Rank Your Steels!

For a person who is not trying to pick a fight and is done with baits, it is really strange to reply to the same, 2 weeks old post 3 times :)
Anyhow, for the future reference, you don't have to "freeze" in time my posts, I don't go back to alter whatever I said. Just FYI, to avoid waste of bandwidth and space.

It would've been more efficient if you posted any arguments to support your statements, no matter how general.
 
The "S" series stuff is apparently what they use for "Shock resistant" applications, like Jack Hammer bits. "S" probably stands for Silicon, which I believe is what makes the "S" series so tough. It'll be super tough. I don't know how hard it will get though... maybe Rc57 max from a couple web queries.

Maybe a better choice for a hard use knife blade is L6, typically used for sawmill type rotary and bandsaw blades, as it is also super tough, and the makers can get it up to Rc59 and higher.

So along with the stock removal toughness heavyweight, 3V, all of these would make a good hard use knife IF given a good heat treat.

You can google for charpy V-notch toughness values at a given hardness to give yourself a good idea of a steels performance. Personally, Rc59 is about the minimum hardness I'd settle for, since I can get it and it is highly correlated with edge retention (resistance to rolling), and still get toughness by the metrics.

If I had an ABS guy build a camp knife, I'd choose L6 (Tempting to pick an L6 based damascus, but that only compromises the toughness).

If I had a stock removal guy build a camp knife, I'd use CPM 3V... although some ABS guys forge 3V also (e.g. Bailey Bradshaw).

frc505 said:
i wonder where would S5 and S7 steel rank ?

also ive been trying to find S5 steel but just cant seem to !
any suggestions?

frank
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S stands for shock, they are shock resistant steels. The only AISI steels to have enough silicon to be considered an alloying element are 9260, 9260H (Heat Treater's Guide, Feb 2006 4th printing). ASM says S5 & S7 will hit 61 as-quenched, L6 does 63.
 
hardheart said:
S stands for shock, they are shock resistant steels. The only AISI steels to have enough silicon to be considered an alloying element are 9260, 9260H (Heat Treater's Guide, Feb 2006 4th printing). ASM says S5 & S7 will hit 61 as-quenched, L6 does 63.
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... and then the relatively brittle as-quenched blade has to be tempered, at least a little bit, in order to achieve it's potential by avoiding unnecessary brittleness risk from heat treat variance.

S5 target: Rc 58-60 looks like a good target for a knife blade (subjectively... where the toughness starts to rise)
http://www.latrobesteel.com/assets/documents/datasheets/LSS_S5.pdf

S7 target: Rc 56-57 looks like a good target for a knife blade (subjectively... where the toughness just starts to drop from as-quenched, in this case, between 400-500F tempering temp)
http://www.latrobesteel.com/assets/documents/datasheets/LSS_S7.pdf

L6 target: Rc 57-58 looks to be a good target for knife blade (where toughness begins it's initial rise)
http://www.latrobesteel.com/assets/documents/datasheets/LSS_L6.pdf

As I looked through the charts in these links, helped me appreciate that A2 at Rc60 is probably a better all around knife steel (unless extreme toughness is the goal), with O1 close behind at Rc60, balancing toughness with wear resistance.
 
CWL said:
To be honest, I don't pay that much attention to the steel as I do who makes the knife and what reputation the knife has earned from users that I respect.

I put more faith on well-respected knife makers (and brands) and let them choose what steel for their knives.
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THIS, Striders are S30V and man do they perform. Whenever I use my SMF, I get NUMEROUS comments, NICE KNIFE! WOW...Same with my ZT 302 in S30v sharper than S**T and it cuts great.

I don't pay too much attention to steels, as I do the makers. Well said. :thumbup:
 
I like S30V when sharpened by the manufacturer. Other than than that I prefer D2 or CPM 154 which I find easier to sharpen and has good edge holding properties. VG10 and AUS8A is pretty good stuff too. I don't have a huge array of steel types but I have experience with these. :)
 
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