Stainless & tool steels are more dense/heavy than simple carbon steels...right?

V

VanDammet

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Jun 30, 2015
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This is a hyper-dorky question, even within our wonderful world of knives, so forgive me, but I've heard several fairly prominent folks talk about this lately, and I think they've got it backwards, so I'm reaching out to you guys for confirmation.

I'm hearing that stainless & tool steels are lighter than "forgeable" steels...guys are swinging knives around & claiming that they can feel a difference in the heft between knives made with simple carbon steels & the fancy pants alternatives - the higher alloy steels. I may be completely wrong about this, but aren't alloy steels a bit more dense/heavy than simple steels? Is it that we see more of the larger knives made from simple steels & therefore we're conditioned to believe that they're heavier? Is it that alloy steels sometimes allow makers to go with relatively thinner stocks vs. simple steels when building knives that are otherwise the same size/lengths/etc.? Or is it that I've just got it wrong and these Youtubers are correct??
 
Hmmm ... a quick Google search on the Specific Gravity and Density of various steels shows they are very similar.

Iron - SG: 7.85 kg/cu m , D: .284 lb/cu in

1075 - 7.7~8.03 , .278~.290

440 - 7.6 , .275

M4 - 7.92 , .286

Essentially, there's a maximum of a quarter ounce (.240) variance in a solid cubic inch between them.

Maybe if there were identical large blades of various steels, you might tell a slight difference but not which was stainless vs carbon. (Well, maybe. If you knew which steels were used and the SG of each. Maybe.)

But a 3" folder? I doubt it.
 
I'd guess one would need something like T1 ( 18% Tungsten) before the weight difference became noticeable. It's the elements in the alloy after all, right? Of course people can do unusual things at times. It's not something I would bet on. Because one person can't notice a difference I wouldn't bet another person would be the same.
 
Here's an example...

Kabar's BK9 is 14.75" of 1095CV and weighs 16.8oz.

Carbon 1095 has a density of .284 lb/cu in or 4.544 oz/cu in.

Stainless S35VN has a density of .270 lb/cu in or 4.32 oz/cu in.

At 16.8 oz, the BK9 is made from 3.697 cu in of 1095.

If the BK9 were made from 3.697 cu in of S35VN, it would weigh 15.97 oz, just 0.83 oz lighter.

That you could probably tell swinging it around.

A knife half the size of the 9" BK9, like the 4.4" BK16, the difference is just 0.415 oz. That would be much harder to detect.


Ain't math fun?! ;)
 
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