Why Use Carbon Steel?

colu41

colu41

Joined
Dec 24, 2014
Messages
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I have been up and down through my first year of making knives. Starting with carbon steel. Learning to hate it because of how easily it will rust, and loving stainless steels. Now I'm back to trying out carbon steels again as I stare at the 8 ft of 1095 I just received from Aldo. I'm no metallurgist at all. Considering most stainless steels have just as much, if not more carbon than carbon steels, I've never understood the purpose.
Now, I'm not sure what properties in steel create toughness/wear resistance. All I know is chromium creates resistance to corrosion, and the more the sulfur, the easier it is to work with.

Could someone out there tell me why some people prefer carbon steels over stainless? When theoretically, good stainless has the best of both worlds? Or does it come down personal preference, old age :p?
 
Typically, the 10xx steels are easier to work and give a very usable knife that most modern day users would be hard pressed to wear out in a life time.
 
I personally like the patina that develops on carbon steels in use. Rust has never been an issue for me ever. Also, carbon steels are much quicker and easier to bring to an extremely keen edge. Even a bit sharper than with stainless varieties. It may need to resharpened a little more often, but it is so quick and easy it makes up for it. You should follow some of the hand tools only Woodworking forums if you want to see some crazy steel and sharpening arguments! Lol
 
There are some advantages of carbon steel which are

-Cheaper as raw material
-Easier to work, HT, grinding
-Forgable, which mean you can have the awesome Brute de Forge finish
-You can forge from round bar = more readily for integral knife.
-Easy to sharpen and take finer edge than stainless
-Capability for selective heat treat for tougher and more shock absorb (edge quenching, clay hardening, draw back spine)
-Less complicated to be made to Damascus or laminated blade compare to stainless
-Hardening line
-Take patina (This also can see as disadvantage for many thought)
 
If talking about performance like edge holding, strength or toughness, steel like 3V, PD1 or Vanadis4E will blow any low alloy carbon steel out of the water. But that come at cost though.
 
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Damascus I understand, as I've made a few billets from 1084 & 1095 mixed with 15n20. And shqxk, 3V is great steel.
 
This is one thread where we need the eating popcorn emoticon. ;)

I did a week or more study on this subject as well, being new and only slightly biased by my stock removal making.
Devin T has a good post on this I think on his site, at least regarding AEBL: http://www.devinthomas.com/faq.html

I'm making both, and just starting to learn the differences in grinding and use. It's an interesting journey anyways...

...where's my popcorn
 
12345678910 said:
It's toothy
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You know, I was kind of curious about this. When I first started knife making, I used 1084. Other than recently Damascus, I've mainly used a variety of stainless. And I have yet to get a knife as sharp as some of my 1084 knives...
 
my opinion -
as said above - "Easy to sharpen and take finer edge than stainless"
or perhaps better said as - easier to sharpen than stainless
 
Easier for many folks to work with if they want to keep everything "in house" How many of us metal pounders started off with a one brick/two brick/coffee and plumbers torch or charcoal BBQ grill/hair dryer forge that served as both our forge and our high temp heat treating oven? ;)
 
jdm61 said:
Easier for many folks to work with if they want to keep everything "in house" How many of us metal pounders started off with a one brick/two brick/coffee and plumbers torch or charcoal BBQ grill/hair dryer forge that served as both our forge and our high temp heat treating oven? ;)
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yea, we all started somewhere. A lot of customers still prefer carbon anyway and not everyone can sharpen some of the high end stainless steels worth a crap. Or at least they think they cant. That's the complaint I hear most, "I hate sharpening stainless" not saying its right but they think it is..
 
3V is carbon steel.

The carbon content of the steel doesn't predict what kind of finished product you'll get, and many of the best stainless steels have much less carbon than 1095.

Generally, carbon steels are less likely to fracture for a given hardness, which is why you're always told to avoid stainless swords.

1095 is one of the most basic of carbons steels. 3V is one of the most advanced. In between steels like A2 offer great toughness and edge holding.
 
A surprising number of people these days like old school stuff, stuff that looks hand made, and the patina on well cared for HC steel gives those folks the warm fuzzies. I think that being able to see that it still bears marks from the making process is refreshing in the same way.
 
The hand made thing is very popular of late.
elementfe said:
A surprising number of people these days like old school stuff, stuff that looks hand made, and the patina on well cared for HC steel gives those folks the warm fuzzies. I think that being able to see that it still bears marks from the making process is refreshing in the same way.
Click to expand...
 
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