Recommendation? TOUGHEST steel in general

J

jwdino

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I was looking at Knifenerds ratings and 8670 apparently is the toughest steel (for knives) but what about in general? - high impact machine hammer, tap & die steel

REWORDED- what is the TOUGHEST steel in the world?
 
I have no good answer here, but I must add that the target heat treat and hardness for a given steel for a given application will cause the answer to vary wildly.

I personally find dealing in absolutes to be a pitfall lol. Best of luck in finding your answer!
 
While talking about highest impact toughness (there are multiple measures of toughness) it would be a very low carbon, low strength steel. Low impurities, perhaps with nickel additions, especially if we are considering toughness across a wide temperature range.
 
Are you referring to the budget steel article? If so, remember, it was BUDGET steel. I don't know if it would change anytjing, but adding PM and other hi-tech steels might change those results.
 
Top of my head: 3V, INFI, 5160. These steels, properly heat treated and coming from a reputable knife maker, should withstand reasonable punishment.

Do note though that toughness doesn’t mean indestructibility. Any knife can break while chopping, batoning, prying, etc.
 
Well, as toughness goes for ability to bend and not break, my guess would be some sort of structural steel used in high rise construction, as those beams, under high winds, must bend quite a bit while still maintaining integrity under massive weight loads. That stuff gotta be among some of the "toughest"?
 
I'll put my marker on Cast Iron. Sure it's not so fancy but if you look at the centuries of use modern super steels are just a sneeze in the wind.

It takes a licking and keeps on ticking. It's a real never quit steel; that's the definition of tough.
 
My personal choice would be CPM-3V, because it's known for it's toughness, while also being very stain resistant (almost stainless, same like D2), and finally it has extremley good edge retention.

It might not be the absolute toughest, but combination of up there mentioned qualities make up for it, and it's making it the most well rounded steel in my opinion.
 
S7 is extremely tough, but isn’t a good blade steel.

For toughness with decent wear resistance that normal makers use look at 52100, Vtoku2, 3V, 1095.

For stainless toughness look to H1, LC200N and Elmax.
 
John_0917 said:
S7 is extremely tough, but isn’t a good blade steel.

For toughness with decent wear resistance that normal makers use look at 52100, Vtoku2, 3V, 1095.

For stainless toughness look to H1, LC200N and Elmax.
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My Vtoku2 Spydercos are chippy as hell. No idea why since I don’t think they’re supposed to be, but mine sure are.
 
jdk1 said:
Are you referring to the budget steel article? If so, remember, it was BUDGET steel. I don't know if it would change anytjing, but adding PM and other hi-tech steels might change those results.
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Not really. Powder metallurgy is used to control carbide size to get better combinations of properties. The key to toughness is to minimize carbide content. With a small carbide content the carbide size can be managed without PM. 8670 is tougher than 3V, for example.
 
Larrin Larrin
Out of curiosity, what carbon steels and stainless steels are used for small arms and modern breech loading cannon barrels?
While I am sure they are "tough", I don't know if they would be good for a blade. I doubt they would, to be honest. Receivers and barrels are hardened to what? 40 something Rockwell C?
 
afishhunter said:
Larrin Larrin
Out of curiosity, what carbon steels and stainless steels are used for small arms and modern breech loading cannon barrels?
While I am sure they are "tough", I don't know if they would be good for a blade. I doubt they would, to be honest. Receivers and barrels are hardened to what? 40 something Rockwell C?
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I don’t know what they use for cannon barrels. The question of “the toughest steel” and the question of what is a good high toughness steel for a knife are different questions.
 
Larrin said:
While talking about highest impact toughness (there are multiple measures of toughness) it would be a very low carbon, low strength steel. Low impurities, perhaps with nickel additions, especially if we are considering toughness across a wide temperature range.
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Wow man, surprised to get a reply by the person who wrote the article I was reading. Great work, I've been nerding out all morning!

Heat treatments and test - Let's say any heat treatment can be used to meet that steels needs to become "cold chisel" hard and a test was applied for shock resistance. To be more specific let's say that a flat bar stock was swung by a hydraulic arm at 0 - +/- mph at a metal plate. The flat stock was swung on it's side as if it were being held like a knife by the mechanical arm.

Which steels would you guess be able to take the most - max mph/force impact before breaking?
 
IMO, it all depends on the knife, blade geometry, heat treat and design. I’ve got a CPK medium heavy duty chopper that is pretty indestructible in delta 3V

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"4140
416R "

Yep. those are used in rifle barrels and such.

The really strong steels like the ones used for pressure vessels and submarine hulls will often have less than 0.2 % carbon. HY 100, Hy 180, etc. They are not inexpensive steels and need to be processed to be as clean and consistent as possible. Good steels for what they are used for but knife edges are not what they are good at.

The best thing to do is pick out which attributes you desire for your knife and select a steel accordingly. Then more importantly build it to do what you want it to do. All steels are a compromise. Select the ones that are best at what you want your knife to do and forget about being the best at any one attribute because that is where you find the least balance steels typically.
 
The Mastiff said:
"4140
416R "

Yep. those are used in rifle barrels and such.

The really strong steels like the ones used for pressure vessels and submarine hulls will often have less than 0.2 % carbon. HY 100, Hy 180, etc. They are not inexpensive steels and need to be processed to be as clean and consistent as possible. Good steels for what they are used for but knife edges are not what they are good at.

The best thing to do is pick out which attributes you desire for your knife and select a steel accordingly. Then more importantly build it to do what you want it to do. All steels are a compromise. Select the ones that are best at what you want your knife to do and forget about being the best at any one attribute because that is where you find the least balance steels typically.
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Good to know about submarine steel,
This metal is being used for something other than a knife.
 
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