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knife metals

I cannot answer that question yet , but I'm really close to learning how to make my own knives.
I can tell you this ;
Stainless steels are a new thing.They are not used in any serious knifemaking *
----
The best knife I own right now is a ceramic blade.It's so sharp you wouldn't believe it.I use it to make tiny little tomato cubes for salsa !!
The finest ,sharpest samurai swords that have existed , are layered high/low carbon steels . Sometimes even 'edge' quenched to modify hardness .

The ideal knife has the sharpness of ceramic ( 1 atom) and elastic construction ( aka not brittle).

* knifemakers are getting into actually using chrome steels (stainless).we'll give it 500 years to progress.

😀
 
I like carbon steel for a knife I want sharp, and to stay sharp. I like stainless for knives I beat up. Dunno what they use, but I love the steel in Swiss army knives. They dull quickly, but sharpen quickly, and take all the abuse I give them as my most used tool set.
 
It depends on how it is heat treated a lot of the time.

D2 is pretty serious steel for dies, mostly for molds.

H12 is really seriously hard steel but is brittle.

A2 and O1 are both good for progressive dies, it depends on the heat treatment on what you are doing with it, but there is a reason they are used for durability in a tool that is stamping and forming metal parts.

Medical Grade Stainless is good for non corrosive, is why it is used in the medical field so often.

Damascus makes some very cool looking knives, not that I believe there is true Damascus around these days. Had a buddy that used to make knives played around with it awhile.

I've toyed with the idea of picking up an old wire EDM and a few things and making making knives myself in the past.

I already have, just have never tried selling any.
 
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Heat treat is very important.
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Allow me to diverge a bit.
Today , I aced my boiler inspections for the Brewery !
Allll black (ferrous oxide) . Damn good news ! ....There was only one tiny pocket of rust ( ferric oxide)((Bad))
-----

Back on topic .
There are 16 different oxides of Iron....Let alone carbon varieties...and alloys.
Making steels is one of our oldest art forms , but 2000 years later , we still have a lot to learn.

I think Imma make a gas forge.

🙂
 
BrainEater said:
Heat treat is very important.
-----
Allow me to diverge a bit.
Today , I aced my boiler inspections for the Brewery !
Allll black (ferrous oxide) . Damn good news ! ....There was only one tiny pocket of rust ( ferric oxide)((Bad))
-----

Back on topic .
There are 16 different oxides of Iron....Let alone carbon varieties...and alloys.
Making steels is one of our oldest art forms , but 2000 years later , we still have a lot to learn.

I think Imma make a gas forge.

🙂
Click to expand...

Cryogenic treatment is even good after heat treatment in some cases.

I have V Block sets etc I have made in the past that were Cryo after.
 
MongGrel said:
Cryogenic treatment is even good after heat treatment in some cases.

I have V Block sets etc I have made in the past that were Cryo after.
Click to expand...

That's awesome !! I've played around with some cryo stuff..
It makes me wonder how good of a knife/sword you could make with today's fabrication abilities.We can order custom steels of any variety , and engineer things unheard of 100 years ago.
...and this is a many thousand year old profession !
=D
 
The last 100 years have been unbelievable true exponential technology growth. For thousands of years people dreamed of flying through the air. About 100 years 2 guys managed to do so. Now we fly in the air routinely.
 
I got a Fallkniven S1
It's made with VG10 laminated stainless.

It has been freaking amazing. Probably the best edge retention of any blade I own, but to be fair it's also the priciest blade I own.
 
BrainEater said:
It makes me wonder how good of a knife/sword you could make with today's fabrication abilities.
Click to expand...

Strictly speaking there's some limits to what the materials can do (brittleness, hardness, etc). There's a few exotic alloys we've come up with which could probably make an impressive blade, compared to what ye olden blacksmiths/swordsmiths would have come up with, but the real 'modern magic' would be the ability to make a million of them in a month, vs like, four. If we start breaking into other types of materials though that goes out the window (nanotube based, some wild flexi-ceramic, unobtainium).
 
I agree partially.
...and we don't need 'unobtainium'.

We have much more specific alloys now , yes , but I think you could take the old school Japanese method of hard/soft steel lamination waaaaaaay farther now with automation.
1000 layer steel ?
Pfffft.....we can get 100,000 layer steel now.Just by getting a machine to 'fold' steel.
We also understand the process of annealing much better now, and can apply selective quenching to blades.

Realistically , this is just old techniques with new methods.
 
BrainEater said:
It makes me wonder how good of a knife/sword you could make with today's fabrication abilities.We can order custom steels of any variety , and engineer things unheard of 100 years ago.
Click to expand...

And there are things that are centuries old that are still unheard of in their methodology...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damascus_steel

A research team in Germany published a report in 2006 revealing nanowires and carbon nanotubes in a blade forged from Damascus steel
Click to expand...
 
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