Steel with the best fine edge stability mixed with toughness

[Tin.Man]

Like the title says. Not stainless. Something you could take down to say 12-15 degrees a side and not be afraid to baby it.

Assuming geometry and heat treat are dead on to avoid those responses.

 

[SV-97]

Spyderco's ZDP-189. Also never had M4 chip(PM2 tip snapped though) but haven't used it as hard as ZDP

 

[Lapedog]

I believe 3v has high edge stability. It is also very tough.

 

[shqxk]

52100
W2
CruforgeV

I found low carbide carbon steel outperform most high alloy PM (3V, M4 etc.) when it come to very low degree angle.

All of these can be hardened to 62+ HRC while retained very reasonable toughness.

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

There are many. I like CPM-S35VN for a stainless with a good edge and toughness.

 

[Larrin]

Fine edge stability is often correlated with toughness.

 

[hugofeynman]

Vanadis 4 extra
A8mod
W2
52100
80crv2

 

[Willie71]

Z-wear. Hands down. Run it at Rc62-64.

W2 was my previous favorite, but z-wear easily outperforms W2 in both toughness and edge holding.

 

[Nathan the Machinist]

While the best fine edge stability I've ever tested was in W2, Vanadius 4 Extra (and its sister steel, 4V) are very close but substantially tougher and also have much greater abrasion resistance. V4E is pushing out M4 as the "king of steels" in cutting competitions. In moderate angle (15 DPS) and real world use I think you'd be hard pressed to find something with better edge stability. Mind you, this is very heat treat specific, you must use a HT optimized for knives. I've tested 4V and V4E with a wide range of heat treats under closely controlled testing parameters, I found you must use one of the low temper protocols with them to get the best results. Fortunately Peter's HT already has a good HT worked out for this material available to everyone.

 

[kuraki]

4V and Z wear in my limited experience seem to both shine as something tough enough to support a thin edge with increased wear resistance compared to high carbon low alloy steels.

 

[Don Hanson III]

Of all the basic carbon steels I've tested. W2 is tops in fine grain, edge stability & toughness at high hardness.

 

[DevinT]

Low alloy steels like 5160, 80crv2, 52100, and L6 are good. Good w2 is hard to come by.

A2 is a good one, 3v, 4v, pd1/z-wear were developed based on A2 composition and are also good.

Hoss

 

[jdm61]

One of the early knives that I made with your W2 and actually sold was a camp knife done in the cutting comp knife style. I sold it to a USMC colonel who had just gotten back from Iraq after doing a tour as an advisor to the Iraqi Army. He had chipped the blade on his 5160 Mineral Mountain bowie while cutting up a goat for an end of tour BBQ with his Iraqi troops. I told him to test the knife. He did so by hacking at a dead and pretty gnarly tree in his back yard in San Diego. passed with flying colors and that was when my HT was still rather imprecise. Heard a similar story from a guy i sold an ugly amber stag bowie to. He use it to hack up some kind of animal at a BBQ.

Of all the basic carbon steels I've tested. W2 is tops in fine grain, edge stability & toughness at high hardness.

 

[Willie71]

While the best fine edge stability I've ever tested was in W2, Vanadius 4 Extra (and its sister steel, 4V) are very close but substantially tougher and also have much greater abrasion resistance. V4E is pushing out M4 as the "king of steels" in cutting competitions. In moderate angle (15 DPS) and real world use I think you'd be hard pressed to find something with better edge stability. Mind you, this is very heat treat specific, you must use a HT optimized for knives. I've tested 4V and V4E with a wide range of heat treats under closely controlled testing parameters, I found you must use one of the low temper protocols with them to get the best results. Fortunately Peter's HT already has a good HT worked out for this material available to everyone.

Thanks for the info. I haven’t used 4V or V4e yet. One steel at a time. I’m still optimizing my heat treat for z-wear for different applications.