Very cool thread. Why do you guys discuss such interesting things while I'm gone? I'm going to try not to upset folks with this response, but I've had 1070, 1080, 1095, O1, A2, 5161 in a variety of production/custom blades. In all honesty, I really have a hard time telling many of these blades apart based on the steel stamped or identified as what it has been made from.
When I say I have trouble telling them apart I am not saying its because they all perform the same. What I am saying is that the variation across three blades made out of O1 or 1095 is higher than the variation that I see between different knives. Heat treat is surely one dimension to this, but there are many other factors like the grind and edge geometry which figure into how I assess the blades performance.
Here are a couple of anecdotal observations I often make in this regard. How the blade sharpens. I understand you don't really test hardness by sharpening, but for a user like me, the way in which a blade sharpens seem to correlate with many of its performance attributes. On the one hand there are blades that feel stiff and almost 'ring' off when you are sharpening them. There are other blades that feel sort of muddy when you are sharpening them. I find the 'stiffer' sharpeners to be better performers (ability to get an edge and edge wear) and the 'muddy' knives tend to be very difficult to get an edge and to keep it. I don't think it has to do with wear resistance per say, as most of the high end stainless, VG10 and 154 feel muddy to me. Alternatively, I've encountered both O1, 1095 and the occasional Buck 420HC as 'muddy'. Some Bucks are also 'stiff'
One of the things I can say about RatCutlery and their 1095 steel is that every knife I get from them feels like the 'stiff' variety. From this company it seems like all of their knives perform the same and have little variance between getting a new knife from them and having it behave like I expect it will based on past performance. I have other 1095 blades from other manufacturers that don't perform the same at all. Alternatively, I have Rick's blade which is made out of 1080 for which lots of people slough off as a simple or inferior steel and yet it performs at a very high level (yeah here we go again with KGD giving Rick a public BJ on the forums again). It really does retain its edge, doesn't chip, takes a great edge and has that 'stiff' sharpening characteristic I like so much.
What I'm trying to say is that the 1080 blade is about one of the best performing knives I've ever had in its cutting performance even though it is written off as one of those simple steels. I also have a 1070 blade from Jimi Wade that behaves right up there with the best of them. On that Wade necker I do notice that its edge retention isn't as great, but it sure sharpens and takes an edge wonderfully. 1095 seems hit and miss to me across makers. O1 also seems to have a lot of variance in attributes. I've had O1 from the same maker in different knives perform quite differently.
So in the end I guess I like Rick's soup analogy, even if Pad Thai is a rice noodle dish not a soup (Tom Yum or Tom Kha Gai are the way to go!)
More so than which soup I choose from, I'd probably select the chef who is making it or at least a trusted restaurant.
:thumbup:
