Which steels are most important to YOU?

shecky said:
I find super steels to be a rabbit hole for knife nuts. In actual users, some of the best steels I've come across are fairly humble. Rough Rider's 440A, 12C27 especially in the hands of Eka and Mora, plain old carbon steel, whatever Svord uses for the Peasant (reputed to be L6 but usually just described as tool or saw blade steel).

I'd rather pay for a boutique heat treat than a boutique steel. Interesting story. When I visited GEC, Bill Howard seemed a teeny bit disappointed/regretful about the use of O1 on the Farm & Field line. He found the end result after their heat treat spec between O1 and 1095 was, at best, negligible, yet the cost for O1 was significantly higher. Which ends up being counterproductive for the "budget" Farm & Field line. Then again, as I've said before, knife nuts are obsessed with "exotic" steels that have unusual letters and numbers ascribed to them, even if there's no actual advantage, so the use of O1 may have been as much of a selling point to compensate. And the power of suggestion means knife nuts can find advantages wherever they (don't) exist.
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I agree with you completely. L6, 5160, and other designations that can be applied to knives made from leaf springs, saw blades, and other "scrap" metals are definitely all I need and, with a few weaknesses of curiosity, all I really want as well.

I find Phil Wilson's adventures in super steels to be the only real draw for me to the world of high-tech alloys and heat-treatment protocols, so much so that I would readily buy any book written by him on the subject. I mean, just look at how lucid his thoughts are:

http://www.bucorp.com/files/phil_wilson_testimonial.pdf

On the topic of GEC - I would have never bought GECs if I hadn't been lured into the F&F line by the use of O1 steel. I ended up with one Bullnose and a whole pile of others made from 1095. In use whatever differences exist simply do not matter, but even if GEC made very little from the F&F line they can still use it as a gateway drug.
 
I'd say cpm-cruwear or cpm-m4 are my favorite carbon/tool steels. Cpm-m4 hold an edge until eternity and cpm-cruwear is so easy to resharpen yet holds an edge pretty well.

Stainless: 154cm or cpm-154. 154cm is just all around great, not the best, but it's overall specs are perfectly balanced. It doesn't rust, it doesn't chip, and it doesn't take an hour to resharpen. I can put a scary sharp edge on it easily and it holds it well. Take cpm-154 and the specs of 154cm pretty much double!
 
Carbon:

1095 for easy sharpening and can be made scary sharp
5160 for long blades because of the shock resistance

Stainless:
VG10, which has always impressed me with it's sharpness and ease of sharpening
Buck's 420HC. 420 never struck me as being good stuff until I got one of the new Buck 124's.
 
It would be interesting if people bought o1 just because of its designation. The o is for oil, as in oil quench, just like the w stands for water and a, air.

1095- 10 = series, 95 =.95% carbon and so on.

1084 is seen as a beginner steel, but the difference between it and 1095 can be very little.

I should have said that an ideal heat treat is assumed, just as proper application and geometry is assumed for this discussion.

The question is also, does the steel type matter enough that you'd choose one knife over another.

If buying a custom made knife, how important is a choice in steel?

Thanks for participating guys.
 
I try to buy 52-100 for fixed blades but a really nice one in 1095 is occasionally purchased. I am going to try and stick to M390 in folders but my will is weak.
 
In the kitchen, I like 52100 for the way it effortlessly takes a razor edge after a few passes on the strop,

...it can handle ripe tomatoes and raw meat like nothing else.


Other kitchen blades run the gamut from CPM steels to old school 10XX blades.


In the field I lean toward A2 and 5160, tough steels that take a beating.


My hunting knives are mostly Dozier D2, but I'm warming up to the stainless alloys like CPM-154 and CTS-XHP.


I've got folders in steels like S60V and M4, and they hold a savage edge.

We're in a great time for excellent knife steels.



Big Mike
 
For me, as a maker, I like cpm154 for it's grindabilty and the keen edge it can take.

cpm154 also isnt too expensive since it's only around $20 a pound.
 
Lots of support for 1095 I like it as well ,154cm ATS34 s30v are all excellent ,but imust agree any decent steel with a good heat treat will do the job.Recently got acouple of the new Camillus models with vg10.Initialy seem ok but I wonder about the heat treat.
 
O-1 and 1095CV for rustable and 440B or C and VG-10 for rust resistant.But Bob Dozier's D2 deserves a mention.
 
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