Who likes stainless steel knives?

R

R.H.Clark

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Aug 23, 2007
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I just got back from a 5 day bowhunting trip.It rained like pouring you know what out of a boot for 4 days and we had 40 mph winds the one day without rain.I carried a 1095 steel blade but could not prevent rust under the conditions no matter how many times I wiped it down.It was just too wet and impossible to keep either me or the knife dry all the time unless we both stayed in camp.

I think I am now much more open to stainless blades for extreme conditions.What are your favorite stainless steels? what do you think of stainless blades in general?
 
Preventing rust is exactly why stainless can be a good choice. Now it does have its down sides, such as being a little more difficult to sharpen but when conditions are similar to what you are talking about I think this can be overlooked. There are also many new stainless steels that work wonders. A very common one to find is AUS 8. It gets the job done, but there are better out there.
 
For a stainless knife I still like good old Aus 8, keeps a decent edge, easy to re-sharpen and is quite tough and so doesn't chip like so many of the so called super stainless steels.

I'd still rather go with high carbon though and just fetch the rust off when I get home or batton it through some wood at the end of each day to clean it back up !
 
I have had good experiences with AUS-8, too. My Delta 5 in AUS-8 as spent many a snowshoeing trip in a sheath half-full of snow, covered in pine sap, and it keeps coming back for more.

That being said, I'm a sucker for a nice patina!

All the best,

- Mike
 
I generally prefer carbon steel,but some times stainless is better - like in very wet places :D

154 CM is really a great steel - it holds a great edge for a long time under hard conditions :)

I generally like stainless steels in folders - they're easy to maintain that way.But I haven't have any problems with my carbon steel Case Trapper...
 
Spyderco's H1 is great stuff. You just can't get it to rust, no matter how hard you try. I also like Bark River's stainless- I think they use 12c27.
Honestly though, I don't have many stainless fixed blades. I like carbon for the ones that don't fold (and a lot of those that do).
 
There had to have been a good reason that the two most popular knives in The Republic of South Viet Nam were the Buck special, and the Buck 110 folding hunter.
 
Certainly corrosion can be an annoying attribute of carbon steel. I think it is worse though if you worry about it too much. Kind of like an itch you can't scratch. When you try to scratch it and can't get it, the itch seems even worse. You get into this kind of feedback loop when you see rust forming, worry about it, try to deal with it in non-ideal conditions and then figure out you can't actually prevent it from occurring.

There are a couple of things you can do - 1) like Mentor says encourage a patina which will provide an effective deterrent against rust. 2) polish up the blade, a highly polished surface causes intense beading of water droplets and is subject to les corrosion. 3) don't worry about the rust that occurs, just let it go its natural course over the period that you are out in the field. Rust forming over 1 or 2 weeks will not damage your knife. It will just be surface film and in fact the surface film will protect the metal underneath. When you return back, put a little love into the blade with Flitz polish or a 2000 grit sand paper and it will look as good as new.

However I do recognize a certain degree of fastidiousness that many knife members have about their tools. They pride themselves on having everything in absolutely perfect looking condition. If you are one of those types then carbon probably isn't for you. Go with stainless.
 
jackknife said:
There had to have been a good reason that the two most popular knives in The Republic of South Viet Nam were the Buck special, and the Buck 110 folding hunter.
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They are cheap and were brought over by air-craft carrier loads of GI's in the war...Lots of 1095 machetes in the jungles of central america.
 
Patina's rock.....:D:thumbup:

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The 12C27 Bark Rivers hold up well, even around salt and brackish water, if cared for. They also are pretty tough. We camp around bays and bayous quite a bit, and even stuff like A2 and D2 catch hell if not taken care of. Most of it is cosmetic, but the edge also suffers. It usually doesn't bother me, except during food prep. Wiping a little veggie oil on a carbon blade you use for food works, but you have to use it often or clean it, or the oil gets nasty. Most the newer stainless stuff from quality makers does pretty good on smaller fixed blades.
 
Spyderco's H1 is great stuff. You just can't get it to rust, no matter how hard you try
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H1 is actually a rustproof steel, not stainless. The usual hardening agent in steel, carbon, is replaced entirely with nitrogen. No carbon, no rust. It behaves a little different than normal tool steels, but I have heard good reviews of it.

I don't really worry about the steel on my knives too much, more about the handles. When I know there is potential for a wet environment, I carry a plastic handled knife instead of my usual wood handled knife. My wood handles are treated with oil to protect them, but if I'm going to be soaking the knife in rain or slush, I want to avoid excess damage to the handle.

I know that even if my blade rusts, I can just sharpen the rust off and it will keep cutting. I can see rust as more of an issue with a hunting knife, which could be used to field clean your catch, but for wood and utility cutting (which is 95% of what I do with a knife), a little rust is fine. When I get home I can sand it off, or just leave it and not care.

Check out Dan Koster's guide to steels, http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=500049

You might also check out D2, which is a highly stain resistant, non-stainless tool steel. It holds a very good edge when properly heat treated, and seems to have a very high corrosion resistance for a non-stainless. The reason for this is that the chromium content is fairly high, but not quite high enough for a stainless classification.
 
Mora sandvik 12c27 is a great stainless..It has similar ease of sharpening and edgr reteintion to the carbon steel that mora uses.. and is touted by Mors korchanski as one of the only "acceptable" stainless steels Personally I don;t mind a little rust.. But I have had good experiences with the sandvik
 
I worked as a welder/blacksmith for a while and most of the tools I used were made when god was a lad. Sure they all had a nice patina and some had a little surface rust but they all functioned 100%. I can't even see how a little surface rust is a problem when using it for food prep as people have mentioned ! Way back when, high carbon steel was all that they had so the old time mountain men must have used their carbon steel knives for food prep and I'm sure they didn't keep them all nice and shiney all the time !
 
I've had good experience with BG-42 and although not marketed as a "stainless", Infi holds up to weather pretty well. I also agree with D2 as I have some Doziers that hunt well in foul conditions. I even have some old 440C blades that work fine.

DancesWithKnives
 
I've used plenty of stainless...AUS-8, 440C, VG-10, 154 CM...others I can't think of at the moment. I agree with the D2 comments above. Of course, I'm easy...I rarely meet a steel I don't like as long as it's being used in the right application.
 
In lousy conditions, I will take the draw backs of stainless steel every time. Much of my field dressing the last several years have been done with the Mora Clipper. I have a stainless one and a carbon one. In this application, I can't see enough difference in performance to even mention. Wood working may be different, I do not do much wood crafting with my knives.

Speaking of the Buck Special in SE Asia, I snapped a specials blade chopping Bamboo, Must have been a freak deal though because a lot of guys used them with good results. BTW, Buck replaced the knife, no questions ask, as they always do.:thumbup:
 
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