A quick reference for steel selection

Casey Brown said:
There is also a site called Knife Steel Nerds, which is produced by Larrin Thomas, who is a steel metallurgist, and knife enthusiast. It is a wealth of information on knife steel material science. Larrin does extensive research on all of the different knife steels, and appears to be fairly unbiased as far as steel selection goes. He really goes into the weeds of the metallurgy if you are interested in that. I subscribe to his reports, and try to read them as they come out. If you are unfamiliar with the website, I recommend checking it out.
Click to expand...
I stumbled on to knife steel nerds site by accident when I was researching AEB-L. I bookmarked it for sure, it is a great site.
 
I've used 26c3 in 4 hunting knives. It gets crazy hard right out of the quench and is some what fussy on the temper. It takes a beautiful edge.
My only complaint is how bad it warps, those knives warped while grinding, heating, and during tempering. It's way worse than aebl. I was going to knock out a quick stock removal blade for a friend, and put the blank on my new surface grinder attachment to flatten it out. It warped taking it up to 220, I straighten it in my vise, and ground the other side..... it warped again. I put the blank in the tool box and ordered some 1084. I love the steel and would like to use it more, but I don't want to spend more time fixing warps then making the knife. Just my 2 cents on 26c3.
 
Ty Adams said:
I've used 26c3 in 4 hunting knives. It gets crazy hard right out of the quench and is some what fussy on the temper. It takes a beautiful edge.
My only complaint is how bad it warps, those knives warped while grinding, heating, and during tempering. It's way worse than aebl. I was going to knock out a quick stock removal blade for a friend, and put the blank on my new surface grinder attachment to flatten it out. It warped taking it up to 220, I straighten it in my vise, and ground the other side..... it warped again. I put the blank in the tool box and ordered some 1084. I love the steel and would like to use it more, but I don't want to spend more time fixing warps then making the knife. Just my 2 cents on 26c3.
Click to expand...
Just for educational purposes and the sake of this thread can I ask a couple of questions? How thick was the stock? Where did you order it from? Did you normalize or anneal before you started work on the knife? Thanks Ty. I read it can take a very good edge and is easy to resharpen.
 
I‘be used 26C3 twice and didn’t have any issues. I do plan on making an EDC soon so I’ll see how that goes.
 
Went to AKS to take a look at it. It seems like it's basically a high carbon W1. At forging thicknesses it's way pricey.

Doug
 
If you don't have the phone app called "Knife Steel Chart" (IOS at least and I am pretty sure there is an Android version) you should get it. I use it often for quick look at the chemistry of steel. There are some comments on the more popular knife steels you might find helpful. They have done a good job keeping it up.
 
BossDog said:
If you don't have the phone app called "Knife Steel Chart" (IOS at least and I am pretty sure there is an Android version) you should get it. I use it often for quick look at the chemistry of steel. There are some comments on the more popular knife steels you might find helpful. They have done a good job keeping it up.
Click to expand...
Thanks boss.
 
Chris Railey said:
Just for educational purposes and the sake of this thread can I ask a couple of questions? How thick was the stock? Where did you order it from? Did you normalize or anneal before you started work on the knife? Thanks Ty. I read it can take a very good edge and is easy to resharpen.
Click to expand...
As far as I know Alpha knife supply is the only place you can get 26c3. I might be wrong about that but it's the only place that I found it. The thickest stock they had at the was .156 so thats what I bought. AKS stated that the steel was ready for heat treat without any extra steps, and after testing they were right. Heat treat at 1475, temper at 435. There was no chipping or rolling of the edge ground down to .010, and it gets amazingly sharp.
 
Ty Adams said:
As far as I know Alpha knife supply is the only place you can get 26c3. I might be wrong about that but it's the only place that I found it. The thickest stock they had at the was .156 so thats what I bought. AKS stated that the steel was ready for heat treat without any extra steps, and after testing they were right. Heat treat at 1475, temper at 435. There was no chipping or rolling of the edge ground down to .010, and it gets amazingly sharp.
Click to expand...
Thanks Ty.
 
This is a good thread! I would like to branch into some more steels, but I am not sure which route to go. I am already using 10XX series, and D2. What would be a good addition to these steels that I already have, if I were wanting to make some kitchen knives, boating knives, and knives capable of Military/LE use. Maybe 154CM and 80CRV2? Here is what I was thinking as a selection of steel types. Is it anywhere close to reasonable, and where it is not, would anyone mind pointing out where and why?

Here is why I chose like I did. Again, if there are any flaws in my reasoning or assumptions, please point them out. I know this is a bit presumptious coming from a newbie like me, but realize that I am trying to learn, not teach.
I think of 10XX series steels as your starting line. They make a good knife, are cheap, and are easy to work with.

D2 has a lot of carbon which makes for very good edge retention and is a semi stainless, which would make me think that it would make a good smaller/medium sized knife, where not a lot of toughness or extreme corrosion resistance is required.

S30V, I think, is known for good corrosion resistance, high edge retention, and low toughness, meaning it would make a good edc, but not necessarily too thin (as in a kitchen knife), or as a chopper. It is also pretty expensive, hard to sharpen, and doesn't polish well, due to high vanadiam content.

154CM has high toughness due to Molybdenum, and also is a stainless. It is often used in kitchen knives, and knives where high toughness and corrosion resistance is needed.

I don't know much about 80CRV2, but I have heard that you can make swords and such out of it, because it is very tough. Pretty much 1080 and 5160 combined?

Knife or tool typeSteel Choice(s) in order of preferenceGrindEdgeMisc
EDC10XX, D2, S30V, 154CMFlat/hollowConvex
Skining10XX, D2, S30V, 154CM
Camping10XX, 80CRV2, 154CM
Bushcraft80CRV2, 10XX, 154CM
Chef's (kitchen) knife slicing154CM,10XX
Chef's (Kitchen)knife chopping154CM, 80CRV2, 10XX
Kitchen Boning Knife154CM, 10XX
Machete or brush chopper10XX, 80CRV2,
Tactical (yes, I know we all hate this term)154CM, S30V, D2
Boat knives154CM, S30V, D2
 
Last edited:
When talking about boating, diving, or any use in salt water, a steel that should never be overlooked is 440C. It got a bad rap several years ago and I think that is because China flooded with market with junk knives stamped 440C which were most definitely not made from it. When it comes to anti-corrosion, 440C is king as far as I'm concerned. Even CPM154 doesn't match it, although it may beat it in most other regards. 440C is great stuff.
 
Last edited:
BossDog said:
If you don't have the phone app called "Knife Steel Chart" (IOS at least and I am pretty sure there is an Android version) you should get it. I use it often for quick look at the chemistry of steel. There are some comments on the more popular knife steels you might find helpful. They have done a good job keeping it up.
Click to expand...
I just downloaded it. I didn't know so many different steels existed! It looks like a very useful tool. Thanks for posting this.
 
John Wilson said:
When talking about boating, diving, or any use in salt water, a steel that should never be overlooked is 440C. It got a bad rap several years ago and I think that is because China flooded with market with junk knives stamped 440C which were most definitely not made from it. When it comes to anti-corrosion, 440C is king as far as I'm concerned. Even CPM154 doesn't match it, although it may beat it in most other regards. 440C is great stuff.
Click to expand...
Which do you think would be better as a general knife steel, 154cm or 440c? Or are they similar enough that you can use both of them and know them both well? Also, on a different note, is CPM154 worth the extra price over 154CM? Thank you!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top