The BladeForums.com 2024 Traditional Knife is ready to order! See this thread for details:
https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/bladeforums-2024-traditional-knife.2003187/
Price is $300 ea (shipped within CONUS). If you live outside the US, I will contact you after your order for extra shipping charges.
Order here: https://www.bladeforums.com/help/2024-traditional/ - Order as many as you like, we have plenty.
So is the steel decent or crap?
Hmmmm.... I like Buck's 420HC. Maybe I should try the 1.4116 CRKT My Tighe. Looks interesting...
Well, just by composition. 1.4125 is a tool steel where 440C is a ball bearing grade. There is a ball bearing grade with the same composition in the german list: 1.3543 X108CrMo17 / X102CrMo17 that compares more.There is a list of german steels (including 1.4116). The list gives AISI equivalent, and DIN (german) notation.
For example,
AISI 440C is DIN X105 CrMo17 = 1.4125.
Franco
The closest common US equivalent to 1.4116 is 420HC
However, Buck's proprietary heat treat leaves their 420HC blades at a Rockwell hardness of 58. Most other 420HC runs several points lower. Enough lower that I notice the difference in daily use.
I don't know where the idea that this steel is somewhere between 440A and 440B would have come from. 1.4116 only has .45% -.5% carbon, well under even 440A and about the same as 420HC. It also only has about 14.6% chromium. All the 440 steels have between 16% and 18% chromium. It really looks more to me like it falls between AUS-4 and AUS-6. It is actually very similar in its chemical composition to 425M.