Stainless Steel Opinions

corrosion resistant, softer than carbon, wont hold an edge as long

Top Steels

I have a several blades in stainless of one kind or another.

Some of them, however, seem to be a step up from the others.

440C and 420HC perform well and hold an edge. After good heat treat they seem to perform at a similar level. I believe I also have one in 425M, which is more or less on a par with them.

S30V, ATS34, and 154CM are premium steels. I don't have a lot of those, but the ones I have were fairly pricey and worth the money.

My favorite, though is an in-between steel family, the Sandvik 12c27 and 13c26 steels. They don't rust, they take and hold a really good edge, and they're not too hard for field sharpening. My EKA, Mora, and assorted Finnish blades all seem to be made of this stuff. I have recently added a Buck Vantage Avid to my stable o' steel, and it also uses the Sandvik steel.

I've never done a hardness/durability test of CV, D2, or any of the other carbon steels against the premium stainless grades, but I would be very interested in seeing such a comparison.

For generations it's almost been a truism that the carbon steels would consistently outperform the stainless stuff, but with the advent of formulations like ATS34, S30V, 154CM, and their cousins, especially with heat treatment like Paul Bos' method, I'd imagine that stainless is no longer "second chair" in performance.

I'll bet someone (like hso) has a table that rates the comparative merits of the stainless vs carbon steel families.

I am not as smart about steels as a lot of guys, but I like 440C. S30V is probably my favorite stainless, and as I look at knives I choose that if it is an option, but 440C seems nice.

As far as edge retention, I dunno. I am not educated enough to really note a difference between S30V and 440c, but I can say that my Native in S30C doesn't seem to be problematic when it comes to retaining an edge, or at least it isn't problematic for me. I do think that the S30V has better edge retention than the ATS-55 that my Endura uses, but practically I don't know that there is enough difference for me to definitively say that one is markedly better than the other.

Edit to add: The Endura that I carry most often is a newer VG10 model, which I really dig (though I still like the S30V more). I have a somewhat older Endura with the ATS-55 that I picked up at a garage sale about 8 months ago and that is what I am referring too. What can I say, I like Enduras.

I heard early on in my knifemaking (from a knife dealer) that carbon steel knives were only 10% of the market so I branched out into stainless pretty early in my "career". While we have those on the board who love a carbon steel knife (including me) most simply don't want a knife that will rust or that they have to maintain much. Stainless is where it's at if you want a broad market to sell to.

I used 440C and ATS-34 before going to CPMD2, 154CM and CPM154. I think that when they are heat treated by the best (Bos) the performance differences (between carbon and stainless) shrink to where most wouldn't notice but some will. Cutting competitions are all carbon steel blades I believe so stainless isn't quite "there" yet but it's pretty close IMHO.

What Tim said.

My go to knives are spyderco Endura, VG 10, and the Native S30V. That said My cane whittlers are old cabon folder.
The few knives I have made were 1095 or 1095 cv.

My preference: Sharp and pointy

I like stainless and non-stainless. I mainly work in non-stainless because most of what I do is forged.

I think you guys are leaving out some important areas of discussion on this topic.

- Intended use
- Ease of sharpening
- Flexibility, ductility, impact resistance etc..

There are a number of area's that properly heat treated and temprered carbon steel still out-performs stainless.

There's a lot more to a knife than edge retention and stain resistance. Let's face it, 98%+ of the knife using world would have a hard time sharpening S90V, S30V, 3G etc.. so what good are the superior edge holding capabilites of those steels to those users?

With all that said, right now 3G is my favorite Stainless and I have had good luck with all of the other high end stainless steel out there. I'm quite fond of 440c for it's ease of sharpening (one of the reasons it's still so popular) and excellent corrosion resistance.

After owning dozens of D2 blades, Bob Dozier is the only person I will buy a D2 knife from. One of his knives will outclass stainless blades in almost every category. Same goes for the laminate Murray Carter makes.

HSO, Stellite & Talonite are not steel so you can't count them here

I do prefer carbon steels, but can live with stainless. On folders sometimes I prefer stainless.

For my fixed blades the only stainless one I use is my laminated VG10 Fallkniven F1.I find that it performs well for my needs.

My sons little Buck 102 Woodsman isn't a slouch in outdoors use either.

After owning dozens of D2 blades, Bob Dozier is the only person I will buy a D2 knife from.

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I would add Tom Krein to that list