Determining the Best Budget Knife Steel

Thanks for another interesting article, Larrin.

What's the attraction of O1? It's not very tough. It rusts badly. It doesn't hold an edge worth a darn. And yet it's widely used by the custom guys.
 
Twindog said:
Thanks for another interesting article, Larrin.

What's the attraction of O1? It's not very tough. It rusts badly. It doesn't hold an edge worth a darn. And yet it's widely used by the custom guys.
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O1 is very widely available and relatively inexpensive. The toughness is probably good enough for many knives, since there are many stainless grades in a range of knives with similar toughness. So there probably aren’t major red flags in basic testing by makers. I would pick something else, sure, but I don’t need to be critical of their choices.
 
The more I use them the more I appreciate simple things like N690 and Aus8... not rusting is quite a superpower - being easy to sharpen is, I think, another. N690 can be remarkably tough too - a cherry tree in my garden fell down and I managed to hack the trunk in half with a FKMD Panabas (which I usually use for kitchen work - splittin' ribs, bustin' open watermelons, makin' mangos wish they'd never been born). The blade coating showed some scuffing near the edge but the edge itself was in great shape.
No matter how tough it is, you're gonna have to sharpen it one day!
 
Larrin said:
Thanks guys.
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Larrin, this may not be the proper thread for this comment, but you do mention XHP in this article, so I feel it's germane.

I just received a Para 3 in CTS XHP today, and as you can see in the attached letter Spyderco describes their version of XHP as "extremely corrosion resistant and easy to maintain". From reading about your testing, it seems that XHP falls just below the threshold of what you consider stainless. Do you think Spyderco does something different with their steel compared to what you've experienced?

Thanks!

Image --> http://imgur.com/a/mVdGhMu
 
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CarsonWayne said:
Larrin, this may not be the proper thread for this comment, but you do mention XHP in this article, so I feel it's germane.

I just received a Para 3 in CTS XHP today, and as you can see in the attached letter Spyderco describes their version of XHP as "extremely corrosion resistant and easy to maintain". From reading about your testing, it seems that XHP falls just below the threshold of what you consider stainless. Do you think Spyderco does something different with their steel compared to what you've experienced?

Thanks!

Image --> http://imgur.com/a/mVdGhMu
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No I don’t think so.
 
My hypothesis before reading won! I cheated by reading everything else you've ever written about steel before this piece. Confirmation bias still feels great, I gotta say.
 
I have had great success with bdz1,14c28n,and civivi 9cr18mov (geometry helps too) these are among my favorite.now I know why
 
Thanks for the info! Can't say I was surprised, tho, as 14C28N would be my pick as well....

That being said, for most people, the best budget steel is whatever someone can sharpen, that holds an edge acceptably well for their uses. LOTS of 420HC Buck 110s out there doing the job!
 
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Larrin, thank you for the great work!

Any chance we could see more carta edge retention/corrosion resistance data or prediction for 1.4116(something similar to Victorinox steel)?

Being used by the most popular knife brand, it would be interesting to see how does it fair in those department too.
 
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