Recommendation? TOUGHEST steel in general

[jwdino]

I wonder what type of metal it is

I have make small Paranga machete from 4mm armor plate from some USA armored vehicle.....................indestructible.[/QUOT

 

[tinfoil hat timmy]

Hy Mu
Inconel

I hate working with those materials. They chew right through the cnc machine tooling that is made of carbide. So it eats through essentially the hardest sharpest materials out there.

Burns em right up if the bar gets work hardened from grinding or excessive heat from speeds and feeds being wrong.

 

[Zulus]

I wonder what type of metal it is

https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/toughest-steel-in-general.1735397/#post-19838760

 

[Zulus]

I got side thread, but not really side !
Sometime ago I bought sculpture.
You may call it socrealism, military socrealism :^O
Most probably high competition piece.
Two soldiers, one with AK something second with a torch (candle actually)
Made of armored steel !!!!!!
That's quite a JOB !
Handmade by cut and weld using welder torch only.

Will try to take some pictures tomorrow

 

[Zulus]

General In said :
4140
416R
etc

MIL-A 12560
max thickness 12"
that's a lot of blades, but if you are able to cut a slice ...

 

[jwdino]

"Blast protection steels are steels in the range of 370 – 460 Brinell. They are specifically designed to protect against high energy impacts and waves from mines, improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and even grenades. Today most blast protection steels used are 440 Brinell Which offer a good combination of hardness and toughness. These steels are mostly referred to the blast classes in the NATO standard STANAG 4569. Carbon content varies from 0.12 to 24%. The properties are in general achieved by different amount of carbon, other alloying elements such as Chromium, Nickle and Molybdenum, and specialised heat treatment processes.

The heat treatment process normally consists of hardening and, depending on the grade, sometimes tempering. Hardening consist of heating the steel up to a temperature where the cubical iron crystals change from room temperature form as ferritic (body centred) structure to its high temperature form as austenitic (face centred) structure. This temperature is normally between 700 to 900 degrees depending on alloying content and equipment used.When the steel has entered the austenitic state, the steel is quenched and then tempered"

 

[Kansaswoodguy]

M4 before the railroad switched to annular cutters we used M4 bits to drill thru the rail. I have a couple of the old M4 bits and tried to make a knife out of one. My little diy forge that I’ve made knives with and even melted some steel in didn’t have enough heat to make those rail bits workable that stuff is unbelievable tough. I was only able to beat it up a bit never could shape it finally I just gave up. There is a reason M4 is the king of cut tests

 

[Therom]

Look at steels like 3V, AEB-L, 14c28n

 

[Bigfattyt]

I have knives in CPM3V, and AEB-L.

Great steels. Im not sure I have any knife in 14c28n.

Look at steels like 3V, AEB-L, 14c28n

 

[FullMetalJackass]

Any knife out of Les George' shop should satisfy your hardness desire

 

[Creaky Bones]

S7 is extremely tough, but isn’t a good blade steel.

For toughness with decent wear resistance that normal makers use look at 52100, Vtoku2, 3V, 1095.

For stainless toughness look to H1, LC200N and Elmax.

I’ve got a couple of knives in S7 made by @Gossman Knives that are pretty phenomenal. Heat treat and geometry win every time.

 

[shinyedges]

I have a bunch of 46100 and 12560, very tough stuff.

 

[Natlek]

IMO, it all depends on the knife, blade geometry, heat treat and design. I’ve got a CPK medium heavy duty chopper that is pretty indestructible in delta 3V

View attachment 1364007

I m close to finish this competition style/dimension chopper .....That will be toughest chopper on world It is cut/grind from big and thick /11mm/ blade for paper industry .Hard steel is right to that blue line , rest is mild steel or something like that ...soft as it can be soft.....

hollow grinding on 17 inch wheel remove material fast .............

Almost done , now it is full flat grind from both side and 7mm on spine .......and i grind only one side
580 grams total weight now ,but i will taper handle in both direction so weight would go down...

 

[shqxk]

Maraging steel? something like Aermet-340 should be super tough at decent hardness.

 

[timberweasel]

Rostafrei is still number one!

 

[Natlek]

I wonder what type of metal it is

You can search for armor plate steel .....tough stuff but not hold edge forever.

 

[Shorttime]

AR-500 has a (perhaps inflated) reputation for "toughness", being resistant to shock and impact. I don't know if any hard data exists for it's performance as a cutting tool.

I'm sure it's been tried.

Ed Fowler wrote in one of his books, a first-hand account of an old wrench jockey on the Alaskan oil fields, whose job it was to re-surface worn loader buckets, tread plates, and whatnot.

One day, this graybeard got it into his head to make a knife. I wish I could remember what he used. Somehow, I think he got hold of some old drill rod, which would make it S2 or S7 hi-shock.

Ed personally witnessed this knife chopping through "a burned-out oxygen cylinder". Which I guess is an oxy welding tank?

Either way, until somebody with good data comes along, S2 and S7 get my vote.

 

[FAL'ER]

I m close to finish this competition style/dimension chopper .....That will be toughest chopper on world It is cut/grind from big and thick /11mm/ blade for paper industry .

Planer blade, L6 steel possibly?

 

[Natlek]

Planer blade, L6 steel possibly?

They are big guillotine blade ,most are D2 , D3 , HSS ......steel , end even with tungsten carbide cutting edge .

This small part is used as work rest for one of my grinders , you can see line where hard steel start...

 

[Larrin]

How will a high toughness knife will have low strength steel? I didn't get that. Can you explain?

The question was not about knives, it was about which steel has the highest toughness.