Steels you wish manufacturers used more often for blades

It's interesting that so many miss Elmax. Elmax is kind of funny because it was the bright boy for such a brief time before M390/CTS204P/20CV overshadowed it, so a lot of people never truly got to see how good it is.
 
IMO, we have plenty of steels. I enjoy some of the "new" steels being used on knives, but frankly, even though I use them for work, my knives don't have to be the newest steel of the week to make me happy.

Rather than to have more, different steels that each require their own heat treats, handling, blanking methods, and on and on... I would rather see manufacturers MASTER some of their steels rather than to switch to the new fad of the day. My example for that would be the way Buck has handled 420HC which if the Buck fan boys wouldn't burn the detractors down, would get hammered here. But it is perfectly fine for its use. Another would be Cold Steel and their treatment of AUS8. To me, NOT and impressive knife steel, decidedly mediocre. But CS really did work some magic on it and squeezed all that was available out of it. My American Lawman has been a hard working, reliable knife for about 7 years now.

I think the problems with some steels today are the lack of heat treat standards, possibly heat treat understanding, and the fact that it takes a fine engineer to understand how to get the very best out of the sophisticated steels they are using now. Not really practical when you are using many different steels in your line up, which is why I see so many here complaining of poor or less than optimal heat treats. There isn't much use of using the finely engineered and precisely manufactured steels if you are going to shoot for about 90% of heat treatment of the steel so you can avoid problems that could arise from over hardening in a mass production shop.

Robert
 
midnight flyer said:
IMO, we have plenty of steels. I enjoy some of the "new" steels being used on knives, but frankly, even though I use them for work, my knives don't have to be the newest steel of the week to make me happy.

Rather than to have more, different steels that each require their own heat treats, handling, blanking methods, and on and on... I would rather see manufacturers MASTER some of their steels rather than to switch to the new fad of the day. My example for that would be the way Buck has handled 420HC which if the Buck fan boys wouldn't burn the detractors down, would get hammered here. But it is perfectly fine for its use. Another would be Cold Steel and their treatment of AUS8. To me, NOT and impressive knife steel, decidedly mediocre. But CS really did work some magic on it and squeezed all that was available out of it. My American Lawman has been a hard working, reliable knife for about 7 years now.

I think the problems with some steels today are the lack of heat treat standards, possibly heat treat understanding, and the fact that it takes a fine engineer to understand how to get the very best out of the sophisticated steels they are using now. Not really practical when you are using many different steels in your line up, which is why I see so many here complaining of poor or less than optimal heat treats. There isn't much use of using the finely engineered and precisely manufactured steels if you are going to shoot for about 90% of heat treatment of the steel so you can avoid problems that could arise from over hardening in a mass production shop.

Robert
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I will say it and sorry if it upsets Buck Fans as I own a few Bucks myself. I do not fear being hammered down for speaking truth. Their 420 HC is alright but not great. You can say Paul Boss heat treat or whatever. But he is hardly the only person who knows how to properly heat treat. I happen to have owned my father's old buck 110 in 440C from the 70's and that steel was way better at holding an edge. Albeit harder to sharpen. I am not buying into this heat treat excuse in order to use cheaper metals and make them out to be Excalibur as I see some companies and makers do. I spoke to a custom knife maker and he has told me all the businesses know how to heat treat properly. It is not some arcane taboo process as some would have you to think. The reason they do so on the lower end of the RC scale is to save money on grinding stones and equipment as harder RC hardness wears down expensive equipment more quickly. And most of the consumers are basic knife users who cannot properly sharpen a blade and having a higher RC causes complaints such as it won't sharpen. This knife is junk. People like my mother and grandma who make up 90% of the general knife illiterate customers would rather buy an automatic sharpener or replace a cheap set for $50 in a Target store than properly learn how to sharpen a nice set that requires hand washing, oiling, and proper care for the blade.
 
I missed the 154cm craze. Only had one folder with 154 but I liked it quite a bit. Seemed like a good compromise. Held a decent edge while being nice to sharpen. I always wanted a 940 in 154. Especially if it would help keep costs down.
 
all i wont is a company to make a traditional kukri in cpm 3v every company that make a kukri always puts there own interpretation on the design and they they FUCK it up every time and why do these companies make it weigh over a kg a usable kukri should be 450g-600g anything more then that and its basically a camp axe
 
I’d love for ZT to use Elmax instead of S35VN and M390 instead of 20cv, but it’s probly more expensive....
 
tony281sc2 said:
I’d love for ZT to use Elmax instead of S35VN and M390 instead of 20cv, but it’s probly more expensive....
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you realize that m390 is the same composition as 20cv right? - identical ... or is there some real improvement due to the difference in the PM process that Bohler-Uddeholm uses??
 
Joshua1973 said:
I will say it and sorry if it upsets Buck Fans as I own a few Bucks myself. I do not fear being hammered down for speaking truth. Their 420 HC is alright but not great. You can say Paul Boss heat treat or whatever. But he is hardly the only person who knows how to properly heat treat. I happen to have owned my father's old buck 110 in 440C from the 70's and that steel was way better at holding an edge. Albeit harder to sharpen. I am not buying into this heat treat excuse in order to use cheaper metals and make them out to be Excalibur as I see some companies and makers do. I spoke to a custom knife maker and he has told me all the businesses know how to heat treat properly. It is not some arcane taboo process as some would have you to think. The reason they do so on the lower end of the RC scale is to save money on grinding stones and equipment as harder RC hardness wears down expensive equipment more quickly. And most of the consumers are basic knife users who cannot properly sharpen a blade and having a higher RC causes complaints such as it won't sharpen. This knife is junk. People like my mother and grandma who make up 90% of the general knife illiterate customers would rather buy an automatic sharpener or replace a cheap set for $50 in a Target store than properly learn how to sharpen a nice set that requires hand washing, oiling, and proper care for the blade.
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I just want to say Buck is the only place using 420HC that does it with a HT to make it usable and not garbage. I will say that this is more a discussion for another thread or it's own thread and I won't say I disagree or at least concede that I see some of your points but you might be misunderstanding majority of peoples love for the Buck 420HC.

Now back to our regularly scheduled discussion on why we need more Elmax :p
 
dirc said:
you realize that m390 is the same composition as 20cv right? - identical ... or is there some real improvement due to the difference in the PM process that Bohler-Uddeholm uses??
Click to expand...

I know, it’s just that people go crazy for M390 sprint runs, at least the ZT’s
 
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