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The BladeForums.com 2024 Traditional Knife is ready to order! See this thread for details: https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/bladeforums-2024-traditional-knife.2003187/
Price is$300$250 ea (shipped within CONUS). If you live outside the US, I will contact you after your order for extra shipping charges.
Order here: https://www.bladeforums.com/help/2024-traditional/ - Order as many as you like, we have plenty.
What does "Super Steel" mean to you?
- Thread starter RandomAyes
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- 5,610
What cracks me up is when people have their lists of "super steels" and their list contains steels they've never used, or even been in the same room with.
example:
You forgot Rex 20 and Rex 121.
In addition, in the late 60's and 70's ( I grew up on a farm, and got my first real job at 13 in addition to the chores, both meant using a knife daily) I don't recall anybody ever thinking about 440C as being "super" anything. It was a steel that traded lower performance and made it more difficult to sharpen with a proper edge for corrosion resistance. It had some status as Buck and Gerber used them so it was as we saw it the best of the stainless steels but it was still inferior to us than a good carbon steel.
That's as it was for us anyway. My coworkers, family and I.
Corrosion resistance wasn't and still isn't an issue for me. Growing up on a farm you learned it was very important to take care of your tools. That included whatever it meant from fueling and oiling up the vehicles for morning to removing anything that might cause corrosion from whatever you had used. Whether it was your knife, or the underside of the lawn mower that collects wet grass that will dry and stick if not removed. In addition, every tool had it's spot so the next person didn't have to look for tools before starting work, or search for a vehicles keys ( if they had any). A dull knife was as worthless as an out of fuel piece of equipment without it's keys and with flat tires.
Carbon blades sure fit in better in that environment.
example:
You forgot Rex 20 and Rex 121.
In addition, in the late 60's and 70's ( I grew up on a farm, and got my first real job at 13 in addition to the chores, both meant using a knife daily) I don't recall anybody ever thinking about 440C as being "super" anything. It was a steel that traded lower performance and made it more difficult to sharpen with a proper edge for corrosion resistance. It had some status as Buck and Gerber used them so it was as we saw it the best of the stainless steels but it was still inferior to us than a good carbon steel.
That's as it was for us anyway. My coworkers, family and I.
Corrosion resistance wasn't and still isn't an issue for me. Growing up on a farm you learned it was very important to take care of your tools. That included whatever it meant from fueling and oiling up the vehicles for morning to removing anything that might cause corrosion from whatever you had used. Whether it was your knife, or the underside of the lawn mower that collects wet grass that will dry and stick if not removed. In addition, every tool had it's spot so the next person didn't have to look for tools before starting work, or search for a vehicles keys ( if they had any). A dull knife was as worthless as an out of fuel piece of equipment without it's keys and with flat tires.
Carbon blades sure fit in better in that environment.
Last edited:
Ankerson
Knife and Computer Geek
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- Nov 2, 2002
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- 21,094
What cracks me up is when people have their lists of "super steels" and their list contains steels they've never used, or even been in the same room with.
example:
You forgot Rex 20 and Rex 121.
In addition, in the late 60's and 70's ( I grew up on a farm, and got my first real job at 13 in addition to the chores, both meant using a knife daily) I don't recall anybody ever thinking about 440C as being "super" anything. It was a steel that traded lower performance and made it more difficult to sharpen with a proper edge for corrosion resistance. It had some status as Buck and Gerber used them so it was as we saw it the best of the stainless steels but it was still inferior to us than a good carbon steel.
That's as it was for us anyway. My coworkers, family and I.
Corrosion resistance wasn't and still isn't an issue for me. Growing up on a farm you learned it was very important to take care of your tools. That included whatever it meant from fueling and oiling up the vehicles for morning to removing anything that might cause corrosion from whatever you had used. Whether it was your knife, or the underside of the lawn mower that collects wet grass that will dry and stick if not removed. In addition, every tool had it's spot so the next person didn't have to look for tools before starting work, or search for a vehicles keys ( if they had any). A dull knife was as worthless as an out of fuel piece of equipment without it's keys and with flat tires.
