Age old question, best all around blade steel?

Lesknife said:
In my opinion there are different steels that perform better in certain usages and the materials that are being cut. One will excel in one use but not as well in another. I think it is dependent on your personal use and preference and what works best for you.

As for a well rounded/all around knife steel that covers a lot of uses maybe not the top performing in any one category but does well in four important categories, in my opinion that would be Magnacut . It has high toughness, high corrosion resistance, sharpens fairly easily and has good edge retention. I have two knives in Magnacut and they are performing very well as advertised. Mine has held an edge for a good long time and when I finally had to sharpen it didnā€™t take long or much effort to get a screaming sharp edge. So far Iā€™m impressed.
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Well said. To get any agreement on what is the "best all around" thingamajig, there first needs to be some agreement on the important categories that go into consideration.

Then, given that we have measurements for those categories for each thingamajig, there needs to be some agreement on how to combine those measurements into a single "all around" measurement.

If Larrin would be so kind as to give us ratings on ease of sharpening in addition to the other three categories that he has published, we could come up with a reasonable answer. :-)
 
Another Shepherd said:
Well said. To get any agreement on what is the "best all around" thingamajig, there first needs to be some agreement on the important categories that go into consideration.

Then, given that we have measurements for those categories for each thingamajig, there needs to be some agreement on how to combine those measurements into a single "all around" measurement.

If Larrin would be so kind as to give us ratings on ease of sharpening in addition to the other three categories that he has published, we could come up with a reasonable answer. :)
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Ease of sharpening is controlled more by abrasives, heat treatment and sharpening ability of the end user than the name and type of the steel.
 
Easy, 7CR17MOV ;)
Seriously though, my answer will probably differ from others. In my opinion carbon steel such as 1085 or 1095 is probably the best all around due to ease of sharpening, sharpness, edge retention, toughness, etc. at a reasonable cost.
Some people would disagree with me because corrosion resistance is a real issue for some. In their case, I would say 420HC or 440A, for the same reasons as I listed for carbon steel with the exception of excellent corrosion resistance.

You can get better performance (edge retention, etc.) from higher end steels, but usually at higher cost so affordability fits in to the picture when selecting "best all around"
 
chevyrulez1 said:
Easy, 7CR17MOV ;)
Seriously though, my answer will probably differ from others. In my opinion carbon steel such as 1085 or 1095 is probably the best all around due to ease of sharpening, sharpness, edge retention, toughness, etc. at a reasonable cost.
Some people would disagree with me because corrosion resistance is a real issue for some. In their case, I would say 420HC or 440A, for the same reasons as I listed for carbon steel with the exception of excellent corrosion resistance.

You can get better performance (edge retention, etc.) from higher end steels, but usually at higher cost so affordability fits in to the picture when selecting "best all around"
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Affording and performing are very different when it comes to matters of importance.
 
chevyrulez1 said:
Easy, 7CR17MOV ;)
Seriously though, my answer will probably differ from others. In my opinion carbon steel such as 1085 or 1095 is probably the best all around due to ease of sharpening, sharpness, edge retention, toughness, etc. at a reasonable cost.
Some people would disagree with me because corrosion resistance is a real issue for some. In their case, I would say 420HC or 440A, for the same reasons as I listed for carbon steel with the exception of excellent corrosion resistance.

You can get better performance (edge retention, etc.) from higher end steels, but usually at higher cost so affordability fits in to the picture when selecting "best all around"
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I still remember when both 440A and the analogous 7Cr17Mov were popular in "survival" and outdoor activity knives. I still have a few blades in the latter. It has good resistance to corrosion. Edge retention isn't very good but it's not the worst. Versus 8Cr13Mov or AUS-8, I'd sometimes choose 7Cr for camping and such. Nowadays, it feels totally obsolete.
 
I carried 440c for years. Easy to keep sharp but know. It'll snap. An entire half inch off the tip. Hollow grind never seemed to be the friend of 440c. I've snapped out a chunk before.

Excellent on not rusting. It'll develop spots but it won't crust over. Easy to clean.

The next steel was 154cm. You could do more with it but it was a nightmare to free hand sharpen on a pocket sized diamond stone. It'd never take a crazy sharp edge but the edge it did take. It'd hold that working edge for much longer then 440c. No where as brittle.

I still own sharp things in both 440c and 154cm.
 
Whitedog said:
The best steel is the one you can maintain yourself without spending bucks. No blade is going to hold an edge for ever. 1095 is still great stuff along with some of the older stainless steels.
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Unless you need to ā€œspend bucksā€ on oil to keep it from rusting.
 
Larrin said:
Unless you need to ā€œspend bucksā€ on oil to keep it from rusting.
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I myself have strayed from the "Ultra Edge" retention steels (Although I still love them), like S90V to more in the M4 range. I think that having a dull knife is better then having a broken in two knife...
 
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