If you could only use one type of knife steel for the rest of your life, what would it be?

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No big fan of stainless. Hasn't to do with difficult sharpening: after some time you find tricks to deal with the most difficult ones. It's not purely rational, but I miss some feeling. Literally. The direct contact with edge, food and board. Less so with finely grained ones, as 12C27, 13C26 or 14C28N. Patina gives a lot of joy, too.
Love most C60 and C75, and some spicy vintage Sheffield. Simple, easy sharpening, cheap. Two minutes to restore a tip. A few strokes on a Belgian Blue to revive and deburr an edge. Or on cardboard, leather, denim, whatever is close. As it lacks the bite others get by their structure I have to keep them crazy sharp. No real yoke.
When condemned to poly boards though, it's not very practical. What brings me to AS.
 
Vanadis 23 or REX121 both are the best in egde holding so far from my piont of view :)

Regards

Uwe
 
suntravel said:
Vanadis 23 or REX121 both are the best in egde holding so far from my piont of view :)

Regards

Uwe
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Cool steels, but they are so drusticaly different. Vanadis 23 seems like a better all around steel a slightly wimpier version of cpm-m4 class of steels:D rex121 on the other hand is this super wear resistant very high alloy steel that can get really hard, with low toughness in comparison and very high slicing edge holding. Sharpening rex121 would be very difficult and thinning impossible for someone without a grinder and some major skills. In addition might not work best with fine, thin edges that kitchen knives have. If you had to pick just one, which one would it be.
 
Barmoley said:
Cool steels, but they are so drusticaly different. Vanadis 23 seems like a better all around steel a slightly wimpier version of cpm-m4 class of steels:D rex121 on the other hand is this super wear resistant very high alloy steel that can get really hard, with low toughness in comparison and very high slicing edge holding. Sharpening rex121 would be very difficult and thinning impossible for someone without a grinder and some major skills. In addition might not work best with fine, thin edges that kitchen knives have. If you had to pick just one, which one would it be.
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I would prefer V23 with my HT, because I know REX121 only with HT from an other maker, V23 is very easy to sharpen to an crazy sharp egde and hold this for a long time, the REX121 i have tested from an russian maker was not so easy to get scary sharp but holds an usable edge forever. Gets an somewhat rough egde like M390.

If kitchenknifes of these steels are made good, an homecutter may never need to thin them out.

My V23 was tested by an professional cook, and got lots of abuse like hard cheese, cutting on bonses ect. and lost the sharpness for easy slicing tomatoes after 600 pax. Was easy to get sharp again only useing fine stones...

Regards

Uwe
 
Thanks. Out of the two V23 would be my preference too as 1 only steel. Sounds like you have it figured out too. It should make an excellent knife. Rex121 is something else all together. I am just glad that some of these cool steels are finally making it into the kitchen knife realm.
 
Well next on my bench ist Vanadis 4E (made only harcore outdoorcoppers from this rihgt now) and CPM3V.

Could be very good for thin lasergrinds because of the toughness with a bit less egde holding.

Böhler K390 ist als very good in terms of egde holding with not so thin grinds, lacks a bit of toughness for super thin grinds...

Regards Uwe
 
suntravel said:
Well next on my bench ist Vanadis 4E (made only harcore outdoorcoppers from this rihgt now) and CPM3V.

Could be very good for thin lasergrinds because of the toughness with a bit less egde holding.

Böhler K390 ist als very good in terms of egde holding with not so thin grinds, lacks a bit of toughness for super thin grinds...

Regards Uwe
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There's quite alot of potentially interesting hss out there. Since erasteel is local to me now I looked up their selection, the one equivalent to t15 is looking bonkers, 12%W :eek:
 
RDalman said:
There's quite alot of potentially interesting hss out there. Since erasteel is local to me now I looked up their selection, the one equivalent to t15 is looking bonkers, 12%W :eek:
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High W and V are bitches to grind :)

I prefer high V because ist makes smaller carbides, better for kitchen knifes.

But both kill belts in seconds :D

Regards

Uwe
 
suntravel said:
Well next on my bench ist Vanadis 4E (made only harcore outdoorcoppers from this rihgt now) and CPM3V.

