What's the "lowest" steel you use?

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Bob6794

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Apr 21, 2013
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So we have all these talks on super steels and other high end steels in our knives. Now my question is what is the lowest you go for knife you find acceptable.

There will be people who state that all steels are just tradeoffs in characteristics and there is no bad steel. Just bad heat treats, geometry, and application of it. And truth be told I agree with the. For the most part but I'm curious what most of our community finds accepable.

For me I will take 440a, 1.14116, 420hc, etc as long as these are done right. I draw the line at 420j2 and I don't want to deal with that one.
 
Victorinox for stainless and 1095 for carbon. I have a couple peasant knives in 15n20 but I hardly ever use them. Not because of the steel but because I have other patterns I use more. That’s for home, hobby and vacation use.

For work where I’ll encounter more cardboard my bare minimum is s30v. M4 and hap40 is my usual. I’m just not into sharpening like I once was.
 
I honestly have a few old knives that I do not know what the steel is ... some old fixed blades I would guess are 1095 or 1084 or similiar steels ...

have some old folders that are German stainless not sure exactly what and a couple old high carbon slipjoints ...

so can't say what the lowest steel I use is but if it will take an edge and cut I use them ... just not daily like my newer knives.
 
I dislike 420HC as done by Case but love as done by Buck. I dislike Victorinox stainless for the same basic reason. I find it too soft and too gummy on a stone to hone cleanly. I like Sandvik 12C27 by both Mora and Opinel. I don't love Opinel's 1086 Carbone but I do love old Schrade USA 1095.

IMO, the issue is more the heat treat and less the steel itself. For the fine grained stainless steels, I prefer the RC in the 58 range and find that at 56, edge holding and honing get worse.
 
I've purchased something like twenty Columbia River knives over the years. I've kept some. Most of them get acceptably sharp, but part of that is my mediocre sharpening skill. I guess that's about all I have to say.....
 
The lowest carbonsteel i'll use is 1095. I like O1 a lot.
Stainless aus 8. Any lower and i get irritated very fast while cutting...
 
I use 420j2 sometimes. dont mind it as much as many here do. carry buck 389 canoe in 420j2. use it all day long and touch up when I get home. every steel has its place even 420j2.
 
I use whatever knife steel a particular knife I like is made out of. I have plenty of super steels, but honestly, I don't mind sharpening a knife. Victorinox stainless is just fine. Good old 1095 makes for a nice tough user in a big knife.

This may cause much wailing and gnashing of teeth, but 95% of the time the 400-series steel used in a multi-tool blades offers more than enough performance.

About the only purpose steel I have in my collection is an H1 Spyderco I bought to take to the beach 12 or so years ago. Honestly no other knife was purchased based on blade steel. That said, I don't have much use for super soft alphabet steel like you find in very low end knives. I make due with the stainless leatherman uses for utility sake. The low end steels aren't as issue for me so much because of performance but because of general build quality of the knife that houses them.
 
I'm not super picky when it comes to steels, my best is S30V and my budget doesn't allow me to get the newest high end steels. 420HC is my dead minimum, it's only borderline acceptable and any steel with a lower carbon content that roughly 0.50% just can't be processed well enough to be a good knife steel without other alloying elements helping things along.

A perfect example of this.. Buck usually gets the most out of whatever steel they use, they even get their 420HC to run like AUS-8 or 8Cr13MoV. I have some 420J2 around in a cheap Buck Solo 379 that is so dramatically bad I don't even use it, I can't even say for sure that it's heat treated. It feels gummy on a stone and forms a monstrous burr super easily. Once I do finally break the burr off and get a decent edge, a gentle breeze is all it takes to dull it. I ended up lowering the angle and putting something similar to a zero-grind on this knife and it is still barely acceptable.
 
I would say that the bulk of my knives would be considered low end steel or medium grade stainless. By name, I suspect 420HC and 440A are the lowest steels I use in knives other than some carbon steel in stuff made by Old Hickory or Case kitchen knives. I am comfortable with the Victorinox steel also if you choose to call it low end.
 
Still have and use my favorite 2 folder patterns from Frost bought way before I knew any better. One for mail/ packages and the other in the utility room for plastic water softener salt bags. Mystery import stainless, no idea of hardness but they still earn there keep.
My Condor Golik [?] does all kinds of yard work, usually cutting down small walnut trees that the squirrels are constantly planting in my yard. I think that's 1070 and the HT is pretty low as it is fairly soft, easy to sharpen up though.
 
Moras 12c27 is more than acceptable, as is their carbon steel, which is some equivalent of 1095.
 
I still have some 440A and 420hc on traditionals but I don't bother with them anymore.
There's a Rat 2, AUS-8 that rides in the glove box when it's not there it's tossed into the tackle box or boat.
For carbon 1095 and for stainless 154cm is as low as I'll go.
 
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