Best material for a diving knife?

J

jaymeister99

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Sep 14, 2010
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Anybody know what materials to make this out of? I was planning on G-10 handles but the steel I'm not sure about.

I was leaning towards 154CM, Elmax, S30V, M390 or possibly a nitrogen steel like N680. Basically whatever will give decent edge holding with the best corrosion resistance.

Any ideas? Thanks.
 
440C would certainly work and it's actually a bit less expensive than the other steels you listed, AFAIK.
 
Spyderco's H-1 and David Boye's Boye Dendritic Cobalt Steel will never rust..ever! They also hold an edge almost as good as 440C.
 
I should have slapped 440C on there too! The guy I was going to make this for has a diving knife made out of "440". I'm assuming its 440A, he had some issues with it corroding.

Anybody have experience with N680?
 
If corrosion is what you are most concerned with use Cobalt or Titanium. If cutting edge retention, and durability is the issue, use a high alloy CPM-V(30/60/90) steel .........or 440-C
 
The nitrogen stainless steels far out class any standard stainless steels.

Here are photos of salt spray tests:
N680-420CorrosionTest.jpg


H1 has been made famous by Spyderco. It is a precipitation hardening stainless steel. We've unsuccessfully tried to buy sheet stock for years.

N680 is a cast nitrogen stainless steel. It is used by Benchmade for a folder and fixed blade. Heat treating is straight forward. Cryo is required to get maximum hardness. N680 is inexpensive and takes a toothy edge.

N360 is produced by electroslag remelting. I have four bars and all been spoken for. It has edge holding like 440C but is several times tougher. I'm looking forward to extensively testing this steel.

Vanax 35 & Vanax 75 are both powder metallurgy steels. We've been testing a Vanax 35 knife made by my son-in-law. The edge holding is great. I'm very impressed with this steel. Vanax 75 was used by Kershaw in a composite blade on their Tilt folder. Vanax 35 is scheduled to be released in the next few months.

Any of the steels listed above have better corrosion resistance than 440C, better edge holding than titanium and are less expensive than the Stellite alloys.
 
dhaines said:
Spyderco's H-1 and David Boye's Boye Dendritic Cobalt Steel will never rust..ever! They also hold an edge almost as good as 440C.
Click to expand...

I was going to ask if they are available to the public.
Chuck replied that he can't get the H1

David Boye's Boye Dendritic Cobalt Steel, is that available?
Isn't that a cast steel as well?
 
I made my personal dive knife from CPM154.

Been using it for a few years, and it's still like new.

I do give it a rinse after diving though, but I'm washing everything else too...
 
The potential customers main concern is corrosion resistance with edge retention being a very close second. But he also expressed that this would be used primarily to cut fishing line (apparently lots of line tangle ups on the wrecks).

So, a fine edge would be preferred. I was leaning toward some N680, but a "toothy edge" might not be what he wants. So head towards S30V/S35VN, 154CM, or 440C? Might need to talk to the (potential) user a bit more.
 
I used 440c, this knife when on a sea kayak trip for 4 days, It was pretty much wet the whole time and there were only a couple of spots.

hawaii014.jpg


hawaii016.jpg
 
I'd probably use titanium or 440C.

My actual dive knife is a Victorinox serrated paring knife with a kydex sheath I made. Dive knives get lost or misplaced, so the Victorinox is a good option.
 
As I recall 44A is supposed to be more rust resistant than 440C, but I don't know how much more.

I have an H1 blade that basically never gets rinsed or anything and has never rusted after being in the ocean.
I don't know if us regular people can buy it or heat treat it.
 
I'm also interested in this. A friend just asked if i could price making a dive knife for him. So if you rinse and dry 440c after use would it be fine? What about 12C27?
 
Tiiiiiiiim said:
I'm also interested in this. A friend just asked if i could price making a dive knife for him. So if you rinse and dry 440c after use would it be fine? What about 12C27?
Click to expand...

I can't speak for 12c27 but the 440C will be ok as long as its rinsed and oiled up after use. The guy I was going to make this for has a "440" knife but has some very slight pitting on it after a couple of years (this is without any maintenance/oil). I'm assuming its actually a 440A or 440B which I believe is supposed to have better corrosion resistance than 440C.

A 440C knife will stay like new with some minor maintenance. If they want no maintenance then its titanium, but that will hold an edge like crap. From what I researched since originally posting this is what I came up with for the best dive knife steels:

440C -Best price combined with good corrosion resistance, fairly low maintenance.

S35VN/S30V -Hold an edge better than 440C, tougher to sharpen than 440C, and a lot more expensive. Good if you dont mind a bit of maintenance.

Titanium -requires virtually no maintenance (except to sharpen), but doesn't hold an edge too well and its a pain to work with. Also 6al4v won't work for this, will need a different test titanium.

N680 -Great corrosion resistance, low maintenance, but doesn't hold or take an edge as good. Edge retention comparable to 420 stainless.

Personally I would go with N680 or 440C.
 
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