Steel for chef knife

B

beaster456

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Dec 30, 2012
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I want to make my mom a chef knife for Christmas and I'm not sure what steel to pick. I want a stainless to make less work for her. I've heard good things about AEB-L, is that a good choice? Also what is a good place to send out for heat treat?
 
CPM S35VN is excellent ! Peter's HT in PA is a good source.
 
AEB-L makes a lot of sense for the average user. Very corrosion-resistant, reasonably tough, easy to get a fine edge on, not difficult to sharpen. In fact you might be surprised how many very expensive custom kitchen knives are made of AEB-L. ;)

CPM-S35VN, CPM-154 and ELmax are all great choices too. A bit harder to sharpen but the edges last longer.

Peters' does all my HT.
 
AEB-L is a great, great choice. If you can't find it, 13c26 is pretty darn close. While I have zero experience with the S35VN, the reports are awesome. You couldn't go wrong with either, and I would add Elmax as well. If I was making a stainless chef's knife for myself, I would probably go with AEB-L/13C26 or Elmax. I am simply amazed at how well AEB-L takes a super fine edge, and keeps it very well. The corrosion resistance is superb. I think that many knifemakers would probably go with S35VN over the others mentioned, it is very popular now. You can't go wrong with any quality stainless out there. I'm just not a fan of 440 and 420 series stainless.
 
samuraistuart said:
You can't go wrong with any quality stainless out there. I'm just not a fan of 440 and 420 series stainless.
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Agreed :thumbup:

Hesparus said:
AEB-L will make a great knife. I'm not prepared to debate its merits vs CPMs35vn or CPM154 or anything else, but it will make a great knife. Devin Thomas swears by it http://www.devinthomas.com/faq.cfm
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That link is an excellent explanation of why AEB-L/13C26 does what it does, so well. It also happens to be remarkably affordable :)
 
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Also, If I choose AEB-L, where can I send it to be heat treated? Peter's Heat treat doesn't list it.
 
Peters' will do it, I assure you. They could not possibly list every steel they can HT. When in doubt, call them and ask. They're pretty awful at answering e-mails.
 
AEB-L is Roman Landes recommended stainless steel because of the very fine edge it will take. CPM-S35VN is another excellent choice because it has a fine edge, excellent corrosion resistance, and excellent edge retention. I am making a batch of kitchen knives in AEB-L to compare the two after spending some time in discussion with Roman. I have used CPM-S35VN for years with superb results, but Roman says I can get a sharper edge with AEB-L.

Personally, I doubt any person without his laboratory could tell them apart on a well made blade. Peter's HT is the place for top notch HT on either of these steels.
 
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