knife, if the maker does HIS job, with a proper heat treat for the intended usage. Most of the 'carbon' knife steels, as well as some of the stainless steels, are relatively simple alloys, and are generally fairly easy to heat treat. The better stainless alloys require more attention to details in HT to get the best results. But if a knife fails on you, the alloy is the last thing you should be worried about. Extenuating circumstances aside, it generally means that either your cutting technique sucks, or you picked the wrong tool for the job.

Most of my folders are stainless. Generally 440C or thereabouts, although I really do like Mcusta's VG-10/stainless damascus knives, as well as the Kershaw Shallot with ZDP-189 edge and 420J, IIRC, for the rest of the blade. Right now I am carrying a Buck 110 with a 5160 blade. I generally prefer that steel for bigger blades, but trust the Bos heat-treating in the Buck. My bigger fixed blades are split about evenly between stainless and not stainless. I'm not a steel snob. But I do like good quality cutting tools.
 
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Opinions and armadillos... Everyone has one. Or something...

A lot of the 'stainless is inferior' stuff, I think, came from knife makers from the sixties and seventies. A lot of them didn't know how to work with stainless, or didn't like working with it, and the superiority of the old familiar steels became part of their sales pitch. I remember reading something in a catalog where Bo Randall was talking about stainless. Stainless blades were more costly because they were hard to grind, and really rough on wheels. When you've got big name makers saying something, it stays said. Once these guys discovered sanding belts things changed, but the conventional wisdom continued to be absolute truth.

Also bear in mind that stainless is often harder to sharpen than non-stainless blades. Considering that the average Joe doesn't seem to know how to sharpen a knife of any kind these days, the inferiority of stainless idea just hangs on. Most of the folks who hang out here could put a shaving edge on a popsicle stick, so different blade steels aren't going to be a factor to us.

I don't have a preference for either of the broad categories of steels, nor do I really care about "high end" steels. The knife I've carried for nearly twenty years now is a Henckels stockman with carbon steel blades. It's a corroded mess... Excuse me, I meant a nicely patinaed masterpiece. It sharpens beautifully, and cuts like a dream. My Buck knives I use for hunting also take great edges. They're all fine knives.
 
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