What's the toughest powdered metallurgy stainless steel?

K

knife chop

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Feb 11, 2014
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I have plethora of custom and production knives. most carbon and some pm steels, now I'm thinking of having a custom maker make me a SS 6 inch knife that can be used for batoning and chopping. I'm just looking for options.
 
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IIRC there was a thread in Gossman's sub forum where he made a bowie out of S35VN. I don't think he had any problems when using it.
 
I have two knives in ZDP and neither are brittle in the least. They keep an edge fo eva!
 
TKB said:
S3V. That is the steel that I am going to choose, for toughness...
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He's looking for stainless though. Unless you mean S30V, which IMO is blah.
 
Elmax.

ZDP, CPM154, and M390 are wear resistant and have low grindability. That does not translate to impact toughness, however.
 
As far as stainless goes, I agree with Elmax or you could try some of the Carpenter Steels
 
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I would agree with Elmax, but I'll throw CTS-XHP out there as well. It's supposed to be fairly tough and may make a good alternative choice.
 
Old as it is, I think you can make a pretty tough knife out of 440C. Other than that, Elmax and XHP are the ones that seem to be made to be tougher than average.

However "tough" and "SS" are somewhat opposites. If you really want tough, go with something like A2, O1, S3V, 52100.
 
I forgot about XHP. Love that stuff.
 
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