What's the "lowest" steel you use?

420HC / 440A / Victorinox SAK steel / Case CV / Case Tru-Sharp. Those are equally "low" I suppose. I use them all.
 
I have a Lone Wolf (pre-Benchmade) knife in Böhler N680. The edge stability is out of this world.

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Heat treat is everything. If you care about steel, buy a Bos-stamped Buck, or a Busse, or a Fantoni in any steel, or any Maniago-made knife in N690...

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For carbon steels, I'm not picky. They're all pretty damn good. Tool steels of course are better and my preference.

For stainless, Rough Rider's 440a is as low as I go. It's good enough, but needs to be sharpened more often.
 
440C is as low as I want to go. And even that dulls too quickly for my needs. My Boker can't get through fully processing a deer without needing a touch up on the blade.
 
If I used my knives more lately I'd have an opinion. But I still have knives from a year or two ago that I have barely or never used. I have a scattering of steels but usually find AUS8, 1095, or SAK steel in hand. I just got an SK-5 SRK in, after maybe a year of not buying. I literally came to a point where I wasn't finding time to use what I already had. I had some SK-5 sitting unused in a tub already, but what the hey, I like the knife. I think that I have 5-6 SRK's maybe now. I am going to beat this one through firewood like a red headed step child then probably toss it into the trunk. I want to be rude n ugly to this knife, in this steel, and see what happens. Didn't cost much.
 
I did not know of different steels that long ago. So, I still buy the knife I like. Mostly from a good company.
But I do know steels now so when I have a choice, I pick the new steels.
 
AUS-8A. I avoid 8Cr13Mov and not just because of edge holding. There are so many knives made in that steel that by eliminating it there are many fewer knives to buy. :) It helps to keep the buying in check.
 
It may be counter-intuitive but I use the best steels that I have and do not use the less capable knives. The less capable they are the more likely they are to stay in a box.

My users are
- Winkler in 80CrV2
- Bradford Knives in M390
- Spyderco in 20CV
- Zero Tolerance in S90V

My EDC knives for the past three months have been 2 - Zero Tolerance 0095TANBLK in S90V.
 
I buy the knife, not the steel and since I buy quality knives, I trust the maker is using good stuff. I understand why some guys geek out over knife steel minutiae, it is interesting and I do read the steel threads and stuff, but just not my thing.
 
Well! Most every steel named in this thread was a “Super Steel” at one time.. ——-living right by the ocean and making Culinary knives, I prefer Stainless Steel, But that doesn’t mean I don’t have older Carbon steel blades that work great for their applications ... ——————————————————-Most important is the Heat Treat in all Steels for the given application in a knife, Sword etc... I remember those older makers that freely shared their knowledge with me when I was a noob maker back in 96, saying, you can have a so-so Steel with the correct HT out preform a “Super Steel “ with a so-so HT every time..————————————— Back then the “Super Steel” was ATS-34... :D So I still use some of those, ancient “Lower Steels@ like 440C for small Culinary, steak knives and some B & Ts And it works great for large Choppers when 440c is done to 55-56 Rc, as well, HTed by Paul Bos shop at Buck Knives, with Cryo.. They do Wonderful!:confused:
 
Bob6794 said:
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.
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Whatever the Victorinox SAKs are made out of.
 
I find AUS8 works fine for my purposes. If I used it a lot more, or for heavier duty, then I might go with something a bit higher end, but my need is pretty light.
 
RBid said:
The most relevant answer is to say that S35VN is the least prestigious steel I carry, because my favorite knives are in S35VN, M390, or 20CV. I don’t stick to those to be a snob. It’s just what’s there.

If I picked up a Tashi Bharucha design, I’d rock the hell out of RWL-34.
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Are they useful when buttering your scones or perhaps tingling the crystal to summon Farnsworth?

Just kidding...it’s amazing how common S35VN has become today, anyone know why?
 
Lowest steel I own is Cr13mov.
Lowest steel I use is 440. Whatever the Izula SS is.
Most carried pocket knife steel is S30v or S35vn.
 
John_0917 said:
Are they useful when buttering your scones or perhaps tingling the crystal to summon Farnsworth?

Just kidding...it’s amazing how common S35VN has become today, anyone know why?
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Yeah. I used the word “prestigious” to poke at the whole thing. Even M390/20CV/204P are ubiquitous these days.
 
Depends on the knife I usually wouldn’t do 8cr but I bought the Kershaw Fraxion and it’s an awesome little knife and looks cool don’t carry it a lot but I like it.

Anyways my usual minimum in a modern folder is 14c28n but would like s30v or s35vn bc 14c28n doesn’t scream buy me that loud.

In traditional knives SS 440C and 154cm is the minimum because most other SS that’s used are garbage to me besides that any carbon will do
 
I have not tried a lot of the "super steels". I read how others here use and prefer in that regard. I tend to stay with stainless more than carbon. The steels I like are 420HC done by Buck, VG-10 by Spyderco, N690 by Lion Steel, Victorinox stainless. As others with more knowledge and experience have stated it is how it is heat treated that makes the most out of a steel. I find Case tru sharp to be a steel I avoid as it does not stand up well for me. 420HC done by anyone else than Buck I stay away from also. I try to stay with steels I can sharpen easier even if needed more often. Just recieved my first knife in CPM154 from Buck and interested to find out how it holds up.
 
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