What's your favorite steel?

coolbreezy37 said:
It’s a tough one between INFI, Tops’ 1095, D3V, SR101, MMHW 5160, and Lauren Metalli’s 80CRV2. To me, it’s not just the steel, but also the Maker’s heat treat that defines it.

Edited for clarity: I can only go by what I have experience with. If I ultimately had to choose one, then D3V.
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Nice save. (I was gonna tell Nathan... ☺️ )
 
I’m either not doing this whole knife thing correctly or I’m just not as smart as everyone else around here.
I don’t have a favorite steel. Hell I don’t actually care about steel in modern folding knives. I am a bit interested in this magnacut stuff just because of all the hype but, I buy knives, they come with steel. I use the knives to cut stuff and when they need sharpening I sharpen them.
What am I missing here?
 
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Another Shepherd said:
S35VN (which is on my list of favorites) should not be that difficult to sharpen. My Cold Steel Ultimate Hunter with S35VN had been rather battered lately, with BESS scores in the 300 to 500 range. The bevel was somewhat convexed from 21 to 17 degrees. Just now, I did a mild reprofile to a 19 degree V bevel using my new Work Sharp Pro Precision Adjust. Took 20 minutes on the 220 grit plate to set the profile, plus 15 minutes to go through the other six plates. Result: BESS 200 on the belly and BESS 150 on the straightaway. I did not hurry because I am just getting used to the sharpener. During that time, I also let a cat in, let a cat out, and had a cold beverage.

You might want to visit the Maintenance, Tinkering & Embellishment forum to talk about sharpening S35VN.
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Its only an issue if you're using suboptimal abrasives. Any steel with just 3% or more vanadium content will benefit from Superabrasives in my opinion which comes from experience. When using something like a coated diamond abrasive like a diamond plate basically all the steels grind the same on that stuff. If you tried that on something like a Japanese waterstone you're gonna feel like that 59 rc s35vn is almost winning the fight between the stone and steel, especially if you're not dropping grits, ie using something like 400 to 600 in place of a 1k to 2k. etc. Whereas extremely hard mid-60's HRC carbon and low alloy steels will melt on that stone like butter. Just use diamonds. If you can't afford or don't have a reason to get bonded diamond abrasives, just use the coated ones to do the rough grinding and you can smooth stuff out with powder/compound on wood. I'm just saying, when you're grinding on diamonds, it really doesn't matter if it's s35vn or something much more resistant like s90v. They all basically grind the same on diamonds. This is why imo once you cross over into the elevated maintenance demand domain of vanadium steels you are better off "going for broke" than "settling for less" with the idea of a minimal viable toughness threshold in mind. There's no reason not to. You're already paying the higher costs of powder steel, and you're already having to use Superabrasives so it just makes sense. Also sorry to mod for triggering the edit filter again... I suck.
 
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Kettleman said:
I’m either not doing this whole knife thing correctly or I’m just not as smart as everyone else around here.
I don’t have a favorite steel. Hell I don’t actually care about steel in modern folding knives. I am a bit interested in this magnacut stuff just because of all the hype but, I buy knives, they come with steel. I use the knives to cut stuff and when they need sharpening I sharpen them.
What am I missing here?
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Nothing. You are using CPKs, you’re good. :)
 
It's hard to pick just one but either magnacut or 3v. S35VN and S45VN get honorable mention as "do everything" timeless classics.
 
In folders, the S35VN in Cold Steels from a few years back is really good.

Favorite? Probably 20CV. The 20CV in my USA Kershaw Link and ZT 0562 is great. Seems to last forever.
 
I don't have a favorite steel. Whichever steel is in my pocket is my favourite. I usually carry a workhorse of easy-sharpening steel as the main blade and don't touch my fancy blade.These knives are usually made of 440c or D2 steel. If they are both well heat treated, it is definitely indistinguishable from any powder metal on that day. The difference comes in long-term use. I don't need long-term use anyway, I'm carrying another knife the next day.But I would like to add this. I'm surprised no one has mentioned sleipner. I have a couple of sleipner knives. It is a steel that I also use in some knives I make myself. It has incredible performance for its price.
 
Kettleman said:
I’m either not doing this whole knife thing correctly or I’m just not as smart as everyone else around here.
I don’t have a favorite steel. Hell I don’t actually care about steel in modern folding knives. I am a bit interested in this magnacut stuff just because of all the hype but, I buy knives, they come with steel. I use the knives to cut stuff and when they need sharpening I sharpen them.
What am I missing here?
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What, you didn't get the memo? S35vn doesn't cut things anymore. You obviously haven't been to the YouTube University .
 
whereismyknife said:
I'm surprised no one has mentioned sleipner. I have a couple of sleipner knives. It is a steel that I also use in some knives I make myself. It has incredible performance for its price.
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What manufacturers use that steel outside of Lion knives?
I've read people comparing it to D2, but looking at the chemical composition it doesn't even look to be in the same family of steel, so I'm not putting much weight to that.
 
Floatingby said:
What manufacturers use that steel outside of Lion knives?
I've read people comparing it to D2, but looking at the chemical composition it doesn't even look to be in the same family of steel, so I'm not putting much weight to that.
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Casstrom, kizlyar, anv, Saturn knives Williams blade design, acta non verba, dpx, viper, woox, crkt. These are the ones that come to mind. I also have a few custom ones. It is a very common steel used in Europe. It's not hard to see why it's being compared to the D2, Both are tool steel. it's semi-stainless and has better edge retention than the D2. It has both of the two key things that made D2 famous, and both are better than D2.
 
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Uncle Timbo said:
My favorite is the same as last year, today and tomorrow....carbon steel. I love for my knives to show their age. Just like me.
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I agree with you but, isn't that a Buck 119 in 420HC stainless steel? It's very stainless in my experience, leaving my 119 wet and with organic materials on it, or keeping my 110 sitting in my food plate for a few hours eating a long BBQ dinner one night.

Still definitely shows it's age! It would be super cool to have a little run of these in an old school carbon steel (52100, 1075/95, Johnathan, etc) just for the cool factor and possibly a bit tougher at that hollow edge, besides I enjoy a good patina, myself.

As to the thread, I gravitate towards carbon steels. Cruwear, K390, M4....
I have had S45VN, S35VN, AUS 8, spot rust on me, BD1, BD1N, whatever Mora uses and 420HC are the only steels I would say, take out in the rain or fishing and expect to be unscathed not having to fight rust after. Note to readers, I do not do extended wet things, so I am sure 420HC is not the best choice for a fishing raft knife.

But some of my favorite models are just made in AUS10A, VG-10, XHP, 4.116 Krupp, (love SAK for sharpen/storability and ease) so... I appreciate stainless too.
 
I don't really have a favorite and having a variety of steels is part of the fun of the hobby but if forced to pick one it would probably be Cruwear. With S90V to complement it, I'd be set.
 
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