Steel comparisons

[Pete1977]

I was curious to the types of stainless steels used in knives today. what are the differences, pros and cons to the varied range of steels in production knives?

here is a partial list I'm curious about
440A
440C
AUS-6
AUS-8
AUS-10
ATS-34
ATS-55
154CM
BG-42
VG-10
H-1

feel free to add any I've missed if you are a fan

thanks
Peter

 

[klattman]

Steel FAQ: Joe Talmadge (2002) covers most of these.
http://www.edcknives.com/pdf-files/Steel_v2.pdf

old version (1998):
http://www.bladeforums.com/features/faqsteel.shtml

This should really be updated on the Bladeforums FAQ site...

 

[Quiet Storm]

Joe's steel FAQ is great!

This should really be updated on the Bladeforums FAQ site...

Ditto!

 

[madcap_magician]

I found these a while ago...

http://users.ameritech.net/knives/steels.htm

http://www.agrussell.com/knife_information/knife_encyclopedia/articles/steel.html

 

[lasersailor184]

On the Kershaw website, they have a huge breakdown of all the steels with hardnesses, chemical compounds and the like. But they don't break it down and actually describe the steel.

 

[dialex]

The hardness is a delicate matter. You can have the same steel with different hrc's form one producer to another, or even at the same manufacturer. Different models, or even different batches of the same model, where the hardness varies.