Determining the Best Budget Knife Steel

Thanks Larrin. A really great read. While “best” is hard to pin down, as different needs are weighed differently by people, this does a good job of finding a balanced recommendation.
 
"AEB-L"
I have used a fair amount but will be changing to something else soon.
AEB-L will move days and even weeks after heat treatment.

I will have perfectly flat slip joint parts after HT only to find it days and weeks later no longer flat. I now will leave it clamped in a vice for a week to help mitigate it.

That stuff moves!

The time getting it flat again is getting annoying.
 
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Thanks again Larrin. It's good to see that my impressions and growing fondness of AEB-L is backed up by some testing. I have tried a lot of new steels the last several years and find myself settling in on a few that serve my needs very well, and AEB-L is one of the couple stainless steels that I seem to gravitate towards. But not because of the "budget" aspect ... that is just a nice bonus. It really is a well rounded choice for a user.
 
This was a very nice read, thanks Larrin!
I am happy my shop has a lot of 14C28N and AEB-L.
As for availability here in Europe, it is the inverse of what you have. 14C28N can easily be found in 2, 2.5, 3.0 and 4.0 mm thickness. AEB-L on the other hand is hard to come by in other than 3-3.5 mm.
 
Scaniaman said:
The HT scares me, but done right this must be a great steel for choppers etc. It is the same as Uddeholm Viking no?
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Not sure about Viking, but I hasn’t really thought about using A8mod much, as it was marketed as poor wear resistance. It beats the simple steels in edge holding, and toughness is 3v level. Avoiding oil quenches is a bonus too. The balance of properties is quite good, and it’s an economical option.
 
kdnolin said:
Another great article Larrin!
I am a fan of Aebl, but I don’t do the heat treat lol. Just wondering though, does 14c28n have the same warp issues? S Scaniaman ?
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From my very limited experience, I cannot notice a difference when it comes to warpingness. I have made and heat treated too few blades to even take guess at a conclusion. When I have done e few hundred I'll report back :)
I know PEU PEU has done a ton in 14C28N and also @Stromberg Knives uses this steel a lot, but I don't
know if they use AEB-L.
 
Great article, as always.

I do have a question about the last graph comparing the toughness and cutting tests.

This is an amalgamation of "ideal" toughness vs the CARTA testing you've done, correct? i.e. for 14C28N it's unlikely to get a knife with 30ft/lbs and 400+mm as those results come from different hardness samples (62RC for the CARTA testing, and sub-61RC for the toughness test).
 
Spyke said:
Great article, as always.

I do have a question about the last graph comparing the toughness and cutting tests.

This is an amalgamation of "ideal" toughness vs the CARTA testing you've done, correct? i.e. for 14C28N it's unlikely to get a knife with 30ft/lbs and 400+mm as those results come from different hardness samples (62RC for the CARTA testing, and sub-61RC for the toughness test).
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I used the data that I have. Some values could be adjusted slightly estimating the change from hardness. It wouldn't greatly affect the analysis in this case but there can always be discussions about how values should be adjusted and how relevant different datapoints are.
 
Scaniaman said:
From my very limited experience, I cannot notice a difference when it comes to warpingness. I have made and heat treated too few blades to even take guess at a conclusion. When I have done e few hundred I'll report back :)
I know PEU PEU has done a ton in 14C28N and also @Stromberg Knives uses this steel a lot, but I don't
know if they use AEB-L.
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14c28n? about 200kg :D

Yes it does warp if you go from bought sheet to hardening, what I do, by Larrin Larrin suggestion is heat it to 900C let it cool and then do the hardening, this prevents warping a lot, a lot not totally, but 95%+ not warped is better than almost all blades...

Pablo
 
Great stuff! AEB-L is one of my favorites, I'm using Nitro-V on my latest group of 350+ blades.

What hardness do you like to run Nitro-V at?
 
PEU said:
14c28n? about 200kg :D

Yes it does warp if you go from bought sheet to hardening, what I do, by Larrin Larrin suggestion is heat it to 900C let it cool and then do the hardening, this prevents warping a lot, a lot not totally, but 95%+ not warped is better than almost all blades...

Pablo
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I'll try that at some point. So you just pop the blades in at 900 and let them soak for a bit and then cool in room temp?
 
Larrin ,
I see 5150 in toughness charts, but donr believe ove seen it in any of your edge retention/Carta tests.

I may, very well be overlooking it.

Is there data on its edge retention on your site?

I have used it on three blades (one 'shade tree heat treat in charcoal to non magnetic and quench in oil, and two professionally heat treated), and have more to use. I may try forging it in the near future, and heat treat in a gas forge with thermocouple temp guide.

My guess is that edge retention will be poor, below 1095?
 
Scaniaman said:
I'll try that at some point. So you just pop the blades in at 900 and let them soak for a bit and then cool in room temp?
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I'm sure he means the quench Hoss (Larrin's Dad) developed for AEB-L. Heat oven to 1725F (around 940C) and heat for 15 to 20 minutes, plate quench. Allow oven (or have 2nd oven available) to stabilize at your HT's temp, insert blade and heat for 10 minutes, then plate quench.

The 1725F quench seems to relieve stress in metal helping prevent warp, and also makes for a smaller grain in metal.
 
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