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Recommendation? Stainless for big mean bowie knives

B

BrunoS

Joined
Dec 17, 2014
Messages
43
I was wondering between Elmax, svn30, svn35, 154cm and 440c which one would be the most suitable for making a general purpouse bowie knife with a blade lenght between 9”-13”, I would use it mostly for chopping and whittling while camping but also as a self defense tool. Im worried about choosing a steel that is not tough enough to withstand heavy use. Also high carbon steels are just not an option. Thanks! (I know it depends a lot of the heat treating but lets just asume each steel would be correctly heat treated)
 
Of those I would pick the S35vn...probably the best performer for stainless from those choices.
 
CPM154 gets another vote from me.
BTW the whole "self defense" thing IMO matters little when making a knife. A pointy stick will pierce flesh just as easily as any steel.
 
I believe Elmax is supposed to be one of the toughest stainless PM steels.

154cm is notoriously tough, so CPM154 is likely even better. 440c is also supposed to be quite tough when heat treated properly to bring out that characteristic.

Definitely wouldn't prefer s30v in my larger knives, with s35vn being the exception. Even then I wouldn't prefer the s30v-s125v family for larger knives, even if s35vn would be decent.
 
Crucible says that CPM 154 is their "toughest" PM stainless at the expense of a bit of abrasion resistance compared to 35VN or 30V. 35Vn is supposedly kind of the in between steel of those 3.
 
Like they say about a West Virginia marriage, it's all relative........:p
Larrin said:
Everyone called me crazy when I said that PM stainless steels are regularly recommended for high toughness. I see that I am still quite sane.
Click to expand...
 
Sure its not S7 or 3v, but if cpm154 is tougher than O1, that deserves to be called tough.
The difference is "tough" vs "toughest"
If you manage to break cpm154 you were doing something seriously wrong.
 
My favorite stainless is CPM 154 but I use 440 C for all my large camp knives. The steel can be had at a bargain price and makes great knives that are going to be used heavily and roughly anyway. I don't disagree with all the suggestion here by the way but I used a ton of 440 C for years and most of my customers have asked for it. Larry
 
jdm61 said:
Crucible says that CPM 154 is their "toughest" PM stainless at the expense of a bit of abrasion resistance compared to 35VN or 30V. 35Vn is supposedly kind of the in between steel of those 3.
Click to expand...

That is exactly the experience I have had.
 
Geoff Flato said:
Sure its not S7 or 3v, but if cpm154 is tougher than O1, that deserves to be called tough.
The difference is "tough" vs "toughest"
If you manage to break cpm154 you were doing something seriously wrong.
Click to expand...
What makes you think it is tougher than O1?
 
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Larrin said:
What makes you think it is tougher than O1?
Click to expand...
Every chart and data sheet I've seen including crucibles own, in addition to having made at least 80-100 knives from each. Same geometry, same hardness, its noticeably harder to chip.
 
O1 isn't that tough of a steel period. I've never claimed cpm154 to be the toughest steel out there, but its much better than you seem to be giving it credit for. It is very fine grained, and tough enough to withstand anything in the realm of "knife" use. Even at rc61-62 its much harder to chip the edge than you'd expect
 
Geoff Flato said:
Every chart and data sheet I've seen including crucibles own, in addition to having made at least 80-100 knives from each. Same geometry, same hardness, its noticeably harder to chip.
Click to expand...
I don’t believe Cucible has released toughness numbers for CPM-154.
 
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