Traditional Steels: Picture worth a 1000 words

[pinnah]

Carbon steel is arguably the most traditional of steels and those of us who love it talk about the keen edge and the toughness of the steel.

I think it's also fair to say that 440C, especially post Buck's heat treatment, has made 440C acceptable among traditionals. Fans of 440C, and now D2, talk about the toothy edge and it's ability to not wear down. As Frank, one of our moderators said, "Welcome to the Dark Side. We have carbides."

I recently ran across this page from Sanvik. They're known for making fine grained steels, so there's some add copy aspect to this but they still have some great pictures that help (for me) explain the differences.

Fine grained steel (In this case, Sanvik 12C27. I suspect carbon steel like 1095 would give a similar picture)

Steel with large carbides (In this case, 440C. I suspect D2 would give a similar picture)

Other nice shots and pictures of how edges go dull that I think are very applicable to traditional steels.

Full page here:
http://www.smt.sandvik.com/en/products/strip-steel/strip-products/knife-steel/knife-steel-knowledge/

 

[Obsessed with Edges]

Thanks for posting that. :thumbup:

I like Sandvik's site. A ton of info about steel in general. I've referred to their site often and looked at those pics before, and they are interesting. Some great pics there of pitting corrosion on knife edges, and also illustrating the difference between rolled edges vs chipped, as well. I only wish Sandvik would put some larger/higher-res pics up, or links to same.


David

 

[Jack Black]

Very interesting sir :thumbup:

 

[Blueberry815]

Cool and interesting thanks for sharing.

 

[pmew]

Interesting post. There is a Japanese fella on YouTube who is a hunting and bushcraft fanatic, his channel is [virtuovice] he inspects all the steels that Bark River use through a microscope with different edge geometries. It's pretty interesting if you're a steel buff.