About custom maker favorite stainless steel

[Brucewml]

Same as topic. I am really curious about custom maker favorite stainless steel. And I want to ask performance of the all those stanless steel

Thanks so much. Bruce

 

[Matus]

My experience is very limited.

I really like how Niolox performs once finished, but working with it is not quite as enjoyable. It eats belts and sandpaper and just does not want to take a decent finish. I guess it can be polished to mirror, if one has enough motivation and sandpaper. Even D2 is more maker friendly.

Damasteel is super nice to work with - makes me want to try clean RWL34. I guess it being a powder steel has a lot to do with it.

Also AEB-L is relatively easy too.

 

[Marcelo Amaral]

I've had a great time with stainless from Cris Anderson (aeb-l), Dalman (aeb-l), Harner (cpm154 and xhp) and Ingoglia (Nitro-V). Aeb-l is my favorite stainless (due to the ease of sharpening), followed by cpm 154 (great balance between ease of sharpening and retention plus toothier edge). Cpm 154 and Nitro-V are relatively easy to sharpen and cpm154 has better retention than aeb-l (can't judge Nitro-V retention yet, though). Xhp might have the best retention than cpm154, which is amazing as cpm154 has great retention and it takes a finer edge, but it is harder to sharpen. Cpm154 leaves a toothier edge in my opinion than Nitro-V and cpm154. All of them are fantastic stainless in my experience.

 

[Godslayer]

Not a maker but as a user I like whatever the maker specializes in, I've used aebl, r2, zdp, vg10, elmax, s90v, ginsanko, vg5, hap40, carpenter steel and probably other stainless steels I've long since forgotten, generally I think there is a certain level of skill in learning the kinks of each steels preferred heat treatment that takes time(experience) to nail down(kindof like cooking a piece of meat), I've had aebl from HHH, Kikuchi, Dalman, Butch Harner and Devin Thomas, they all feel different mainly on the stones, most makers I have talked to really like aebl, it's relatively easy to work with and most have a plethora of experience with it, which means they get good at it, but in my experience I would want to talk to the maker in question if your buying a knife from them, if it's a Japanese blade I would probably just ask on the forum for feedback on item xyz and more than likely people will chime in.

 

[YG420]

PD-1 steel that Devin Thomas used in my gyuto is the best steel ive ever used, carbon or stainless. It sharpens up like white steel, but has the edge retention of wear resistant steels like r2 and gets suuuuuper sharp.

 

[Marcelo Amaral]

Can you set the bevel of your PD-1 on jnats? So far, Aeb-l was the only stainless that got me confortable doing this, both Cris' and Dalman's. If PD-1 can do that, it would be awesome.

 

[StonedEdge]

Wait, setting bevels on Jnats is a thing people do?

 

[Marcelo Amaral]

I do it all the time with easy to sharpen steels on thin behind the edge blades and in those cases it doesn't take more than a couple of minutes. The best thing about it is that it is more difficult to overshoot and get a bigger burr than needed. With smaller burrs it's much easier to deburr. No way i would do that on hard to sharpen steels or with thick behind the edge blades though. Also, this is a great way to judge which steels are easier to sharpen.

 

[YG420]

You can flip a burr easily with a shobu suita if thats any indication, buttery smooth. With syns the burr just melts away.