What was considered great knife steel years ago that is now considered cheap or not good?

Past a certain minimum level of steel quality (I’d say 440C level), a lot of talk about the “best steel” is analogous to people comparing the depth ratings of dive watches (100 meters, 1,000 meters, 10,000 meters!), when 99% of us are just hanging out on the shoreline.
 
Arathol said:
ATS-55, this one still NIB
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and I carried this one nearly every day in the field at work for more than 15 years and it never failed to cut what needed to be cut...
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CPM 440V, carried it for about 4 years before getting the 2 blade Dyad. No complaints here either...
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440V rocks. Wish they’d still use it.

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Deino said:
6 pages, yet no one mentioned Sheffield's Silver steel?

Yes, similar to this to that, but no one really use its exact specification anymore. It was once the best blade steel of the industrial era in Europe.

Gin-1 seems like 440B equivalent. I wonder what made it popular in the 1st place.
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VG-10 is still so good and so available. Nothing wrong with it, no gripes from me.
I think Ginami-1 was the 440c equivalent, from Japan, it was cheaper and easier than ATS-34.
 
Hashishiin said:
VG-10 is still so good and so available. Nothing wrong with it, no gripes from me.
I think Ginami-1 was the 440c equivalent, from Japan, it was cheaper and easier than ATS-34.
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The Gin-1 to 440B is not my opinion, I know about them a while ago (I was very into anime and Japanese stuff, and was bought into some japanese magic), it is their composition begin near match with a noticeable cut under 440C. Good stuff, but some people placed it above other like VG-10 and AUS-10 (also Japanese steel) for great or super steel for their time frame. I don't think so, same range at best.
 
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Hashishiin said:
I think Ginami-1 was the 440c equivalent, from Japan, it was cheaper and easier than ATS-34
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Nope, different composition. It had less chrome and was a bit tougher . .90/15% as opposed to .95-1.20/18% Carbon -chrome. Gin 1 has near 440C's wear resistance , has less corrosion resistance but a little better toughness/edge stability. Aus 10 is another steel designed as a modification to 440C's composition to make it perform as well as 440C at wear resistance but also has better toughness by using lower chrome 13-14.5% and a nickel addition of .49%.

ATS 55 seemed to me to be a less expensive version of Gin 1 ( still a premium steel in Japan ). It has a bit of cobalt and copper which likely came from recycled steel during melting as opposed to the more pure Gin 1 "silver paper" steel named because it had that color paper wrap ( or painted on the end). The ATS 55 performed not all that different from Gin 1 IMO.

ATS 34/154cm is also a modification of 440C originally intended for use in higher heat conditions such aircraft engines . It has lower chrome than 440C plus it has 4% moly.

440C may be an ancestor of these steels but it nor 440B is an equivalent of any of the above.
 
Ernie1980 said:
S30 was king for a little while, now not so much. VG10 and zdp 189 used to be high end too but are pretty basic at this point. I am sure there are lots of other examples but those come to my mind.
However- I don’t think anyone things of those steels now as junk, simply not top tier.
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lol if you think zdp189 is pretty basic you need to get off the internet and go outside.
 
I’m not a steel snob and until recently never owned any of the newer steels, just mainly read about them. Until recently my knives where either 1095, 420hc, aus-8, or vg-10. My favorite is the 1095 and 1095 cro-van that’s used by ESEE and Kabar respectively, due to their reliability and simplicity. With that said, I now own 3v, s35v, 12c27, H1, Lc200n, and cts-xhp, which brings me to my point. VG-10 used to be talked about all the time, especially in the Spyderco world, but has seemed to fall out of favor. CTS-XHP is, without doubt, my favorite stainless that I own and have used. I can remember quite a bit of hype about it at one time, but it also seems to be nothing special to most. I guess like everything else in this world, here one day and gone the next.
 
JWright214 said:
I’m not a steel snob and until recently never owned any of the newer steels, just mainly read about them. Until recently my knives where either 1095, 420hc, aus-8, or vg-10. My favorite is the 1095 and 1095 cro-van that’s used by ESEE and Kabar respectively, due to their reliability and simplicity. With that said, I now own 3v, s35v, 12c27, H1, Lc200n, and cts-xhp, which brings me to my point. VG-10 used to be talked about all the time, especially in the Spyderco world, but has seemed to fall out of favor. CTS-XHP is, without doubt, my favorite stainless that I own and have used. I can remember quite a bit of hype about it at one time, but it also seems to be nothing special to most. I guess like everything else in this world, here one day and gone the next.
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I think it is not as exciting or flashy, but that CTS-XHP seems to be a very good steel even in the modern world! Luckily not gone, too, just not in a million models.
 
ex Vento said:
CPM 440V is still available at crucible. Today they call it S60V
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Hey, you seem to know about this steel. Could you please tell me how it performs, compare it to something? I am about to buy a knife in the steel, and I'd really like to know quickly before I buy, if you do indeed know. Thank you so much.
 
kobold said:
AUS-6 ?
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I'd say the disapproval of AUS-6 was comprised of childish snobbery. AUS-6 had a max carbon of 0.65% and AUS-8's maximum carbon was 0.75% and they had the same alloying composition. The two steels were just too close in performance to justify arguing about them. Some people also didn't like 420HC flooding the American knife market and twenty years ago they turned to the Taiwan made CRKT and Gerber knives for AUS-6.
 
How would you older heads rate 440V/S60V? I am buying a knife in the steel and was wondering how the performance held up, what it is comparable to, how it sharpens? Would you still use it today?
Frotier76 said:
I'd say the disapproval of AUS-6 was comprised of childish snobbery. AUS-6 had a max carbon of 0.65% and AUS-8's maximum carbon was 0.75% and they had the same alloying composition. The two steels were just too close in performance to justify arguing about them. Some people also didn't like 420HC flooding the American knife market and twenty years ago they turned to the Taiwan made CRKT and Gerber knives for AUS-6.
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Yeah, was talking about old Spydies on Reddit and someone was like "There was an AUS-6?! UGH!", like, I think those steels are not bad at all. If Tru-Sharp is okay, AUS-8 is certainly okay.
 
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