Stainless choices

Los Angeles said:
Is it possible that 440C gets a bad rep because of it's lowly sisters 440A and 440B?

I know a lot of crappy chinese knives just say "440" on them, I've run into a few of these in downtown L.A. They do this to try to raise their products up, but end up just pulling 440C down.

For this reason alone, part of me would just rather use a different steel.
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That may be why knifemakers stay away from it. I am sure to make people aware that there is a difference and many knives I have on my table are ATS34 just so I can save my breath on the subject.

What someone needs to do is reformulate 440C just a little and give it a new fancy name. Then again we already have CPM154.
 
13c26 gets my vote even though most of the knives I make are ats, never
used anything cleaner, easier to grind, or a wicked thin edge, that being said I think it will rust sooner than some of the others.
Ken.
 
cfendley said:
What someone needs to do is reformulate 440C just a little and give it a new fancy name. Then again we already have CPM154.
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Man, after reading Larrin's post a while back they have already done it. Does anyone know where to get this powdered 440C in small enough quantities we could try it out? This sounds ideal for a kitchen knife, or all custom knives for that matter.
http://www.cartech.com/ssalloysprod.aspx?id=3696
 
cfendley said:
Man, after reading Larrin's post a while back they have already done it. Does anyone know where to get this powdered 440C in small enough quantities we could try it out? This sounds ideal for a kitchen knife, or all custom knives for that matter.
http://www.cartech.com/ssalloysprod.aspx?id=3696
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In additional to that there is also Carpenter CTS-XHP which is the powder, higher-carbon reformulation of 440C. It has similar corrosion resistance but can get harder because of more carbon.
 
Interesting. Heat treat similar to 440? or are there alloying elements that change the relelvant temperatures/soak times?

-Page
 
I'm not sure but I'd bet its the same. I haven't seen their heat treat info yet, I assume they have it. The CPM heat treats the same so I would think theirs does as well.
 
So where do folks recommend getting 13c26?
Sounds like a win. A steel designed for creating opthalmological surgical blades with extremely fine carbides sounds like just the ticket for holding a very fine edge

-Page
 
cotdt said:
I second the AEB-L/13C26, but it only really performs when heat treated to higher hardness. The production knives that use this steel isn't representative of what the steel is capable of in terms of performance. ...and is very tough.
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How hard are you referring, and could you define "performance"?
 
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