1084 Kitchen Knife?

Stark Knives

Stark Knives

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Mar 19, 2010
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Does anyone use a 1084 knife, how do you like it? Do you think it's a good steel for kitchen knives?
 
1084 can be good for kitchen knives, depending on what you want. It isn't going to be as good for high hardness, Japanese style knives as 52100 or W2.

- Chris
 
With the right heat treatment it can be excellent. 1084 has over 0.77% carbon and virtually no alloying elements, so it can get as hard as 52100 and W2, it just has lower cementite (read reduced wear resistance but increased toughness) than W2 and 52100. In some ways I prefer eutectoid (around 0.77% C) steels for Japanese style knives in that you can run the edge thinner with less chance of chipping per the same hardness (now, the other alloying elements have a factor in this too, not just the carbon, but the carbon is a major factor). You sacrifice a little bit of wear resistance, but the increase in toughness can mean that you can push the geometry more than you might dare with a more brittle material. It's all about balancing hardness and toughness for the geometry and use you intend to use it for. 1084 gives you a really wide range of options and is a good middling steel that can do most things quite well.
 
ncleaver.jpg
This is a cleaver made with Aldo's 1084. I am very happy with the steel. The blade is 2 1/2" wide with about 15 degrees total angle, tempered to Rc62. Will cut ripe tomatoes with it's own weight. No corrosion issues, but I clean and dry as soon as I finish using it. NOT DISHWASHER SAFE. Handle is spalted maple.
scott
 
Complete noob here so I'm mostly just parroting what I've learned asking the same questions and reading others posts -
Makers here have given me the impression that while 1084 will do the job, its not optimal for the thinner harder knives.

I've been impressed with the resilience of the 1084 I've been learning with though . Last one I did I'm pretty sure I overheated a bit during heat treat and then only tempered to 385... Thin edge (but not kitchen thin) and around 30* inclusive, but it didn't chip (That my eyes can see) when I accidentally smacked the edge into a chrome plated bar on my motorcycle trying to cut some zip ties.
That said, I ordered some AEB-L and 52100 for my next knives based on advice from here.
 
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the japanese use a similar knife steel known as SK4 and SK5 (forgot which one is 1084 and 1095) and they harden them up to 60RC and they do fine. and the japanese also make thinner knives over all i would like to think, it can be done.
 
Hesparus said:
There's a thread over in shop talk that has some overlap with the topics here. Most of the posters in this thread have posted in the other one, too, but here it is for other people who haven't seen it: http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php/1056356-1084-usable-hardness

- Chris
Click to expand...
yeah, but no one answered my question. would O-1 work well with a very thin edge at Rc62 hardness? I can get O-1 for the same price as 52100 or W2 with a lot more options in width and thickness. Also O-1 heat treat seems to be a little more straight forward than 52100(to quench 52100 like some folks do, it will take a week to heat treat one blade(triple quench with blade in dry ice overnite between quenches) and the quench oil formula, I mean I can find the used DTE26 hydraulic oil, and ATF from a '97 honda, but Mickeydees won't let me have their used fry oil anymore.)
 
a few people on another forum make a few japanese inspired kitchen knives in O1 but their hardness is around 60-61RC without any problems. we're already coming up with a whole line of knives in O1, a forum collaboration kind of thing.

so think it might just be possible.

=D
 
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