What is your favorite knife steel? This would be a working knife, considerations would be holding an edge?, ease of sharping, toughness, corrosion resistance? I primarily have D2 and CPM S30V and have been relatively happy with them. Just want to hear your thoughts.

S30V for hunting knives
very happy with AUS8 cryo for my EDU kitchen knives.

My favorite maker uses D2 so....

I like carbon steel knives. Much easier to sharpen than most of the stainless variants and you can generally get them much sharper. I also sort of like the patina a carbon steel blade develops over time.

My personal favorite is carbon steel, either 5160 that is water quenched or 1070 or 1084 steels that are oil quenched.
However when I design for production companies by far the average person in America seems to prefer a stainless steel, therefore the knives I design for them are tailored toward a steel such as S30V.
My opinion or carbon is that I prefer its edge and sharpening but most folks seems to have trouble with getting the right edge on the carbon steel knives.
Your mileage may vary.

I never made a knife. But after decades of carrying knives for extended periods in the deserts, tundra, snows, jungles, woods, swamps, and coastal areas of much of the world I will say that having a stainless blade far outweighs any sharpening advantage a rusty carbon steal blade ever had. And, no, there is no amount of oil or any coating that will keep a standard carbon steel blade from rusting if it is exposed to the elements for very long, especially if you use it. If you want a knife for show, for working indoors, or for occasional short-time use outdoors then standard carbon steel is fine. If you want a knife that can stand up to long, repeated use outdoors then stainless is the way to go.

I guess I have to wade in here too. As a forger; I may have some inborn prejudices that I can't seem to get past. Years of therapy have not helped in any great amount.
First foremost and above all a knife is supposed to cut. What. When. and how you want to cut it.
Ask a real soldier, a real outdoorsman/hunter, a professional butcher, a competent chef.
You might get different answers; but most will tell you get the best cut with carbon steel.
You must find the place that suits you. Really shiney, really cutty, or somewhere in between.
As an old guy who is getting older every day. 1084 or w-2 because it really does cut.
If you don't want to clean it, you shouldn't own it.
Ask you grandpa; he'll tell you.
Did I go too long?

Okay, well a question for all you wonderful custom knife makers that help feed our addiction, why do we not see more nice examples of custom knives made with carbon steel blades? I am sure the answer is that customers generally demand stainless, but it would sure be nice to regularly see great examples of custom carbon steel knives show up . . . pretty please.

01 if someone wants carbon, D2 for stain resistance and edge holding ability. I generally have the owner send them back to me for sharpening.

quote:

Originally posted by MJines:
Okay, well a question for all you wonderful custom knife makers that help feed our addiction, why do we not see more nice examples of custom knives made with carbon steel blades? I am sure the answer is that customers generally demand stainless, but it would sure be nice to regularly see great examples of custom carbon steel knives show up . . . pretty please.

Well lets see........

Not a knife-maker,

But rather a user/collector.




J2dogs
1080 IIRC




AA Forge,
1084 Carbon Steel(IIRC)




bought so long ago I've forgotten its provenance.













Russell Green River Works, Handles by VCM Custom Knives




Marcin Bona (Poland) 1095 IIRC


1095 Carbon Steel

Two by Lee Baumgart.

O1 IIRC,

I stand to be corrected by Lee.

Fisk/White River Collaberation




Slaughterville Knives (Dale Atkerson)




Gary Dukeman





Some Doziers




KOA Yukon Belt Knife


d2

Tim Olt




Ray Kirk







John LLoyd

52100 Carbon Steel

Dale Howe, Howe Mountain Knives

3V

Rick Menefee


A2

TK Steingass


Rocky Menefee



Rick Menefee

W2

Damascus..........



Mike E. Miller


Ariel Saliverria



Rick Menefee (first Damascus blade ever forged by Rick)


and my Mike Williams Leaf Pattern Damascus Trifecta










and my pride n' joy




The Dragon's Kiss

Quillon Dagger by Mike Williams

Sheath by GWB


JAPPFT,

GWB

If you want a good tough blade that will hold an edge try CPM 3V steel. You will be surprised.

Bark River has lots of models in this steel.

Regards, Keith

Dang GW, that's an impressive collection. I love it every time you show that ram's horn skinner. That's a fantastic knife. The rest aren't bad either.

You forgot thr N.. S35VN is my favorite with 3V a second .3V is not stainless but does resist rusting fairly well and is very tough. Both steels are best sharpened with diamond .Then they become easy to sharpen .Both are " powder metal " types, capable of very sharp edge which are very wear resistant also.Both steels have become popular for good reason and now are available in many production and custom models !!

I made some bowies and couple of machete type choppers out of some chipper blades from the local OSB plant.

It is a stainless of some type makes a heck of a tough blade.

quote:

Originally posted by DesertRam:
I love it every time you show that ram's horn skinner.

Sunday nite, wind was blowin' about 40 MPH, 38 degrees out and dinner getting cold so I needed something sharp to quickly unwrap this hoglet.....






Ram's horn Skinner in 3V

JAPPFT,


GWB

Yep, like that picture too. Looks like it did a mighty fine job of unwrapping that little hog - just like my kids on Christmas morning!

Simply CPM-3V.

Jiri, how easy is it to get CPM-3V in your country ?
I was impressed with it .It's made right here in NY State !!

mete:

The steel is available here from this company: http://www.bolzano.cz/cz/sorti...praskovou-metalurgii

But knifemakers here use mostly european made steels.

I had huge Bark River Bravo III, which I sold (too big for me) and now I have and I am very happy with Bradford Guardian 6, which replaced Eickhorn Expedition knife made out of Bohler K110 steel (german version of D2). I am very impressed, how CPM-3V knives are easy to sharpen to scary sharp, hold good edge, are incredibly tough and are not as easy to rust as common carbon steel knives.

Upper is Guardian 6, CPM-3V, lower one is German expedition knife which I sold (didn't like the shape).


I believe that CPM-3V is the best steel for hard working knives. Yes, there are high tech 3rd generation powder metallurgy steels, a little bit harder and at the same time little bit tougher maybe, but rusting more easy for example and/or harder to sharpen.

Jiri

Interesting website . But they spell it metalurgii instead of the proper metallurgy !!
Thanks

"metalurgii" means ~ "by metallurgy", it is "instrumental" - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instrumental_case ;-)

ats-34 and 52100 are my favorites.

I'd vote for 52100 forged by Rick Dunkerley, but I am working with a couple of knives out of K390, one by Phil Wilson, who is an artist with pushing steels to their limits and sometimes beyond and one about 63Rc from Poland. So far they are very fine but, particularly in the blade geometry of the Wilson, are not designed to be used for anything but cutting. At my age and for me, I don't need a tactical knife, nor do I need one to chop wood, or split kindling. IMO most of those chores are not meant for knives anyway. military use excluded.

I used to love S30V and it is still makes a very fine knife, but like older digital cameras, there are better steels out there now. Like D2, Dozier uses it, and does a helluva job, and most people, including me, will never really know the difference between D2 and better steels but there are many better ones out there now, so I quit buying Doziers after the first dozen or so, unless the handle really grabs me.

Gatogordo:

K390 is great PM steel, tough and wear resistant.

But do you have any personal experience with "corrosion resistance"? I know it is not stainless, but some non stainless steels are a pretty good (D2, CPM-3V) and others rust very easy. I ask because it is close to CPM-10V and it rusts easy what I know.

Jiri

So far, with limited use, corrosion on the 390 does not seem to be a problem, but it certainly is not stainless. A patina on my using blades is not a problem to me. I'm a collector but a long ways from a perfectionist.