Guide to the Best Knife Steel

[Evil D]

Blade geometry and the Heat treat are possibly as important as steel type for an individual design. I have blades in VG 10 which I love but I prefer more exotic materials at this point. I think any steel guide really is just a starting point for discussion. I find that Spyderco is using steels that aren’t in these guides such as the one you linked too, and there are others of course. Nice to have knowledgeable people to talk to about this stuff.

You can find the steel Mfg.s working sheets on line for all the steels listed, they give detailed heat treating and hardness data.
Example: http://www.crucible.com/PDFs/DataSheets ... v12010.pdf

Not so sure they're giving the numbers that knife companies are actually using. Steel X at Spyderco may very well be a different hardness than Steel X at Benchmade, and neither may be what that website says it should be because a lot of these steels are designed for industrial use and the hardness they use for those applications may vary from knife applications.

What the Mfg.s of the blades do with their heat treating process is a very tightly held secret, this is why one Mfg. of a knife using a brand X steel for their blades, will not render the same type blade as another Knife Mfg. using the exact same brand X steel.
Heat treating is a little science a little magic and a little VoDo, along with a lot of trials of the process's.

That's my point....the manufacturer heat treat info may not be of much use to us knife users.

[MattBPKT]

Thanks for the share guys. We work hard to provide interesting and engaging information like this in the hope it stimulates the next generation of knife enthusiasts :)

Matt

[Sjucaveman]

Thanks for the share guys. We work hard to provide interesting and engaging information like this in the hope it stimulates the next generation of knife enthusiasts :)

Matt

It was knife informer primarily that pushed me to want s110v which led me to spyderco and the knife that started it all, my s110v pm2. Now not even a year in I'm over 100 spydercos deep.

Thanks Matt!

[snapshot2017]

Thanks for the share guys. We work hard to provide interesting and engaging information like this in the hope it stimulates the next generation of knife enthusiasts :)

Matt

It was knife informer primarily that pushed me to want s110v which led me to spyderco and the knife that started it all, my s110v pm2. Now not even a year in I'm over 100 spydercos deep.

Thanks Matt!

I sure understand what you just posted as my collection of Spyredco knives is starting to grow.

[Larrin]

What a coincidence:

https://knifesteelnerds.com/2018/09/03/ ... -articles/

[ThePeacent]

What a coincidence:

https://knifesteelnerds.com/2018/09/03/ ... -articles/

As usual Larrin, a most interesting article. :cool:

Thanks!! :spyder:

[koenigsegg]

What a coincidence:

https://knifesteelnerds.com/2018/09/03/ ... -articles/

I wanted so bad to post this yesterday haha

[kodai78]

https://knifesteelnerds.com/2018/09/03/ ... -articles/

This link is to an article written by a forum member and is very informative. If you have any interest in knife steels it’s worth a look. The website is full of very carefully researched information about steels in general and I believe is authoritative.

[blues]

https://knifesteelnerds.com/2018/09/03/ ... -articles/

This link is to an article written by a forum member and is very informative. If you have any interest in knife steels it’s worth a look. The website is full of very carefully researched information about steels in general and I believe is authoritative.

Comes from a pretty darn good steel pedigree too. :cool: (I've been fortunate enough to own some Devin Thomas Damascus at one point or another in my years of collecting.)

[Chumango]

Good as a general guide, though not necessarily strictly accurate. Many steels are listed with better corrosion resistance than S110V, but that is not true.