Could be very good for thin lasergrinds because of the toughness with a bit less egde holding.

Böhler K390 ist als very good in terms of egde holding with not so thin grinds, lacks a bit of toughness for super thin grinds...

Regards Uwe
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Sounds great v4e is probably better for kitchen knives than 3V, since 3V looses toughness fast at high hardness, so for super thin grinds, edges where you need high hardness for stability v4e is probably as good toughness wise and has better wear resistance. All guesses on my part ofcourse, never tried either in a kitchen knife.
 
Barmoley said:
Sounds great v4e is probably better for kitchen knives than 3V, since 3V looses toughness fast at high hardness, so for super thin grinds, edges where you need high hardness for stability v4e is probably as good toughness wise and has better wear resistance. All guesses on my part ofcourse, never tried either in a kitchen knife.
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Well maybe will check this out ;)

I have also Chipper Steel on my list, with all the hard stuff its hard to beat AEB-L regarding efficiency in a pro kitchen, because of its ability to get sharp with a honing steel in seconds unless someone make a fine steel for V23. Dick Titan works but is not fine enough...

Regards

Uwe
 
josemartinlopez said:
How is ATS-34 compared to AEB-L and other good stainless steels?
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From Roman Landes' Messerklingen und Stahl
IMG_20200910_105926.jpg
IMG_20200910_110028.jpg
 
Stainless: M390
Carbon: Blue2

if I had to pick one of this 2 for ever and ever, stainless it would be.
 
Another year old thread comes back to life!
Too soon to really know for me. I own or have owned only about twenty Japanese knives and I've had the chance to use another four or five so not a large sample here relative to the members who have used more than double that sample. However, the early returns lean toward the fine grained stainless steels like AEB-L, Nitro-V, Ginsan, etc. - good toughness, takes sharp edge and holds an edge reasonably well, not bad to sharpen and no worries with acidic or high sulfur compound ingredients. Z-Wear is tough and holds an edge incredibly well but I haven't had the need to sharpen it yet so no experience there. Aogami 1 & 2, Shirogami 1 & 2 and 1.2519 are all fine, no problems but nothing really stands out for me. Arguably they can get slightly sharper than the stainless steels referenced about and are slightly easier to sharpen but I don't find the difference all that dramatic. SG2/R2 has a weird feel for me, not really a negative just weird, but that is based on a sample of one. 52100, A2/SKD12, 1.2442, and 1.2562 I haven't tried. Most of the super high edge retention steels like REX 121 I have zero interest in. I am, however, curious about NioMax, ZTuff and, to a lesser extent CPM-D2, but I haven't seen any evidence that any of these are as of yet in use in kitchen knives.
 
How could I choose one steel, even of the many I've tried, if I cannot be sure I ever used it with excellent HT?

Begging the question, if all makers around the world were to close shop but one, who should that be?
 
Nemo said:
Well heat-treated steel.
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Boring :LOL: would you take well heat treated 1045 for a kitchen knife? As silly as this question is we have to assume any of the picked steels is heat treated well, otherwise there is nothing to talk about. We also have to agree that there are differences among steels, if this was not true everyone would use one steel. Given these 2 postulates you could discuss which class of steels would be the best for kitchen knives. Z-wear/PD1/CPM Cruwear class would be very difficult to improve on as over all best steel for kitchen knives. Hard AEB-L is also at the top if stainless and most ease of sharpening are needed. CPM-154/RWL34 also strike a great balance for kitchen knives. This seems to suggest that other steels are not good and this is not the case, but they give up something to the above. For example, low alloy steels make great kitchen knives. They have the ability to easily patina to give more character to the knives, they can also be easily forged and don't require special equipment to heat treat, but if we are looking at steel specifically and not knife manufacturing or maintenance processes then low alloy steels are not the best.
 
ian said:
Shun, probably. In the case of a super-plague affecting only knife makers, the lowly yet ubiquitous cockroach survives.
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True, very true...

I'll dig myself an antinuclear vault, not because I'm afraid of the end of the world, just to lock my knives away and live happy forever a good distance away from any Shun contamination.
 
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