Many Types of Blade Steel, Which is Best?

A. Hate to break it to you but there is no "perfect knife for any situation". man has been trying to invent this for thousands of years and will continue to do so for thousands of years. For example a folding knife is, for the average person, the best knife to own because it will be the one they will probably be carrying on them when the need arises. But for a survival situation I would want a large knife (at least 8 inch blade)..now that would be a bit difficult to carry around on a daily basis. This is the reason why there are hundreds of knife companies and thousands of custom knife makers...if it were possible to make the perfect knife 99% of the industry would die, because there would be no need for competitive designs. As for materials...you need to first decide what the intended purpose of the knife is (daily carry, hunting, survival, combat, etc.) this will narrow down your prospective blade materials quite a bit(then you need to think about handle, sheath, guard, etc material;) this is a VERY opinionated topic..every maker has his own preferences. Me personally I use ats-34 or 154cm for "art" knives that need to keep a good polish, 440v for smaller knives(folders too) that need to be stainless and hold an edge good. For large hacking/survival knives I tend to use 1095 and send it out to get a tungsten or boron carbide coating (rc 90ish) to help it be noncorrosive, and edge retention.

Here's a list of steel that ALL work well in different situations: 1065,1095,O1,L6, M2,ATS34,154CM,440C,420V,440V,5160,D2,A2..this of course is only a partial list, and I'm not even going to get into the subject of crucible, cast, dendrite, damascus, etc steels... there is A LOT to learn on the subject..I've been making knives for about 13 years and still am learning/refining my designs, ask a maker that has been doing it 50 years and he will tell you the same thing. My advice to you is, take college courses in metallurgy/industrial materials, subscribe to the knife media, contact a custom maker and talk with him, and make sure you have plenty of time :) good luck

P.S.: o..i forgot to add that proper heat treating of the steel is just as important (if not more) than the steel type itself.

A. Hi, Angelina. This is the grade that would be used in stainless steel cutlery; it should be fine. Stainless steel is not as hard or quite as capable of holding a really fine edge as some of the non stainless steels, but it doesn't readily rust -- which would be important for this intricate piece.

Regards,