Who still likes Stainless?

P

pit man

Joined
Nov 2, 2005
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I just thought I'd put this one to you as I'm curious.
With the swing back to good old high Carbon steel fixed blades lately I just wondered who still prefers to take a Stainless blade with them into the wilderness and why?
This came into my head when reading an article on the Doug Ritter/Benchmade survival knife collaberation which is made of S30V.:D
 
My Ka-Bar Next Generation is in stainless. As near as I can tell, it cuts better than my original in carbon steel. Mine is older, in some 12c sanvik or something like that (not a steel expert). The handle is kraton. I guess the knife is more resistant to the elements than the original.
 
I love CPM 154 and a well made S30V blade, in or out of the woods. D2 is great but thats damn close to stainless. I think they all hold an edge better than alot of carbons. I like O1 and A2 and CPM M4 tool steels but like a high quality SS better for a field knife, just one less thing to worry about. Its also nice to not have to mirror polish the blade to help corrosion resistance.
 
I prefer "stainless" in all of my folders.
In fact, my current favorite is H-1 blade-steel!
I don't see any benefit of a non-stainless steel in a folder size knife, especially one that will be carried in the woods.
 
I used to be a hardcore carbon steel guy but the new Fallknivens in 3G and the spydies in ZDP have been making me reconsider
 
When it comes to folders, stainless is the way I like to go.

With fixed blades I’d much rather tool steels, except for my Fallknivens and Sean O’Hares.

S30V or laminated VG10/3G is good stuff in a fixed blade, but I still feel more confident about how A2, 52100, O1, or INFI will perform under difficult circumstances.
 
Another advantage to a good tool steel is it can be sharpened to a less obtuse edge. I have reprofiled my INFI SS4 as my EDC and it is a cutting machine.
 
The newer stainless steels have improved very much. It is the only way to go for me. I don't have to worry about maintaining them as much as a tool steel. I am lazy and the new stainless works well for me.
 
The majority of my knives are stainless. I only prefer carbon steel in blades over 7 inches, which may be called upon for chopping and stuff. I'm also not much of a steel snob; I believe alot of a knife's performance is based on it's manufacture and not the steel itself. With that being said, I probably wouldn't go below AUS8 or something equivalent, just because I don't like to have to sharpen them every single time I use them. My personal favorite stainless is VG10. In my experiences (with Fallkniven and Spyderco knives), I find VG10 to have good toughness for a stainless, fairly easy to sharpen, great edge holding, and they always seem to have more 'bite' than other grades of stainless.
 
I like stainless steel and carbon steel both, depends on the kind of knife.

My neck knives for example are stainless (154CM, AUS 8 or 440C), non-stainless (including D2) neckers develop rust from sweat VERY quickly even when slathered with Tuf-Glide or similar.

Big fixed blades I like carbon steel, coated or not doesn't matter.

Fixed blade hunters in the 3 to 4 inch range I like both stainless and carbon
steel. Folders I prefer stainless.

And if I'm going to keep a fixed blade stashed in the car trunk, for example,
that'll be stainless because here in the Northeast you get a lot of condensation, humidity, etc.
 
i´d say it depends. if i need toughness (for serious abuse) i go for carbon, in all other situations i´d go for ss. i think really hard use folders should have carbon steel blades
 
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