New Knife Steel Ratings by Knife Steel Nerds

Larrin

Larrin

Knifemaker / Craftsman / Service Provider
Joined
Jan 17, 2004
Messages
4,970
Another excellent article.
It reinforces what a great choice 3V is for my usual priorities. However, I'm excited to test the two chunks of Magnacut that just arrived yesterday...
 
Haha! 😁 Good video.

But what's the best steel tho? :oops:

I mean there's clearly a best way to cook a steak, and obviously a best car, so there must be a best steel.
 
Mecha said:
Haha! 😁 Good video.

But what's the best steel tho? :oops:

I mean there's clearly a best way to cook a steak, and obviously a best car, so there must be a best steel.
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Not a real answer, but if you look at an average of all properties, stainless would be magnacut, and non stainless would be cpm cru-wear (z-wear), 4v (V4e) or pm M4. Pick the one you have the best heat treat recipe worked out for.

Of course, you can prioritize a certain parameter more, and there is the data right there to pick.
 
Willie71 said:
Not a real answer, but if you look at an average of all properties, stainless would be magnacut, and non stainless would be cpm cru-wear (z-wear), 4v (V4e) or pm M4. Pick the one you have the best heat treat recipe worked out for.

Of course, you can prioritize a certain parameter more, and there is the data right there to pick.
Click to expand...

You know what I think the real best steel is? A san mai or go mai lamination. The problem is then you have to pick even more steels. There is a solution to this problem, though. Simply make a lamination with all steels that are compatible in heat treatment, starting with something like Rex 121 as the thin core, and working your way out to the toughest one as the outside layer.
 
N.W. Gean said:
I can't speak to the other stuff. Steak should only ever be cooked to medium rare well.
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Agreed. If only we could all agree so easily on which is the best knife steel. At least Larrin's data helps define and illustrate what's being compared between the various alloys.
 
I surely do appreciate Dr. Larrin’s expertise and all the testing and research involved in presenting all this information for our benefit and the advancement of all knife kingdom in general. I’ve learned a lot from reading over the articles and studying the graphs and comparisons. So thanks Larrin!

I am no expert by any means but my preference for blade steels depends on what type of knife and what I use it for. Usually I prefer better edge retention on my edc and smaller folders and giving up a bit of toughness for steels such as cmp154, s30v, S35vn and 20cv while a prefer more toughness such as 3V or 420hc on fixed blades and folders that are 4 inches or longer and give up some edge retention . This has worked well for me in my usage so far.

With that aside and from what I gather from Larrin‘s information on his Magnacut steel it looks to be an all around, all purpose steel with attributes to cover more types of blades. High Toughness, good edge retention and high corrosion resistance to boot. I watched a video review where they tested Magnacut along side of Cruwear. It was very impressive! I don’t know if I’ll ever get to try a Magnacut blade but I’d sure like to, maybe a 5-6 inch fixed blade for general purpose.

I’m sure there’s still going to be a purpose for the many other types of steel in specific usage and environments but narrowing down the field for cutlery with a steel that covers more usage types will be nice for everyone.
 
Nice thing about Magna cut as lesknife said is magna cut is very much an all around steel. We have the high wear resistance/high corrosion, now a balanced, now we just need a stainless version of 3V 😁
 
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