Which do you think is the worst steel ever?

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The worst steel is whatever Frost Cutlery used on the fixed-blade knife that failed me as a kid. I was so disappointed when that knife broke. And it broke while I was whittling a stick, not doing something stupid with it.

As for the mention of 420 by OP, I’ve got no issue with 420HC. My Buck knives have performed flawlessly for me, and have accompanied me for hundreds of trips and have completed thousands of projects.
 
Seax69 said:
I used to feel the same way about 8cr13mov. First knife I used was a Dewalt branded pocket knife and it was really hard to get super sharp and dulled after a few cuts, tried a second knife made by boker and it was actually half decent. It was pretty close to 1095 in edge retention. I guess some companies just don't do the steel justice.
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Heat treatment definitely makes a world of difference. I’ve had a few HK ( Benchmade ) knives in D2 that chipped very often, had a few Benchmade benchmades in D2 that cut for days and never chipped.
 
luethge said:
Heat treatment definitely makes a world of difference. I’ve had a few HK ( Benchmade ) knives in D2 that chipped very often, had a few Benchmade benchmades in D2 that cut for days and never chipped.
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I’ve had similar experience with D2. Had some el-cheapo in D2 that chipped horrendously. Borrowed a friend’s Dozier in D2 for a while and that thing had fantastic performance. No chipping at all.

And one of my favorite and most-used knives is in a D2 derivative. A custom from Gollik Knives in Sleipner. I have put that knife through absolute hell, at times performing very abusive tasks with it. Not one chip, ever.
 
Worst steel ever? Three separate answers come to mind.
1) Knife blades made out of an alloy not suitable for cutlery due to the low carbon content.
2) Knife blades made from high quality steel but poorly heat treated.
3) Knife blades made from a low-mid range steel but being advertised as a premium steel.
 
dogstar said:
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.
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When you see what some people do with knives, you'll understand why they buy cheap crap. I live in a house of 6 - three of us (aged 76, 74 and 70) are knife users, always kept the blades in separate slots in the knife board insert in the drawer, and always touched them up and hand washed and dried them after each use. Grandma and I have about the same "haned" with a steel, so that was easy. The three kids (ages 55,32 and 12) do things with knives that make me cringe. That's why I keep my own knives in a chef's knife roll in my bedroom in case I was to cook something. That's more conducive to a good household environment than me pitching 2-4 shit fits when I cook. Don't get me started on people who apparently don't know the alphabet well enough to put the spices back where they belong in our extensive spice racks.

Back to knives, just about any knife where the company won't tell me exactly what steel they're using. Hard pass.
 
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Gerber 7cr17mov. Theoretically, 7cr17mov shouldn't be terrible but Gerber heat treats it so soft the edge will literally dull test cutting paper. That's the main problem with companies selling knives in less than 8cr13mov/AUS 8, nobody who actually knows anything about knives actually buys anything lower end than that so the companies using it have no incentive to do anything other than grind out a knife-shaped object and make it look pretty. I'd love to see one Rockwell tested, I'd be surprised if it was even 50HRC and that's being generous.
 
Don't hate the steel; hate the heat treatment.

I tend to avoid things like 5Cr15MoV, 8Cr13MoV, and even D2 not because they are horrible steels, but because many of the companies using them treat them as budget steels and often do shoddy heat treatments. D2 is a good steel for knives if the heat treatment is done properly. 8Cr13MoV is a perfectly fine steel if it's handled properly. I have a few kitchen knives that are at best 5Cr15MoV, but they have great ergonomics so I keep using them, but I like my nicer knives more. I even have some 3cr13mov throwing hawks, but they're just for throwing practice so survivability for being constantly thrown at targets is my primary concern.
 
Worst steel ever? What ever the steel was in the Pakistani lock back knife (Buck 110 clone) that I owned back in the early 80”s when I was in high school. It was so soft you could literally bend the blade to 90 degrees and back straight and it would not snap.
 
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