“What type of steel is the best or worst for a knife?”
“Do your knives stay sharp?”
“Is your knives hard to sharpen?”
“Is this knife stainless?”
“Is this funny pattern on the blade Damascus?”
On and on and on……
I hear similar questions all the time. The truth is, the answer to most of the questions above is “It Depends”. Do I have all the answers? NOPE. Not even close. I will in no way say I know the correct answer to most of the questions. You can get “good enough” answers (for your and me anyway) on the internet via Wikipedia or I use “http://zknives.com/”. I use the ZKnives website A LOT when I want to learn about steel and knives, etc. I find ZKnives to be a wealth of information.
With that in mind, I want you to know that most MOST of the information in the “Knives and Steel Series” of articles will come from the ZKnives website. You can check them out for much much more detailed information.
In the “Knives and Steel Series” we’ll cover a wealth of knife and steel information. We’ll begin by focusing on “The Steel” for the first few articles.
What is the Best or Worst Steel?
It Depends! Now that wasn’t much help was it? The question of “What is the best steel” or “Rank the following steels in order from best to worst”, depends on a number of factors. For example:
- What is the job of the knife?
- How much are you able to spend?
- What is the required blade geometry?
- Does the knife need to be easy to sharpen?
- Does the blade need to be stainless?
- Does the steel need to be made in the USA?
- etc, etc, etc
Basically the requirements and qualities of the steel as you’ll see through out this series can go on and on and on.
Steel is at the heart of the blade. However steel by itself isn’t the sole determiner of knife performance You can’t tell by looking at it how well a blade has been heat-treated, and you can only make educated guesses on how well the blade and handle geometry will work. With steel, however, you can get a full listing of its alloying elements, something measurable and somehow satisfying. As a result, it’s easy to fall into the trap of putting too much emphasis on the steel itself. A knife is more than steel, and it’s important not to forget that. In addition, many modern steels perform so well, that knife decisions can often be made based on other factors than marginal increases in steel performance.
So To Sum It Up… It Depends!
Acuta Knives 