why stainless?

[knifeaholic101]

i understand carbon steel holds a longer edge but stainless steel may have a low carbon content yet 99.999% of knives are built with stainless steel. buck uses stainless on 9.999% of their knives and yet they hold an edge pretty well. can someone shed some light on this?

 

[NickWheeler]

Hope this doesn't sound rude... but you should REALLY do some searches both here and on the internet in general about steels, their compositions, and their appropiate uses.

Stainless used in knifemaking ABSOLUTELY DOES have carbon. The reason it is considered stainless is it has the element Chromium added.

When someone says "carbon steel blade" they're simplifying whatever it really is. It could be something dirt simple and barely hardenable like 1040, or it could be something more complex with many more elements to the alloy like 52100.

Just like there is a vast array of stainless worthy of being made into a knife.

Just to give you an idea how far out that question is, it's much like asking- "I know cars get better gas mileage but trucks don't have tires. Yet Ford is making lots of trucks, and they seem to get decent gas mileage. How do they do that without tires?"

Do some research, you'll be glad you did




Okay, well you went and changed your post while I was typing mine. But I'll leave mine alone. Cutlery quality stainless steel is NOT low carbon.

 

[WYK]

Generally when someone in the industry uses the term "Carbon Steel" they mean the main alloying element is carbon - eg. the 10 series, L6, 52100, 50100, 5160, 0-1, W-2. These all mostly have Carbon with traces of other elements, or at least nearly the same amount of another alloying element(usually in the 1% range) as they have Carbon.

High speed steels and stainless steels are usually described as such. High speed D2 or M2 can have as much as 7-13% of another alloying element(such as Chromium or Molybdenum). And Stainless generally has at least 13% or more chromium in it. ALL steel has some Carbon in it - otherwise it's not steel.

I haven't really noticed it, but according to CPM's own testing, their stainless steels give as much wear resistance as many carbon steels do. In fact, CPM states their S30V has better wear resistance than D2. M2 is still way up there wen it comes to wear resistance(and I haven't found anything that will actually sharpen that can beat it in my experience). I personally believe carbon steels are extremely easy to sharpen, and prefer them to any stainless I have used. I have seen too many 60HRC stainless blades chip instead of roll. Once an edge chips, it's never hsame until it's reprofiled. Some consider this the nature of the beast. I personally just avoid it as much as I can and stick with Carbon when I can.

WYK

 

[R.Coon-Knives]

I have always been a carbon steel person until we got a set of Henckels kitchen cutlery. I was surprised to learn that it was 440C - but it had been cryo treated. It is flexible, and takes and holds and edge extremely well.

So, the kind of steel is only half of the story. How it is heat treated is the other half.

 

[John Frankl]

Just to elaborate on what Nick Wheeler wrote:

Carbon is what makes steel steel. Without it you have iron. Where the confusion arises is the term "carbon steel," which is actually sort of shorthand for a steel with few (alloying) elements other than carbon and iron. The steels commonly referred to as "carbon steels" will almost always have trace/low amounts of other elements--even when you don't want them. Nick mentioned chromium; in some stainless steels the chromium content is as high as 17%, as compared to the 1% or less for almost all of the "carbon steels" (52100 being the notable exception here at a maximum of 2% as indicated by the 2 in its name). But, also as Nick alluded to, the stainless steels often contain as much or significantly more carbon than the so-called carbon steels.

I'm sure you see a pattern developing here. Using specific designations (CPM S30V rather than "stainless steel," or W2 rather than "carbon steel," to give just two random examples, wil always help keep discussions meaningful and focused.

Yours,

John Frankl