The old carbon vs Stainless buggaboo

J

jackknife

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Oct 2, 2004
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I may be dating myself here but so be it. All the knives these days seem to be some sort of stainless. I can't keep track of all the numbers and names like 440, 30v something and all.

The thing I was wondering- Is the new stainless as good as a good carbon like 1095 or 5160?

I grew up in an atmosphere in the late 50's where my dad, uncles, older brother, all were working guys, and all thier pocket knives were all carbon. Of course I grew up with these predjudice ideas. I have fooled with some stainless knives like the Gerber bolt-action, Buck 110, and to be truthful they worked well.

I'd like the opinion of you guys, is the idea of carbon steel being somehow automaticly better than stainless outdated??

In other words- Is it time for me to stop acting like an old fart and get with the modern stainless?
 
Yes and no. Carbon steel when properly heat treated has two advantages: it takes a fine edge and holds it, and it stands up to heavy impacts. The edge-holding is ideal for working people with a small but heavily used knife, and the impact-resistance is valuable for camp or combat knives.

In the early days of stainless steels, they were unavoidably brittle and harder to sharpen compared to the carbon steels. The latest high carbon, very stainless super steels have eliminated this defect. But they cost more and are harder to machine than a good high carbon steel.

So a good carbon steel is still a great choice, especially if you're familiar with its maintenance requirements: keep it clean, touch it up from time to time, and oil it if it's going to be used around moisture or humidity. Many carbon steels now are coated, eliminating some of the corrosion opportunities, except of course at the sharpened edge.
 
I'm generally a proponent of the belief that today's stainless steels are so good there really isn't any reason to buy carbon steel knives.

But I'm getting yet another good lesson from a kitchen knife I'm currently testing. It is a Japanese gyuto (chef knife) made from carbon steel with a very hard blade. I don't know how hard the blade is but it's harder than any stainless kitchen knife blade I've ever encountered. I spent 15 minutes with a 220 grit waterstone just to form a proper new inside bevel for it. The stainless steels that would match it in hardness would be the more exotic (and expensive) numbers like Cowry X. But this knife is affordable and plenty tough. So this appears to be good answer for people who want hard bladed kitchen knives and don't mind corrosion on the blade.

I think VG-10, as an example, is probably as tough as this but not as hard. I guess, despite the new technology in steels, good old fashioned Japanese carbon cutlery steel still has its place.
 
For folders I think " stainless" has its place, also for fix bladed in marine & tropical etc. But for toughness needs liek chopping, prying etc the simpler carbon stells still superior. The toughest stainless like A6 have mediocre edge holding, the "quality " stainless like s30v at best has toughness like D2 which is good for light- moderate working, however not as tough as A2. A2 is not as tough as 1095 wihch is much less tough than 5160 or L6. Their are "super steels liek 3V and INFI which is very tough and excellant edge holding but they are very expensive.
Carbon steels like 1095 & 5160 will always have thier place because they are inexpensive high toughness steels , heat treatment is not complicated but result is still very reliable. Also they can be differential hardened to increase toughness even more without sacrificing edge holding quality.
Martin
 
I can say that as a relatively young 'un, I still prefer the carbon steel knives. IN fact, thats what I chose to use when making knives. Even if you take away the fact that I personally love to forge and feel the ring of hammer on steel, the roar of a hot forge... My favourite steels are 1084/1095, O1.

I think stainless steels give up too much for the sake of convenience of stain resistance. The wear resistance is the biggest problem and difficulty with sharpening will drive many folks nuts.

I also agree with Knife Outlet that the newer stainless steels do perform extremely well and are worth considering. I have a couple of knives in BG42 and VG10 that cut very well, and their difficulty with resharpening is something I'll put up with because they cut so nicely. Nonetheless, whever it comes to a hard use knife, I always find myself going back to a carbon steel blade. Like you, I really liked the carbons teel pen knives. I fell in love with a Case Old Timer single blade a long time ago - the affair continues...

This is a topic you'll get a myriad of opinions about. Jason.
 
D2 seems to have the best qualities. It very good edge holding...it's equal or better than any of the latest stainless steels that i've used.

It doesn't stain easily.

As far as I'm concerned, it might as well be called "stainless"
 
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