[Ol' Badger]

I'm confused. I heard from two diffrent Knife Nuts (On Bladeforums) on these two steels. Which is better? Is ATS-55 made special just for knives? I ask this because I'm thinking on something special for my Ol' Man for Buck's Custom dept. and for some reason I cant get onto BF from work.

[mete]

It's ATS-34 which is Jap made ,the same as 154CM which is made here.I have a nice Camillus with 154CM and it's one of the better stainless steels for knives .You're Ol'man would be very happy with it. ...ATS-55 has cobalt instead of Mo content and I think it's used only by a few custom knife makers. A Buck 110 with ATS-34 ? take it ! I'm always on bladeforums.

[Jim March]

ATS55 is a slightly lower cost variant of 35, I think. ATS35 (or better yet, it's "American Cousin" 154CM) is the better steel...but only by a hair.

The REAL key with these steels is the heat-treat. There are two competing types: the Paul Bos "high temp" process and the much lower temp cycle Ernie Mayer/Hitachi method. You want the latter. Bigtime.

I no longer recall the exact heat numbers used...but they're WAY different.

Plus these benefit from cryo-treatments.