Which do you think is the worst steel ever?

[y53p]

I’m genuinely curious, I’ve heard many people complain about 420 but I own a couple Buck knives and they hold an edge on par with higher end steels.

What’s your opinion?

 

[Quiet]

Any time I see something that's listed as "surgical" or "stainless steel", I'm out.

 

[Dav1]

440a for me.

 

[y53p]

Any time I see something that's listed as "surgical" or "stainless steel", I'm out.

Oh yeah unlabeled “stainless steels” are the worst. They are probably the worst kind of 440 or something. Steels with MoV at the end seem to be pretty bad too.

 

[Arathol]

Pakistani damascus.....

 

[EngrSorenson]

Looks like Case isn't getting any of that Forrest gravy!

But to the original question, and assuming Jarbenzas are out, 440A has been a bit of a letdown.

 

[Therom]

i really don’t know
I think what is listed as « surgical steel » is pretty bad

In my experience, not bad steels, but steels I didn’t like: 440a, 440c, s110v, 4116 and most of Chinese/Indian Damascus

 

[Alberta Ed]

420J -- fine in tableware, sucks in knives.

 

[Danke42]

Rostfrei

 

[luethge]

8crmov13 or whatever it’s called. Has to be sharpened after cutting one box, you can sharpen it with a denim pant leg though.

This will probably piss some people off - I can’t stand M390 , 20CV or 204 P

 

[Locutus D'Borg]

Surgical steel and Pakistani Damascus. Both will lose their edge when cutting butter.

 

[dogstar]

You know the kitchen knives they have at vacation rentals, that you can't sharpen because the edge just rolls back and forth? Whatever that is.

 

[shane45-1911]

You know the kitchen knives they have at vacation rentals, that you can't sharpen because the edge just rolls back and forth? Whatever that is.

Hahaha, have you actually done that? Tried to sharpen rental kitchen knives??? That's awesome!!! And also why I make sure to always bring my own "silverware".

 

[Hal]

This will probably piss some people off - I can’t stand M390 , 20CV or 204 P

It won't matter at all to me since I'm not the one that made the stuff!

I'd have to say the most disappointing steel for me has been AUS6.
Coincidentally - and - gee there's no surprise here - - Columbia River used a lot of AUS6....

 

[Nebuchadnezzar]

This Steel is awful.

 

[TC]

I’m genuinely curious, I’ve heard many people complain about 420 but I own a couple Buck knives and they hold an edge on par with higher end steels.

What’s your opinion?

Buck's 420HC isn't your pervy uncle's basic 420. Thread premise FAIL.

 

[K.O.D.]

Any steel with a poor heat treat.

 

[brancron]

According to Z Knives' interactive knife steel composition chart, AISI 316L and AISI 400C (not 440C, but 400C) are extremely low carbon steels (.03-.05%), and the latter has 0.25% aluminum (lol). The carbon level is so low that neither can be hardened to anything near an acceptable level for knives, but apparently some super low-end manufactures have used them for knives. There are plenty of other examples like that.

The truth of the matter is that for every bad steel you can name, there are dozens of much worse steels that are not commonly known nor commonly discussed by name. A pretty good rule of thumb is that if you've heard of the specific steel type, it's definitely not the worst out there.

 

[justjed]

99.998-99.999 percent of Pakistani damascus. A couple of times in the last 25 years or so, I've actually seen clean, tight, Paki damascus. Decent fit & finish, quality materials, a real knife maker made them. Better quality than Windlass Steels, which is used as an OEM by Cold Steel. And Atlanta Cutlery.

Surgical stainless, 99% is crap. The only knives with a 'surgical steel' label that were any good were some of the ones made for Taylor brand in Japan. Aside from those 440C(iirc) blades, the rest were whatever was cheapest at the time. Knew a guy who was a real fan of Surgical Stainless, and NOT Taylor brand.....

It shouldn't be that difficult. There's no such thing as a 'bad' knife steel. BUT, not all steels make good knives. Anything lower than 8Cr13Mov sucks. 420J. 1.4116. Several Russian steels are really good alloys, but they don't make really good using knives.
And so on, and on......

EDIT: I know several of these steels are used for some high quality kitchen cutlery. That is a completely different, and separate, category. In my opinion.

 

[kreole]

Standard stuff in the like .6-.7c range. It has enough carbon to rust but not enough to have usable edge holding.

At least a 3cr or 420 is totally on one side, usable like for a backup keychain knife that won't rust very easily.