Niolox steel???

heavyfoldersarebest

heavyfoldersarebest

Joined
Nov 8, 2012
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Yes, I know there are other threads about this but they didn't answer my question.

What common steel is this comparable to? By common I mean 154cm, s30v, etc.

And is it stainless or carbon?
 
It's stainless. I have a knife with it running at rc 60-61. I haven't done any hard use tests or wear resistance testing like Jim Ankerson. I have seen videos of it hacking and being pounded through bone but that's all. I haven't done it myself. I will say it sharpens great. It is crisp, burrs come off clean and easy. The steel appears to have a little bite to it.

Purely guessing I'd put it in the CPM 154 class, which is good IMO. Hopefully someone with more experience can chime in. My use isn't sufficient to call it testing and this steel deserves just that. Good testing and comparison by someone like Jim Ankerson. I'm not sure if the blade is thin enough for his testing. He keeps it as close as possible and typically won't test knives that are too thick as it throws the performance off. If I see him I'll have him look at the knife to see if it's testable. He stays pretty busy though so that might be a year or more though. :)

Joe
 
From my blade steel app on my phone, it said its comparable to d2 in wear resistance.
 
more complicated than that. the idea behind niolox is improving wear resistance while keeping the grain and edge stability at the top. think about 13c26 with higher possible hardness and just a touch of carbide formers, niobium forming very hard and very small carbides. in use its really great with a custom heat treat. takes a crisp edge easy keeps the finest razor edge better than high carbide steels but sharpness drops quick after that, not as quick as 13c26 but still. it can be sharpened very thin too without much problems.

very popular in europe, lots of customs in this steel, even if these days 14c28n is taking the lead because some people think niolox is,too hard to sharpen :grumpy::rolleyes:
 
pwet said:
even if these days 14c28n is taking the lead because some people think niolox is,too hard to sharpen :grumpy::rolleyes:
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Imagine that... We have much better sharpening equipment today, diamond sharpeners are very affordable, even though for majority of the "hard to sharpen" alloys you don't even need them diamonds, and still more complaints about hard to sharpen steels, and more demands about hard use knives too. I suppose self sharpening knives are in order. You know, you leave them on the stand at night and in the morning they're sharp :)
 
It's a great steel. I've made a few knives from it and have heard nothing but positive about it both from my customers and from different knifemakers and their customers. It's my go to stainless to make knives with.
 
Mephtyrm said:
http://zknives.com/knives/steels/steelgraph.php?nm=Niolox&ni=525&hrn=1&gm=0
That level of Carbon doesn't make me feel that it even looks at D2 in edge retention to me for some reason.
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hard to make a direct comparison, they are very different steels d2 relies on hard largish carbides, sb1 more on fine structure, and fine carbidesit performs better at keeping a fine edge, d2 will last longer if you can live with a working edge wich is not my case. niolox is also more stainless than d2, way easier to grind/sharpen, easier to finish to a crisp edge, holds a thinner edge ....


thats not really two comparable steels, they are for different uses imho.
 
pwet said:
hard to make a direct comparison, they are very different steels d2 relies on hard largish carbides, sb1 more on fine structure, and fine carbidesit performs better at keeping a fine edge, d2 will last longer if you can live with a working edge wich is not my case. niolox is also more stainless than d2, way easier to grind/sharpen, easier to finish to a crisp edge, holds a thinner edge ....


thats not really two comparable steels, they are for different uses imho.
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I agree on all points.
 
Lionsteel used M390 on its M4 and Niolox on its T5. So, which knife better in terms of steel?
 
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