Hi Kev,

Here's my blade steel beliefs:

Fixed blade utility knife: I wouldn't buy anything but carbon steel, or tool steel. Easy to sharpen, great sharpness, good durability.
I own an Ontario RAT3 in D2 steel and a Becker BK7 in 1095 steel.
Another super cheap knife in carbon steel is the Cold Steel True Flight Thrower. It can easily be reground to a good edge. It's extremely tough and mine is a really good cutter with the reprofiled bevel. It is excellent as a batoning knife.

Folding knife: I'd go for a quality stainless. All my folders are stainless, with the exception of the Opinels.
Opinels are dirt cheap and can be sharpened to rediculous levels of sharp, good for fine work.

Fighting knife: In this application you'd actually be better off with a relatively soft stainless steel. This is a knife that would spend 99.99% of it's life in a sheath. Corrosion resistance and durability would be the most important factor. It doesn't need to hold an edge.

 

+1 This is very close to my stand on this subject. If I find some good retro carbon folders, I won't pass them by though.

 

Carbon all the way, keeps an edge better. Stainless dose have its uses though.

 

I choose Carbon/tool steel. There are some exoctic 'stainless' alloys that work but thier price is quite dear.

 

Busse Combats INFI is really easy to sharpen and is the best steel I have ever seen. I used a Satin Jack Tac almost everyday for 3-4 months to make a fire/baton wood. The baton was a old cold steel machette. The cold steel folded over on the area used to beat the Busse, the Busse had no damage other than the finish. The 8 dollar cold steel held up well and I still have it. I use it to cut the tree down then split it with the knife!

INFI will not chip, its hard to rust and it will never fail you. S30V is also a good stainless.

 

They have their trade offs. It's really all in what you like. I know growing up every adult man I knew had an Old Timer or Uncle Henry pocket knife with carbon steel blades (before they switched to stainless). The common old belief was that carbon held a better edge, and that's possibly true. The stainless is less maintenance and honestly, they're just about got it down to a science now. I like carbon but I want it to have a coating or finish on it. Stainless is much, much better than back when it first became popular.

 

A good stainless will rust just as bad as a good carbon steel. S30V is 14% chrimium and I have found that having a folder in a pocket and you sweat on it for a day or 2 you will have rust spots. Really since you care for a carbon steel a little more, your always thinking about it (with a good knife) you might take better care of it. .01 carbon will spot within 20 mins of getting sweat on it. It could take a 15 hours for a stainless to get spots. a good high carbon stainless will RUST and not stain. Carbon steel can do both and will do both if exposed to salt etc.

 

I disagree, I have an MN Spec Wenger folder & I have yet to see rust spots or any type of degradation- and it has been exposed to salt water.

 

Carbon Steel but i have a stainless fillet knife.I read in an earlier post of using steel on steel to baton you should never baton steel on steel use a wooden club.

 

I like Carbon steel, but quality stainless has its place as well. The trick is finding quality stainless.

 

Hello,
I prefer the carbon steel because they have a really better edge retention.

But I can do a clarification: there are two big type of carbon steel: high alloy (like INFI, S7, A8, K360, CPM 3V, A2, etc) and low alloy (like 1095, W1, W2, O1, etc). The high alloy steel may combine a high toughness, high edge retention, discrete corrosion resistance and they are easy to rescharpen (a famous example is INFI or the CPM 3V or the modified A8 of Nexus Caio or the Less know CPOH, CPOH Plus, K340, Chipper-Viking, Sleipner, etc). It is the category of steel than I prefer, although any of this are really expensive.

The inox martensitic steel have a high corrosion resistence (depends mainly of % Cr and of the heat treatment) but the edge retention and the toughness are not so high as the carbon steel (low or high alloy).

S30V, S60V, VG10, ZDP 189 and other are not easy to resharpen and in any case they may shown the chipping problem.

Excuse me for my bad english.

Hello.

 

Chipping problems are to do with heat treatment. (mostly too hard - therefore brittle)

 

The chipping problem are to do with the heat treatment and of the composition of steel (big amount of primary carbide fox example or type of primary carbide).

Hello.

