What do you consider to be "High Carbon"?

W

Wunderbar

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May 2, 2003
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I've always considered "High Carbon" stainless steels to have at least .5% carbon. Now I'm seeing several manufacturers using steels with less than .5% carbon and calling them "High Carbon". A good example of this would be CRKT calling their 420J steel (.15%), high carbon. :barf: At what level do you consider a stainless steel to be high carbon?
 
There are table knives that are made from low carbon steel that looks up to 420J2, but for any actually sharpened knife I wouldn't say high carbon until it got above .5% carbon. If it said "premium" high carbon steel I would expect it to be at least .7% carbon.
 
According to most definitions that I see, a steel is considered high carbon if it has a carbon content of .8% or higher.
 
and I'll add that .5% is considered medium Carbon from what I've read.
 
Until recently I would have said .8% also but with the emergence of some of the newer steels you would have to say that at least 1% is the mark these days.
 
Until recently I would have said .8% also but with the emergence of some of the newer steels you would have to say that at least 1% is the mark these days.
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I think .8% is still high Carbon, but I'm of the opinion that the CPM steels that are ~2% Carbon should be deemed 'Very High Carbon Steels'. I mean, after all, they are an exception in the field of cutlery grade steel .
 
For the metallurgy involved ,once you get above .80 %C in carbon steels you have large carbides in the steel which give wear resistance .So above .80 %C is 'high carbon'. .40-.80% is usually called 'medium carbon' and below .40% is low carbon. Of course in advertising hype anything can be called by any name !!. For example "titanium" may be aluminum with a finish that looks like titanium, or may be a titanium nitride coating [gold color].
 
I've always thought of "high carbon" as a class of steel, i.e. 1070, 1095, 52100, etc. I've never bothered to seperate them out, so I still use the term high carbon for 1050.

That also means the modern steels don't even enter the picture. Totally different stuff, i.e. powdered metals.

Makes sense to me. Steels go by classifications, not exact composition. Besides, what good is it to know the exact composition of S30V? Makes my head hurt to think about it.

...Just a simple minded Bladesmith... :yawn:
 
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