whts the consensus about aus118?

[M Wadel]

is it a premium steel? havent seen many knives with this steel, is it any good? king of the AUS´es?

 

[Keith Montgomery]

I've read that it is a lot like AUS-10, which is also not used very much in knife manufacturing. You would think if it was such a good steel that it would be used more. CRKT used it for awhile, but no longer do. What was it about this steel that they discontinued its use?

 

[flip]

I have a bunch of carbon fiber CRKT M16s. They have AUS 118 blades. I carry one of the compact ones in my shirt pocket at work. It seems like about AUS 8 to me. It sharpens and holds an edge okay but it gets surface rust fairly quickly.

 

[Cliff Stamp]

You would think if it was such a good steel that it would be used more.

This often isn't the primary reasons that knives use the steels they do. AUS118/ACUTO 440 :

http://www.trapper.cz/index.php?page=ocelcr1&reklama=no&position=float&icona=

It is interesting that rust was noted to be a problem, you would assume from the composition that it would be better than 440C as there is more chroimum and molybdenum and less carbon. Much of course is in the heat treatment. To get these steels to have high corrosion resistance they need to be soaked very hot to dissolve the carbides. Likely CRK&T was not and thus the steel was underhardned and suffered both in edge retention, edge stability and corrosion resistance.

-Cliff

 

[The Mastiff]

I have the Mirage #7911 with ti framelock and Acuto 440/AUS 118. It's only about 2 inches or less blade. The larger "Grey Ghost" Mirage was IIRC AUS6.

About the only thing I noticed is that it's not a "pretty" steel. Kind of dingy gray like or more so than 440V. ( compared to the very bright AUS10A).

It came with an excellent edge, and still has it. I don't really use it much. The Ti framelock is well made.

To be honest I don't think they made any M16's in Acuto 440. I think they really made only 1 or 2 knive styles in it for 1 or 2 years. Try to find some now, it's difficult to do.

Sorry I don't have performance data on it but I wanted it for my collection of different steels, and it's too small for practical use for me. Joe

BTW, Junglee knives makes several knives in AUS10A, made in Seki . They are well made liner locks. Knifecenter of the internet is discontinuing several models. I like the steel if only for it's looks. Spyderco is phasing out it's one and only Aus 10A knife. I'd have to let Sal explain as to why. I like it myself, though I wouldn't expect it to perform like VG10, or S30V.

 

[M Wadel]

To get these steels to have high corrosion resistance they need to be soaked very hot to dissolve the carbides. Likely CRK&T was not and thus the steel was underhardned and suffered both in edge retention, edge stability and corrosion resistance.

too bad because newgraham had some crk&t wasps left... i really liked the design.