 

if you get the GOOD quality stainless then you're pretty much getting the pro's of a carbon steel blade with the pro's of a stainless steel blade. I love carbon steel but a knife i will rely on in the bush would always be a high quality stainless steel, i've seen even the cheap made in china stainless knives last a little longer then my carbon steel blades if i let them out without caring for them everyday.

 

I don't think the "Carbon" or "Stainless" categories pass the smell test anymore.

There are too many steels now that have 1.00-2.00% carbon makeup and still exhibit mediocre or good corrosion resistance that the lines have blurred.

I say that individual materials or even individual companies are a good way to separate knives into classes for a potential use but lumping knives into good or bad just because they fall classically into one giant category or another is really outdated and draconian.

I mean, which is better: Cars or Trucks?

 

Carbon for my pocket and skinning knives, stainless for my filleting and sheath knives.

 

I have some of both, I really like the carbon steel for my camping and hunting knives but for daily carry I use stainless.

 

The heat treatment can't resolve any problem caused of carbide, because they depend princilappy by the chemical composition of steel.

An example is aisi D3. It contain a large amount of ledeburitc primary carbide.

The increase of austenizing temperature decrese the percentual of ledeburitc carbide but the dimension and quantity of that remain too bigger.

This is caused by the composition of steel. The alloy element change the Fe-C diagram and the slope of SE curve (indicator of saturation of gamma iron).

Toughness of this steel is low, 20 J al 58-60 Hrc.

Same speech for ZDP 189.

Hello.

 

Steel alloys usually are not brittle or prone to chipping before heat treatment, only after.
And also, you can have a batch of steel, treat a portion properly and not the other. One of them will be brittle and the other will not, yet they both came from the same batch.

 

Yes, i thinck any steel is more brittle befor heat treatment becouse in ant way the hardening increase significantly the hardness of steel.

But D3 is brittle also after the heat treatment, precisly because it contain a loto of ledeburitic carbide (and the heat treatment can't be resolve this problem).

I don't say the heat treatment don't affect on the chipping problem (or on corrosion resistance or edge retention) but than for any steel (in particoular any inoxidable martensitic steel) the brittle is intrinsic.

Hello.

 

Carbon Steel all the way.......

 

Carbon - Can't beat it.

 

I have a book titled The Bladesmith. It teaches all about different kinds of steel to use. The best steel to use is Vasco Wear. It is tough and highly wear resistant. Abrasives barely cut it. Once an edge is put on the blade, it simply does not get dull.

 

For me best steel for Cam Knives is A8 modified of Nexus Knives (similar to INFI), but another really good steels is CPOH plus or Caldie, Viking, K360 ESR, or Chipper (similar to Viking).

Hello.

 

Stainless vs Carbon

Stainless, though pretty hard from the get go, can't be heat treated further to increase hardness. carbon can. High carbon content helps but you loose corrosion resistance. If you heat treat carbon to very high rockwell numbers, (the exact number depends on the steel) then brittleness is a problem. There are some pretty tough hard mettles around now that would make outstanding knife blades but would be expensive. SPM (powdered mettle) another fabulously tough steel (not sure of spelling) pronounced crew ware. I'm sure someone makes blades of these materials but again, they would be expensive. I'm not a knife guy, so I don't know what is out there.

 

I prefer carbon steel, and always carry a carbon steel blade in the bush, along with a stainless fixed blade. I prefer to use my stainless blade for things that Could cause the carbon to rust. My carbon steel blade, and Stainless are about the same level of "Sharp". I ahve a very good stainless knife, and it sharpens easilly, not as easilly as the carbon steel blade though.

 

Stanless VS Carbon

I like stainless for my tactical folders and kitchen knives. I prefer carbon for traditional folders (eye brand). And carbon for survival, outdoor, utility knives, swords, machetes or any other fixed blade. I will trade a tougher blade for rust resistance any day of the week.

 

For pocket general use knives ( food prep , whittling ) stainless is fine .

For hard use cutting & chopping , carbon steel :thumb:

 

I started out all stainless as I was living in Houston. After 30 years of stainless I've since moved over to all 1095 steel because of its strength and toughness.

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