What’s a steel that disappointed you?

Have to stick up for s30v, if its heat treated right (high temp) and final sharpening with a diamond stone or rod its an excellent steel.
Dont really like aebl edges. Nothing scientific on my opinions, just my limited experience working with and testing.
James
 
I still carry a Manix XL for a pocket knife in s30v. What I started doing a couple years ago is sharpening on a coarse diamond and then stropping on a balsa wood strop loaded with diamond paste.. Makes a very toothy edge that seems to really last on it.
 
JamesBro said:
Have to stick up for s30v, if its heat treated right (high temp) and final sharpening with a diamond stone or rod its an excellent steel.
Dont really like aebl edges. Nothing scientific on my opinions, just my limited experience working with and testing.
James
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Yup, I love s30v. I hacked a 1m radius ball of rope fishing net off our anchor with my s30v leatheramn and the edge held up pretty damn well. I cant imagine a harder task for a knife in edc.

I love aebl in the kitchen. Prefer somthing more abrasion resistant in the field. I'm playing with rwl 34 at the moment, which I'm really liking.
 
its all so subjective really , ive used aebl alot , alot but im finding for a daily driver in the kitchen i really prefer to spend a little extra on the steel and a little bit more labor and use 154cm , I dont see the point in aebl anymore just to save a few bucks. it may be tougher but i dont really need that in the kitchen. also find aebl to be especially lacking for customers who dont know how or want to sharpen ...they are beter off paying 50 bucks extra or whatever and get a higher wear knife....just my thoughts....no doubt aebl is a great steel and some ppl can really push it to the limitz
 
3v was a disappointment. Edge holding with a fine edge required some tweaks in heat treatment, and wasn’t much better than the simple steels I was using previously. Once I tried z-wear/cpm cru-wear, I fell in love with that class of steels. O1 never lived up to the hype when I started making knives in 2012.
 
Maybe it's the heat treat that was the cause of disappointment rather than the steel?? Just sayin...
 
Probably VG10!!! I have had mixed experiences with it. I have sharpened D2, ZDP189, S30V, etc but VG10 gave me the most trouble for some reason.
 
When I just got started I made a fine scalpel like blade out of D2. It never took the edge I wanted.
 
I got to be honest. AEB-L. After all the rave reviews of end users, cheap and basically smooth surface to start with I wanted to love this steel. But it's hard to keep straight, not impressed with end result etc. The heat treat is temperamental for me. I know my flame resistance suit is on and I'll take the heat. But I'll be honest my best knifes that everyone BRAGS about is simple 440C. Go figure. Maybe just because I have the HT dialed in but it kicks but compared to the AEB-L
 
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LCoop said:
I got to be honest. AEB-L. After all the rave reviews of end users, cheap and basically smooth surface to start with I wanted to love this steel. But it's hard to keep straight, not impressed with end result etc. The heat treat is temperamental for me. I know my flame resistance suit is on and I'll take the heat. But I'll be honest my best knifes that everyone BRAGS about is simple 440C. Go figure. Maybe just because I have the HT dialed in butt it kicks but compared to the AEB-L
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Are you taking it to 62c and using liquid nitrogen? Because the AEB-L I have done that way performs great in the kitchen, field and everyday use. I have hundreds of them out there and only raves about performance and ease of maintain the edge
 
What steel disappointed me?

Any steel I heat treated in a forge, and ground with dull belts and poor temperature control.

Also steels I sent out for heat treatment left something to be desired versus doing it myself and characterizing the steel.
 
Kentucky said:
I’m not talking about a steel from any particular source. I’m asking what steel that a lot of folks liked for instance 5160,80crv2 etc that you tried just didn’t live up to expectations for you as a maker?
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80CrV2 was a big disappointment.
 
AVigil said:
Are you taking it to 62c and using liquid nitrogen? Because the AEB-L I have done that way performs great in the kitchen, field and everyday use. I have hundreds of them out there and only raves about performance and ease of maintain the edge
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I don't have a Dewar but use DI and can hit the RC 62 as tested on my Grizzly tester consistently. I've noticed AEB-L seems to be very critical from time between plate quenching to going into cold treatment. Atleast for me too much time delay between those and it never hardens to desired RC. I just yesterday made my own Carbide straightening hammer and that greatly helps wtih the slight warping I get. Time will tell. I have another batch of AEB-L blanks cut out ready for HT so we will see.
 
Ok I’ll play. OP indicated what steels didn’t live up to expectations.
I need to the steel to work reliably the great majority of the time so I can make a living. If I have to fiddle f*** with it all the time it’s hard to make a living.

2 that come to mind are AEBL and forged 52100. Too much going on with these all the time. AEBL has great workability In many ways except for the bending/straightening. 52100 forged too many process cycles.

Steels I like - Japanese white core laminated steels and A2 and 26c3. Z wear is great but not that fun to work with

this is for long thin kitchen knives.
 
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