Stainless Steel Classification SF 100

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I dunno, I can't think of any other manufacturers using it. 12C27 is used quite a bit, though.
 
Phillip Patton said:
There's more to wear resistance than Rockwell hardness alone. 440c, because of the higher carbon content, would have more carbide volume than 440a.
Can you point to some hard data that shows that 13C26 is more wear resistant than O1? I really don't know anything about 13C26, so I can't really argue against it....
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I drew my conclusion from the rope testing of Phil Wilson and Wayne Goddard. I have not seen Phil's results of 440C testing but he did test AEB-L against 154CM and Wayne Goddard tested 440C against 154CM and AEB-L is either equal to or better than 440C in their rope cutting test. Wayne Goddard and Phil Wilson use very similar methods of rope cutting. You're right that there is more to wear resistance than hardness, 440C is more wear resistant than AEB-L even when two or three points softer, what I said is that hardness will be the more important mechanism here. It depends on the test though, and at which point you consider dull.

There is a wear resistance chart from Uddeholm that shows AEB-L being considerably more wear resistant than 1095. There is CATRA testing from Verhoeven where AEB-L beats out the 52100, and the CATRA testing is essentially a wear resistance test, in my opinion. I also know of a chart comparing the wear resistance of 52100 and O1, O1 is not as much more wear resistant than 52100 as I had thought. My father has the CATRA test, I have been unable to find where to find this journal on the internet, maybe I just haven't searched well enough though. I can give the link to the wear resistance number of O1 and 52100 if you want though.

You may see that there is a fair amount of conjecture in my conclusions. You can take them for what they are worth.
 
Culpeper said:
John Nowill & Sons out of Sheffield, England is manufacturing knives with SF 100 stainless steel. I never heard of it before. I do know that it is .67% carbon and 13.02% chromium. I think it is so-called "surgical grade" stainless steel but does anyone know what the American or other equivalent grade could be?
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Culpeper said:
Learn something new everyday. Well, we got two guys, both leaders in their fields, discovering stainless steel about the same time...



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Brearley



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elwood_Haynes

What knives do we normally see made of 440A. I've assumed kitchen cutlery and so forth. Especially, home kitchen cutlery because they have to stand up to dishwasher abuse.

BTW, stay away from Frost Cutlery products. I've seen their Hen&Rooster so-called 440A made in China steak knives rust up the edges the first few times in a dishwasher. They can't be real 440A they are using. That stuff is just plain junk. I'm getting sick and tired of all this Chinese crap floating around. On the other hand, I have some inexpensive Victorinox kitchen knives that have been holding up very well.

But back on Sheffield and stainless steel. I've just recently purchased a knife set on the cheap that is Sheffield stainless. These were made in the 1960s. Of course, I'm going to run them through the dishwasher and see how they hold up.

Kershaw is one knife producer that uses 13C26. I'm sure there a lot more out there.

http://www.knivesunlimited.com/folding-knives/everyday-knives/kershawkostormiik1475st.cfm#navbar=a
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Dear all's,
I wold like to clarify your discussions concerning the knives grades. Manies grades used today to produce blades have never be created to produce this kind of devices, this is an important issue. Probably more than 65% of these grade of course can be used to produce tools or blades having enough hardeness but the target of thier Chemical mix are not to produce fines blades but more compact tools stamping etc.
The essential metallurgical target of an "cutting" steel in the Martensite family is to have a very dense distribution of secondary Carbide with an minimum spread on the size of these elements. Of course more they are smalls better it is because they are to "tool" who help the blade to have a cutting capabilty. Any deviation on these Carbide destroy the edge retention, like the Primary Carbide. These Primary Carbide are in general created during the melting process and is very complicate to avoid them if during the melting process the temperature is not monitored in a good way.
Due the fact than alls the grades like 440A-B-C or the SF100 and others who do not have a target to produce knives during the melting process no one take care of this issue, by the way not easy at all to manage.

Some one mention the Sandvik 12C27M this grade is the most popular Sandvik grade and he have been qualified recently in Europe ( between 50 differents grades) in the industrialS butcheries thanks his long edge retention and the quality of the cutting path. This was an important improvement in this segment with clear results by the reduction of the RSI and an improvement od 20% of the productivity. This grades is used today by the main French ( since around 15 years) and Scandinavian knives makers (since last century)

After all's these word, answer to this simple questions: What are the grades used to produce razor blades or medical scalpel around the world ? Who are the grade so "cleans" able to be cold rolled up to 74-76 microns in fact they are not more than 3 or 4 and only 2 are used around the worls by the major producers of razor blades or surgical scalpel.
99% of the volume of the Sandvik 13C26 to day is used to produce razor blades, a very low part of it is used to produce blades, some one mention one knife produce by Kershaw but I think this was another grade call Sandvik 14C28 who have a better corrosion resistance. The 13C26 can be recomanded to produce hunting knives, but not any more since the launch of the Sandvik 10C28Mo2.
The last grade created by Sandvik (This company produce blades since 1862, they start with wood saw blades) Is the Sandvik 10C28Mo2. This grade combine the performances of an Sandvik 13C26 with the Sandvik 7C27Mo2 used to produce cutting tools for food industry . This new grade can be cold rolled up to 74 microns but also in 3-3,5 mm having a perfect and clean structure to produce fantastic knives for general applications with a very long edge retention and important issue due his fine structure can be re-sharp in a easy way despite an hardness up to 60-61 HRc.

Of course remember than the hardening process is very important to keep the nominal performances of the steel, Corrosion resistance, and blade ductility.

Is not so easy to found the Sandvik grades in US, but you can found in Europe in two locations one in France another in Italy where is possible to purchase from few kgs.
 
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Concerning the wear resistance of the differents grades discuss above, 440A, FS100, 154CM and many others, the only way to compare in a good way is the process set up by the CATRA in UK, all's other tests are not objective.

To have a wear resistant grade the hardness is not an issue, what you have to look is the Seconday Carbide sizes, form and spread on the matrix only and of course no Primary Carbide, and of course a good hardening process. Forget alls the grades like 440 A-B-C, FS100 etc they are full of Primary Carbide and impossible to re-sharp in a good way. They are very hard of course due the high Carbon content and you can cut what do you want but need to be re-sharp and to do that in a good way is not so easy.

The best example was made longtime ago with a comparative test made by the CATRA in UK where a blade made in 1095 ( with 1% of Carbone) and the Sandvik grade 12C27: Result 500 cuts with the 12C27 with an hardness of 58,5 HRc and only 50 with a blade in 1095 with an hardness of 60,5 HRc.
 
Since Culpeper was banned from this site and hasn't visited it since 2009 I don't think he will be coming back to read your comments. And it was mete who mentioned 12C27 and he is unfortunately no longer with us.
 
Welcome Lorenzo.
This is a very old thread. It was started 13 years ago. It was only discussed for a week.
 
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