Top 5 favorite steels

cpm S30V
cpm154
D2
AUS8
13C26

With a good heat treat I've found a great combination of edge retention and ease of sharpening with the above steels.
 
Twindog said:
This thread shows the best and worst of Bladeforums. Roughly 3 dozen steels have been listed, depending on how you count (154CM/CPM 154, etc.). It's a wealth of information and too much information at the same time.

The most popular steels so far are VG10, 154CM, D2 and S30V.
Click to expand...

Twindog, this is exactly why I posted this, I wanted to see how it averaged out and assemble a list of the 5 most popular steels overall. :thumbup:

-MD
 
1) VG-10 (better when sandwiched between layers of 420 or similar in larger knives like Falkniven or Shun)
2) Talonite or cobalt dendrite by Boye
3) S30V
4) ZDP 189
5) D2
6) Sanvik (whatever is used in Opinel and Arno (Marjacq))

I just got a Busse INFI so still trying it out, and also new to N690co and just got Kershaw shallot with CPM S110V (still tying to figure out what Niobium is)

7) 1095 for big inexpensive blades
8) Whatever spring steel was used to make my survival Golok from Valiant
9) Any carbide tipped saw blade, router bit, shaper knife, and so on, versus any high speed steel.

There that's about 12. Ohhh! I went over, guess I don't win anything.
 
In no particulat order:

154cm - not ats-34
m4 - so far, a bit better than m2
m2 - mostly Benchmade
BG-42
S30V
 
In no particular order

VG-10 - good edge retention, takes sharp edge, tough enough for stainless
1095 - appreciate ease of sharpening, takes sharp edge
White paper steel - similar to 1095, maybe a bit better in edge retention, pretty tough at high hardness.
CPM3V - tough, very good edge holding but difficult to sharpen
12C27 - very stainless, takes a sharp edge, very easy to sharpen.

Edit:
Fallkniven 3G (whatever its real name is) is pretty good too but difficult to sharpen without ceramic/diamond stone.
 
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nozh2002 said:
I am doing some formal edge retention testing. Some results are quite surprizing.

http://playground.sun.com/~vasya/Manila-Rope-Results.html

If I roughly summirize results it may looks like this (as good as possible to compare arrays of results for different number of cuts):

[...]

Thanks, Vassili.

P.S. More steel in testing queue, so this is not complete list yet...
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Funny results, I can understand subtle differences between "super steels", and that a very well heat treated "classic steel" might outclass more exotic stuff, but having Swamp Rat 52100, probably ht pretty low (somewhere near 58) outclassing -probably run hard- stuff like ZDP189, HSS and even INFI (even Busse doesn't claim that) is pretty weird, are you sure about your protocol?
 
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In this order...

1.CPM3V
2.A-2
3.S30V
4.(a)VG-10(b)ATS-34(c)154CM
5.1095
 
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Stainless:
CPMS30V
CPMD2/D2
VG-10
154CM
13C26

Carbon:
52100B
1095

I don't like vandium in my carbon steel!
 
Ravaillac said:
Funny results, I can understand subtle differences between "super steels", and that a very well heat treated "classic steel" might outclass more exotic stuff, but having Swamp Rat 52100, probably ht pretty low (somewhere near 58) outclassing -probably run hard- stuff like ZDP189, HSS and even INFI (even Busse doesn't claim that) is pretty weird, are you sure about your protocol?
Click to expand...

SR101 is defenetely harder then 58HRC - I can feel it when I sharpen it, I would say it feel like over 62HRC, the way it resist, the way it sounds etc.... It was listed as an 58-60HRC. Also this 40 hours HT and cryo may do some good impact etc... I do not know - I am only certain in results of my tests.

But it defenetely cuts very well - it stays sharp longer then any othe steel when I tried it on drywall few months ago, but it was not formal testing.

And I think ZDP189 performs very good if you check result - to all this carbon steel it has undenieble advantage - it is stainless. At least it is my choice for EDC from this list.

Thanks, Vassili.
 
Carbon steels

1095
D2

Stainless

SG2
ATS34
440C

STR
 
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