Carbon blades sure fit in better in that environment.
That was in the 70's for me and yeah I remember pretty much the same things.
The biggest problem was that even back then one had to get a custom knife to really get into some good edge retention over what was generally avaiable and or what people used.
The non stainless steels that are avaible today in Customs are on a different planet compared to what we had back then, the same with Stainless steels.
At least today one can get a nice stainless blade from a production manufactor that will hold an edge for a good amount of time.
- Joined
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This bums me out. The turnaround time on customs is so darned long! It's hard to justify getting on a year long waiting list for a $500+ knife when you're not even 100% sure you'll still be employed a year from now
I read somewhere or other that S60V was becoming a production steel for a time, but then it was replaced almost universally by the inferior S30V. If so... major bummer. Sounds like an industry-wide cop out. But I may have read that in a Vassili post anyway so take it with a grain of salt.
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- Oct 25, 2010
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Super Steel: A steel that my ceramic sharpeners won't touch, reach a RC of at least 61 are resistant to corrosion, micro waves and alien death rays.
This bums me out. The turnaround time on customs is so darned long! It's hard to justify getting on a year long waiting list for a $500+ knife when you're not even 100% sure you'll still be employed a year from now
I read somewhere or other that S60V was becoming a production steel for a time, but then it was replaced almost universally by the inferior S30V. If so... major bummer. Sounds like an industry-wide cop out. But I may have read that in a Vassili post anyway so take it with a grain of salt.
Well, sort of.
If people would have been willing to put up with the extra grinding time then it wouldn't be an issue, but that's not the case, time is money and most (if not all) companies couldn't justify the cost. The only reason Spyderco was able to use S60V was they upgraded their grinding equipment. Not everyone is willing to change production processes just to accommodate a new steel type. S30V was made to bridge the gap, give people the new technology without having to change their manufacturing process.
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- Oct 19, 2009
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And now that many economies are faltering, the chance is even smaller for companies to invest in new processes. But who knows, maybe we'll begin to see interesting new cost-saving ideas, perhaps new adaptations for old technology. Maybe something along the lines of a North American san mai containing a core of S90V or CTS20CP. Just sayin'.
Ankerson
Knife and Computer Geek
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This bums me out. The turnaround time on customs is so darned long! It's hard to justify getting on a year long waiting list for a $500+ knife when you're not even 100% sure you'll still be employed a year from now
I read somewhere or other that S60V was becoming a production steel for a time, but then it was replaced almost universally by the inferior S30V. If so... major bummer. Sounds like an industry-wide cop out. But I may have read that in a Vassili post anyway so take it with a grain of salt.
S60V had chipping issues at the higher hardness that would take advantage of the added alloy, well in production blades it did anyway. S30V wasn't really inferior really as it is a more rounded steel and didn't have the issues S60V did, S90V would have been the one to use or later on S110V, but production issues with making S110V slowed things down on that one availability wise, and S110V is expensive.
Remember that with any steel there will be a trade off, giving something up to get something else, there are no free lunches with steels.
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- Mar 27, 2010
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I will put my $$ on Ed Fowler's dedicated 52100.
Making it a collection of steels instead of blade i've tried INFI, L6, 5160, 15N20, D2, S7, S30V, ATS-34,154CM, CPM3V, Hitachi Blue i realized the HT is just too important. It whacked me hard when i see Paul Bos's HT'ed ATS34 could cut as well as S30V.
Will take Howard Clark's L6 waki anytime.
Making it a collection of steels instead of blade i've tried INFI, L6, 5160, 15N20, D2, S7, S30V, ATS-34,154CM, CPM3V, Hitachi Blue i realized the HT is just too important. It whacked me hard when i see Paul Bos's HT'ed ATS34 could cut as well as S30V.
Will take Howard Clark's L6 waki anytime.
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Elmax? M390? For me, I'd happily trade more money for better edge retention, hardness, and corrosion resistance. Ease of sharpening is a bit of a non-factor for me unless I end up sharpening a chip out of S90V or worse. Then I start to look at lower alloy steels more fondly.