Re: Best knife steel?

> >> So you can just look up this info for M2, D2, etc. ?
[yes, tool steel information is easy to come by]
> > ... and the hardness figures Benchmade (M2) and Queen (D2)
> > give are hardnesses for optimum strength at high hardness.

....as opposed to spring hardness.

> I think we are using different meanings for the term strength
> again, here I mean the tensile strength, this has to be higher
> at 65/66 than 60/62 for M2.

I'm refering to Tortional Impact Toughness test results. Which is
a tool steel or "hard steel field" version of an Izod/Charpy test.

The book for my metallurgy class goes no-where near this subject! :/

MT&P does tho. :) Fig 10-6 and Fig 7-30 for 1095 of all things.:)

Your "hardness related tensile strength" doesn't involve impact.

It doesn't show what was seen with tooling showing different
strengths, harder could be "stronger" sometimes and even harder
could be weaker. That's when they came up with the torsional
toughness test, it matched up with experiences. :)

And "tool steel toughness" (ultimate strength) doesn't differenciate
between brittle failure and plastic failure because either will
generally ruin a "tool". Carbon and alloy steel for use as machine
parts and fasteners and "tough-ass-fightin'knives;)" all fall into a
different catagory from tool steel uses that way.

So in the situations where you don't care how it fails, and all you
care about is highest strength -and- high hardness for edge taking
and edge holding... the torsional impact test results are your baby,
not just my baby. ;)

Early on, in say the first 6 months, in my self-studying of steel
metallurgy, I got the two "schools" confused. Got it straightened
out and then years later could see the knife magazines had the two
confused, and still do I guess, stopped looking at knife magazines.

Quite a few of us have them "separated" but we are a tiny minority
and don't count for anything in the overall scheme of things. :)

Those that are figuring out ways to have an extra hard edge that's
tempered according to tool steel's tortional-impact-test results
and have an un-breakable main body both, are the ones doing the
best work, IMO, better than me anyway! :)

> In general do you always get maximum wear resistance and grain
> refinement at max hardness?

No.

When all else is equal, wear resistance goes up with hardness.

Grain refinement is a separate issue.

As a side thought, 1095 vs D2.

> > Queen's D2 won't take an extra acute edge... acts like stainless.
> Dozier's does the same, D2 is just too coarse grained.
> Cliff Stamp

I was mostly thinking in terms of just plain-old being "too delicate
of a steel;)" to hold up to the pressures of honing in such thin
sections.

Suppose a guy -could- get a steel that's "diluted with 3 times too
much Cr;)" sharpened-up at that acute of an angle by lots of extra
careful honing...

BTDT

But what good is it?

First time you stick it in a cow's ear the edge is shot! ;)

BTSeenT

YMMV

Alvin in AZ
.

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