Best steel for a kitchen knife blade?

[Chuckles]

What if they're open about sending the AEB-L blades somewhere else for heat treat? @pennman here for example was talking about bad experienes with blades sent to Peters.

One of my favorite knives was heat treated at Peters. It is CPM-154 tho not AEB-L. Peters has the equipment to do any kind of heat treat. They also have multiple employees and different heat treats for different types of knives. The maker would have to know enough to request the right process and perhaps request the right employee. I have never interacted with Peters but this is my understanding.

 

[josemartinlopez]

Would you have more details on what they do, is the process comparable to how a small maker would do it in house?

 

[Chuckles]

Most likely, I have already misrepresented their business. They seem very capable but I am not the one to speak in any kind of detail on their operation.

 

[pennman]

For my lower alloy stainless steels, I’ve noticed some problems from peters. The same problems that Greg Cimms has been experiencing in similar low alloy steels. For my higher alloy steels like M390/20CV, S110V, 3V, M4, CruWear, Rex121, etc, Peters does an awesome job. Those often need a vacuum kiln for optimal HT.

 

[josemartinlopez]

Can you elaborate on the problems, and the performance issues they lead to?

 

[ian]

I predict this thread will go ten pages and the last post will be in 2021.

It’s possible!

 

[RonB]

I am now getting ready to start making knives, but I need to go back and read this entire thread again before I buy any, (more), steel.

And thanks to all who have responded.

 

[branwell]

Ron,

Here's the skinny on steel and knives.

In the simplest terms.

Different steels and heat treats suit different edge geometry's for a given cutting application.

You can make amazing or piss poor knives from any decent steel like AEBL, CPM 154, 52100, White 1, Blue 2, S35v, doesn't matter. It can be balling or it can suck.

The thing is to bring a particular steel, heat treat, blade geometry together for a particular use case. If you can do this, you will have made a great knife.

Here's a plan. Not the best plan perhaps, but reasonable starting point.

Get some AEBL ( its a good steel at a good price and its cheap to work with ) and make some chef knives. Make them a little fat and heat treated to Larrins formula exactly. Temper them a little differently to each other so you have a range of hardnesses to work with.

Once you have have your test samples, start testing and thin the blades down and try different edge geometry's as you go. You will learn a ton. Then alter the heat treat and start testing again

Pro tip. Use a mist system on your grinder. AEBL / NitroV / 13c26 / 14c28 etc have low temper temperatures. As thin as chef knives are, its super easy to inadvertently friction heat them into the temper temp range and soften them.

Bottom line is this. There is no silver Bullitt steel for all configurations. Whether a knife is awesome or not depends on whether the knife maker had a mind expansive enough to understand what was needed and a will strong enough to do it.

 

[Towerguy]

All of the steels currently in use are good. Sharpen it, use it, repeat.

 

[Barmoley]

All of the steels currently in use are good. Sharpen it, use it, repeat.

People like to say this, but it just isn't true. If it was true there would be only one steel. All the steels currently in use are good for something, but since we are discussing kitchen knives, and the OP question was pretty specific, some steels are better for intended use than others.

 

[nakiriknaifuwaifu]

All of the steels currently in use are good. Sharpen it, use it, repeat.

*laughs in Rex121

 

[Jason183]

White 2/blue2/HD2 is the best in my experience, ease of sharpening and the ability to hold that sharpness is my main preference

 

[killerloop]

Blue 2 or 1.2519 or 125sc for me