What's the best steel for edge retention?

F

fireincairo

Joined
Feb 21, 2011
Messages
212
What is the be-all, end-all steel for edge retention?

Also, as a secondary pick, if you could recommend the best choice for edge retention and rust resistance what would it be?
 
Rostafrei is best steel mon.

j/k, I suggest you read around before asking this question. You are going to get a ton of different answers, there's too many variables.

They will need to know what you're cutting, and do you want stainless steel or non. etc.
 
5.56 said:
Rostafrei is best steel mon.

j/k, I suggest you read around before asking this question. You are going to get a ton of different answers, there's too many variables.

They will need to know what you're cutting, and do you want stainless steel or non. etc.
Click to expand...

I will second this suggestion. This forum has 12+ years worth of answers all available at your finger tips. Use the search function and you will see quite a few lengthy discussions where steel heads and manufacturers as well as long standing members will explain what has been seen through testing. The question is as broad as the side of a barn. Sort of like asking "Who makes the best knife?", ask 100 people get 100 different answers. There is so much variety now that it all depends on what you are looking to do, what are you cutting? What is your budget? Can you sharpen? etc.

It makes for much better discussions when people do a little searching and reading before asking these kinds of questions. This way you can focus more on a specific aspect or trend rather than starting from square one. Just sayin'.
 
CPM Rex 121. Though there might be better steels with more carbides. Just that getting ahold if them is a bit tricky.
 
Yeah, there are about as many answers as there are steel types. It's also a huge, and exhaustive, topic, one which years into the game I'm still not much closer to understanding :P

To narrow it down, and start it off. I'd say S30V is the first level of "super steel" above your old, average stainless steels that were popular up into the nineties. You'll notice a huge difference from all the 440s, 420hc, "surgical stainless", and a lot of the softer carbon steel blades. You'll notice a slight difference above vg10 and 154cm and the like, which are still great steels, etc...
 
Loving cts 20cp right now , and its available on exchange .....just contact ,oh yeah me :D. Take a look in knife review forum and jim ankersons thread
 
S125V or S110V for Stainless.

CPM 15V for Non Stainless (There are others, but hard to get and they rust very easy)
 
fireincairo said:
What is the be-all, end-all steel for edge retention?

Also, as a secondary pick, if you could recommend the best choice for edge retention and rust resistance what would it be?
Click to expand...

To a certain extent, that is going to depend on the type of cutting and type of edge you use.

Some alloys maintain a highly polished razor edge longer than than other alloys. But the other alloys maintain a good cutting edge longer.

Here's an example of the above behavior. The red holds a highly polished razor edge longer, but the blue holds a working edge longer.

razorvsabrasive-1.jpg
 
5.56 said:
Rostafrei is best steel mon.

j/k, I suggest you read around before asking this question. You are going to get a ton of different answers, there's too many variables.

They will need to know what you're cutting, and do you want stainless steel or non. etc.
Click to expand...

RevDevil said:
I will second this suggestion. This forum has 12+ years worth of answers all available at your finger tips. Use the search function and you will see quite a few lengthy discussions where steel heads and manufacturers as well as long standing members will explain what has been seen through testing. The question is as broad as the side of a barn. Sort of like asking "Who makes the best knife?", ask 100 people get 100 different answers. There is so much variety now that it all depends on what you are looking to do, what are you cutting? What is your budget? Can you sharpen? etc.

It makes for much better discussions when people do a little searching and reading before asking these kinds of questions. This way you can focus more on a specific aspect or trend rather than starting from square one. Just sayin'.
Click to expand...
What these guys said.
 
I believe CPM 121 REX is THE top steel for overall edge retention if cutting through softer materials, but I've only seen it used in like maybe 5 knives and finding a maker who can/ is willing to work with it and has access to it is very hard.

As for the custom world, 110V seems to be the top choice for a steel that you can actually get ahold of.

For production knives, S90V and CTS 20 CP are the best.

But all those steels are generally used in smaller knives and folders. You won't see any S110V choppers out there because of how brittle it is.

As for chopping knives, I believe INFI and 3V are considered the best when high toughness is required.

If you want a pocket knife that will resist rust and stay sharp for an extremely long time get a spyderco para military2 in CTS 20CP. if you want a
fixed blade that will hold an edge for a really long time, can take a beating, and not rust I would suggest picking up a Busse.
Hope this helps!
 
+1 on the CPM Rex-121 in its unhardened state its like 68 hrc and hardened gets into the high 70's - 80's I think. Though its very non-stainless, and I've only seen a custom Strider in it and a maker here on BF that made a large 9in blade out of it. I also saw in some ones sig line selling some knives in S125V he had like 10 total I think it was a special run from a European maker.
 
That's an interesting graph. Is it a hypothetical graph to illustrate your point, or real data? I'm interested in what causes a fine edge to hold on a bit, then have both the fine edge and working edge drop so fast.



knarfeng said:
To a certain extent, that is going to depend on the type of cutting and type of edge you use.

Some alloys maintain a highly polished razor edge longer than than other alloys. But the other alloys maintain a good cutting edge longer.

Here's an example of the above behavior. The red holds a highly polished razor edge longer, but the blue holds a working edge longer.

razorvsabrasive-1.jpg
Click to expand...
 
Twindog said:
That's an interesting graph. Is it a hypothetical graph to illustrate your point, or real data? I'm interested in what causes a fine edge to hold on a bit, then have both the fine edge and working edge drop so fast.
Click to expand...

Alloy composition, heat treatment, and carbide distribution throughout the steel matrix. Just a guess on my part. I do know that there are optimal ways to turn a steel into a super steel performance wise.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top