whats the big deal?

B

bladeboss

Joined
Mar 6, 2012
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someone is going to tell me to check the search. i did
someone is going to tell me to stop posting. how else will i learn this?
but anyways:
why does everyone hate AUS-8 so much? just cuz its made in taiwan? so what!? its steel, not baby food.
i dont understand what is so wrong with it. for instance, lets use cold steel's because it is heat treated. why is it soooo bad?
when people say "chinese made steels suck", thats another thing. why?
does china not know how to make steel? i dont see why we are so much better at making steel. im sure USA can make garbage products too.
 
It's not a bad steel. Some people (Myself included) have been spoiled by the better steels and prefer them. It's japanese btw.
 
Not all steel is the same, so therefore, steel is not "just steel". Aus-8 is close to the same properties of 440-B carbon steel; It's rather inexpensive. Usually, Aus-8 is associated with a cheaply made knife, so when you hear aus-8, you think, cheap (weak, poorly made) knife. There are better steels within the same price range as an Aus-8 product.

"Chinese made steels suck" is an over-generalization. Not all Chinese steels suck, its just that a lot of steel manufacturing in China is on the cheap so it lacks the quality control of other countries.

Not sure about Cold Steel's heat treatment issues. I believe there are some cases where Cold Steel knives have had a bad batch in the heat treatment process making them more brittle, i.e. prone to breakage.
 
There's nothing wrong with 8A. There are better steels for pure edge holding capabilities but 8A is hard to beat in overall performance.
 
I am a fan of Aus-8 as a middle of the road stainless steel.

I can get it sharp, easily. It handles abuse well.

It is a good basic stainless.

There are better steels out there for edge retention, and toughness, but on a $50-70 knife you can't go wrong.

Heck, I have a pocket Bushman that I really really like....It is a cheaper steel than Aus-8, and I still like it.

Sometimes, I will have $1500 of knives on me when outdoors, and often, $70 of that is Aus-8 by CS.
 
It isn't awful, its just a low to mid grade steel as far as cutlery steels are concerned. It will work fine for most people which is why it is used on knives that generally appeal to the masses, in this case I'll use your own example of cold steel. Cold steel knives in general are not made with knife/steel snobs in mind, as such they save money by using an inexpensive steel in order to offer their products at a lower price. There are many steels better than aus-8, and some worse, but the better steels come at a much higher cost which is then in turn passed down to the consumer.
 
....if it's Japanese from the Aichi foundry it's got a good heat treat and a nice uniform grain structue. I'll take a knife made with that any day of the week. A well ground blade Japanese AUS-8 blade rivals VG-10, which maybe will hold an edge just a bit longer. It's good stuff. Easy to resharpen....impressive stain resistance....can be honed razor sharp....holds an edge well.
 
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There are just better steels out there for the price.

You can get a Spidie in CPM S30V for less than a Cold Steel.
 
Anytime I read posts generalizing steels like that I just ignore it. There are too many other factors involved.
 
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Brian Sargent said:
There are just better steels out there for the price.

You can get a Spidie in CPM S30V for less than a Cold Steel.
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Yea but the price of a folding knife isn't always dependent on the type of blade steel used. There are other more important factors. Handle material and most important, the lock and it's strength / dependability.
 
Personally, AUS8 is one of my favorites. I think some here don't care for it because they like to reprofil to a very thin edge and AUS8 can roll fairly easily when thinned out. Personally,my sharpening skills aren't at the point where I'm going to worry about putting a 20 degree inclusive edge on a knife, so it performs well for me.
 
bladeboss said:
someone is going to tell me to check the search. i did
someone is going to tell me to stop posting. how else will i learn this?
but anyways:
why does everyone hate AUS-8 so much? just cuz its made in taiwan? so what!? its steel, not baby food.
i dont understand what is so wrong with it. for instance, lets use cold steel's because it is heat treated. why is it soooo bad?
when people say "chinese made steels suck", thats another thing. why?
does china not know how to make steel? i dont see why we are so much better at making steel. im sure USA can make garbage products too.
Click to expand...

I don't think you understand AUS-8... It's a Japanese steel, but it's shipped to other countries to be incorporated into knives there. All companies heat treat their steel, and the "sub-zero quenching" that Cold Steel makes a big deal about doesn't really mean anything. AUS-8 was a great steel 20 years ago, but it's been outdated by newer and better steels. Chinese knives mostly use 8Cr13MoV, which is almost the same formula as AUS-8. The only thing left is how exactly you heat treat it. Neither steel is spectacular, but both function decently. People don't hate AUS-8, either, but they do hate getting AUS-8 in a really expensive knife.

I learned most of this by reading the forums, and didn't have to post my own threads. If the information was out there for me, it's out there for you if you're willing to put just a little effort into searching for it. Even more so, actually, since the collective information you can find here is always increasing.
 
vwb563 said:
Yea but the price of a folding knife isn't always dependent on the type of blade steel used. There are other more important factors. Handle material and most important, the lock and it's strength / dependability.
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I disagree 110%.

Knives are for cutting stuff.

A folding knife folds ....... I'll cut right along side you with a slip joint.

If you need a lock, please, stop using knives.

The handle material could be just about any type of plastic.

A knife is a piece of tough steel that can hold and edge at a geometry that cuts efficiently.

Not handle material and lock strength.
 
It's not a steel I hate, I just wouldn't pay more than 50 bucks for a knife in that steel though. If you can find an s30v Buck Vantage for 50 on the exchange, sometimes even new, then I see no reason to get AUS-8.
 
I actually have a bit of respect for properly heat treated AUS-8 while it only offers serviceable retention at best the stuff can get insanely sharp and take a very fine edge also it's pretty tough. All in all while it isn't a super steel by any means it's great stuff for the price ( I'm fine with it as long as it's on a sub 50 Dollar folder ) and I won't scoff at it like some seem to do AUS-8 has it's perks and IMO edge retention is important but it isn't exactly everything.
 
bladeboss said:
... its steel, not baby food.
Click to expand...

Bladeboss needs a big hug...and I buy all my baby food from Taiwan, you got a problem with that?

Go out and cut stuff, and stop caring about what Tom Dick and Harry on Bladeforums says about your knives.
 
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