Corrosion Testing of 9 Stainless Knife Steels

[Larrin]

I did a new study on a range of different stainless steels including water spray and saltwater spray corrosion testing. I used the results of the study to improve my ranking of corrosion resistance of knife steels. https://knifesteelnerds.com/2019/10/14/ ... e-testing/

[The Meat man]

Excellent article Larrin. Very interesting to see CTS BD1N way up there. I've not had any rust with it, but I have had it patina after cutting some pork chops.
Thanks as always for your contributions!

[npad69]

good stuff!

[Dazen]

Good read, surprised to see the M390 Fam performing similar to S110V and substantially better than S90V. I would love to see more test done with Vanax, LC200N, H1 and Nitrobe 77 to see how all their other properties compare.

[Larrin]

Good read, surprised to see the M390 Fam performing similar to S110V and substantially better than S90V. I would love to see more test done with Vanax, LC200N, H1 and Nitrobe 77 to see how all their other properties compare.

I do have toughness data for Vanax and LC200N (listed as Z-Finit). https://i0.wp.com/knifesteelnerds.com/w ... =754&ssl=1

[Wartstein]

Thanks for posting yer another very interesting study !!

I always love reading those and am looking forward to this newest one (just had time at the moment to look at the charts, will actually read it later)

[crazywednesday]

Awesome read.

[Larrin]

Excellent article Larrin. Very interesting to see CTS BD1N way up there. I've not had any rust with it, but I have had it patina after cutting some pork chops.
Thanks as always for your contributions!

Very strange!

[Doc Dan]

Interesting. Thanks.

[The Meat man]

Excellent article Larrin. Very interesting to see CTS BD1N way up there. I've not had any rust with it, but I have had it patina after cutting some pork chops.
Thanks as always for your contributions!

Very strange!

Yeah I was surprised. Here's what it looked like.




I could not clean it off. It gradually wore off after a few weeks of use.

[Bill1170]

Thank you, Larrin. This is the kind of knowledge I can use.

I knew that S110V was very resistant, but did not realize how high M390 was. They are both favorites of mine for pocket carry.

[zuludelta]

Thank you for sharing your work, Larrin, I always learn something new from your articles.

Interesting stuff with the extrapolated corrosion resistance ratings... I think on the whole it lines up with what I've seen in my limited practical experience as well as what "bro science" enthusiasts like Pete from the Cedric & Ada channel on YouTube have demonstrated.

I do think that numerical rating differences perhaps mean different things across the scale in practical terms, at least from my anecdotal experience. As in, it's harder to discern practical performance differences in the upper end of the scale—like the 0.5 difference between BD1 (8.0) and VG10 (7.5)—than in the lower end of the scale, such as the 0.5 difference between ZDP-189 (4.9) and Maxamet (4.4). I'd be hard-pressed to find any practical corrosion resistance difference between BD1 & VG10 in my day-to-day use but (to me, at least) the same cannot be said for ZDP-189 and Maxamet—Maxamet definitely stains & rusts more easily than ZDP-189 upon exposure to things like saltwater and food acids.

[Ankerson]

I did a new study on a range of different stainless steels including water spray and saltwater spray corrosion testing. I used the results of the study to improve my ranking of corrosion resistance of knife steels. https://knifesteelnerds.com/2019/10/14/ ... e-testing/

The results of S110V and 204P/M390 are not surprising as they were developed for the plastics industry, very harsh environments.

Something some of us have been telling people for a long time now, how corrosion resistant they really are compared to the other steels.

ELMAX is one of the other ones..

N680 is used to make dive knives and is very stain resistant also.

[Lozoot]

Great article - definitely reflects my experience with XHP.

[Pelagic]

Interesting conclusion for XHP. It's been quite corrosion resistant in my experience.

[zuludelta]

Interesting conclusion for XHP. It's been quite corrosion resistant in my experience.

I think as far as conventional knife usage goes, XHP is "stainless enough" for 95% of the knife community and perhaps to less of an extent, the same can be said for ZDP-189 and CruWear (I carried a Dragonfly in ZDP-189 as my EDC for years & rusting/staining was never a problem with regular common sense maintenance).

That said, I have seen an XHP knife develop a notable layer of surface rust with some staining during constant exposure to seawater over a six-hour period, where a VG10 blade only developed minimal surface rust that was easily wiped away. I suppose in many of these steels, the corrosion resistance rating differences really only become practically apparent in more extreme conditions.

[curlyhairedboy]

Xhp doesn't survive my summer pocket sweat super well, but I love it anyway, haha!

[Larrin]

I do think that numerical rating differences perhaps mean different things across the scale in practical terms, at least from my anecdotal experience. As in, it's harder to discern practical performance differences in the upper end of the scale—like the 0.5 difference between BD1 (8.0) and VG10 (7.5)—than in the lower end of the scale, such as the 0.5 difference between ZDP-189 (4.9) and Maxamet (4.4). I'd be hard-pressed to find any practical corrosion resistance difference between BD1 & VG10 in my day-to-day use but (to me, at least) the same cannot be said for ZDP-189 and Maxamet—Maxamet definitely stains & rusts more easily than ZDP-189 upon exposure to things like saltwater and food acids.

Those cutoff points are going to be highly dependent on the environment they are exposed to. For example, you may not see any difference between BD1 and VG-10 because in your particular use neither is seeing any corrosion.

[Pancake]

Yeah, LC200N gives no damm!

Excellent article as usual Larrin, keep up the great work!

P.S. I am looking forward for Maxamet article.

[Larrin]

Yeah, LC200N gives no damm!

Excellent article as usual Larrin, keep up the great work!

P.S. I am looking forward for Maxamet article.

It will come! Hopefully the middle of November. My original plan was to do an article on "Carbide replacement high speed steels" around now but other things took precedence.