What is Surgical Stainless?

J

jmccullough32

Joined
Dec 14, 2002
Messages
31
A post here on the forum stated that Case Surgical Stainless was 420 steel.

I find that hard to believe, and think it is more likely 440A. What do others think, or do we know for sure what it is?

Thanks,
Jim
 
It's meaningless marketing-speak, like "farm fresh". I always assume the worst when a maker uses a term like this, but others may well have specific information about Case in particular.
 
I beleive that "surgical stainless" is a generic phrase for anything "stainless" enough to go through an autoclave without rusting to hell.but I could be wrong.

walter
manipulator of penguins,crusher of igloos
 
It probably isn't one specific steel that is used all the time. If they say "surgical stainless" they are probably using whatever they can get a deal on. They are more worried about their knives not tarnishing, than holding an edge, so the more stainless the better.
 
It could be bedpan steel; but, it seems the marketing folks think surgical sounds a lot better.

If you call a steel manufacturer and ask to order some surgical steel; I'm sure you'll get some interesting follow on questions.

If you are concerned about the steel used in a knife, then I suggest you be very wary of the term surgical steel.
 
WadeF said:
It probably isn't one specific steel that is used all the time. If they say "surgical stainless" they are probably using whatever they can get a deal on. They are more worried about their knives not tarnishing, than holding an edge, so the more stainless the better.
Click to expand...
Right. A scalpel only gets used once, so why do you need edge holding?
 
Dejavu. I thought I just posted about this?

Surgical stainless started out to be a term used for steels thought to be suitable for implants in the human body. Unfortunately the body had so many immune reponses to the nickel in the steel that this was proved to be a false sense of security and the implants failed. Titanium is used exclusively now for implants because it is inert. Surgical steels had to have a high corrosion resistance to survive repeated sterilizations in steam and chemical autoclaves throughout their service life so that also had something to do with the use of the term in medicine.

In cutlery, terms like "Surgical Stainless", and "Tru-Sharp" stainless are nothing more than a phrase a knife company can use in marketing to cover the use of steels ranging from bottom of the barrel 420J2 to 425Modified to 440A and B and who knows what else. Truth is when you see one of these terms on a knife blade you don't know for sure what the steel is in the blade but whatever it is it came off a roll and it is probably one of the ones mentioned above.
 
According to my notes Case Tru-Sharp is 420 Stainless Steel Rc'd betweeen 54-57. Case SS is 420 Stainless Steel Rc'd between 49-53. This is according to my notes that I've gathered from other knife sources. * Note* As always, some
info that we gather could be wrong. So if the info I just gave is incorrect please
correct where needed.

Blademan44.
 
Walter said:
I beleive that "surgical stainless" is a generic phrase for anything "stainless" enough to go through an autoclave without rusting to hell.but I could be wrong.

walter
manipulator of penguins,crusher of igloos
Click to expand...
An autoclave is a high pressure steam cleaning system to clean surgical equipment.
 
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