Steel Snobs

yobbos1

yobbos1

Joined
Mar 29, 2002
Messages
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Anyone else here a fan of cheap steels? I mean for their sharpenability, abusability and affordability?
Gerber LST and EZ Out-(400 series crap).
Okapi carbon-1085 rockwell 52ish.
Opinel-who knows high carbon steel.
Buck's amazing 420hc stuff.
Douk-Douk carbon steel (dunno what the stuff is but you can shave with it!).
The people who rave about the modern super steels have a point the stuff is pretty incredible with edge holding but some of it tarnishes/stains in a similar fashion to old 1095 (ATS 34) and some of it can be brittle (a certain high end manufacturer's ATS 34) and some of it scratches really easily (VG 10). If you're into the zen of freehand sharpening like I am, the cheaper steels and the lower cost assosiated with them start to look like the best choice overall.
We are talking here about a tool with a predictably short lifespan at least if it is an EDC.
 
I'm sure the die-hard users of bronze said the same type of comments about steel. ;)

BTW - I don't consider 1085 to be a low end steel.
 
yobbos1 said:
Anyone else here a fan of cheap steels? I mean for their sharpenability, abusability and affordability?
Opinel-who knows high carbon steel.
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High carbon steels seem pretty good when properly treated and manufactured to high standards. Rust is the only issue.

yobbos1 said:
Buck's amazing 420hc stuff.
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I wonder about this steel - I don't know much about it. It beats the other notorious 420 steel - 420J2, that's for sure. It's easy to sharpen and takes a pretty decent edge so it seems alright to me.

yobbos1 said:
We are talking here about a tool with a predictably short lifespan at least if it is an EDC.
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An excellent point.
 
I expect my Opinels to wear out as they are used up, and the way they wear gives them individual character. That makes me happy.

I expect my Sebenza will last beyond my lifetime. That makes me happy.

Chris
 
Chuck Bybee said:
I don't consider 1085 to be a low end steel.
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It is certainly on the low end of price. The medium to high carbon plain steels like 1085 are what the really inexpensive machetes are made from.

-Cliff
 
I'm not a big fan of any particular type of steel. As far as I'm concerned it's just a matter of selecting the steel for the use more than anything. If I was going to be doing a lot of fishing I probably wouldn't want a knife with a steel that's likely to rust easily. If my wife wants a knife to dig in the garden with then all it needs to be is reasonably tough with a bit of flexibility, retaining a razor sharp edge for years is not required.

For my EDC folders S30V seems to be able to do everything I require, not especially difficult to sharpen and holds an edge for a good length of time. Any other steel type that could do the same would be fine by me.

The price of a steel, or whether or not it's the latest "fashion", is not the primary reason for my knife choices.
 
1084 is a high manganese deep hardening high Carbon spring steel. It is a very suitable steel for large high impact blades. It is very easy to differentially heat treat, edge quench, or soft back draw. As more and more of our steel is recycled it is getting difficult to obtain this clean material on the west coast. All tool steel prices have gone up a lot; like 50-200% depending on source and supplier. I've forged about two tons of 1080 that I bought for 26 cents a pound. I'm dreading paying $1.50-3.00 for more material for Damascus.
 
I like whatever steel suits the size and purposes, and price of a knife.
 
Ed Schempp said:
It is a very suitable steel for large high impact blades.
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No arguement here, the knife that it was used for in this thread however, fits neither catagory, nor is it forged. In any case, inexpensive doesn't mean low performance, often times cheaper materials are well suited for certain applications.

-Cliff
 
I've found the AUS8 in my CS Voyager to treat me very well.

Tip snapped off, but that happens to lots of guys I'm told...

It holds up well to my prying, screwdriving, etc. and keeps an edge well if you sharpen it right. Course it's fairly thick stuff.

"Lesser" steels have their place too. Opinels are razor sharp, and there are people carrying around Case knives with whatever stuff they use that are 20 years old. We didn't always have S30V, but people have gotten by just fine, so rock on 1085!

_z
 
PWork said:
Whatever it is that Victorinox uses works very well for me.

Paul
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2x that.
I'm thinking of picking up a Buck 55 in 420hc. Sure I would like to be able to build one of BG42 in their shoppe, but whatever. For a blade that size, the standard should do fine.
-KC
 
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