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Originally Posted by skaterjoe
Quote:
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Originally Posted by FOX_111
Is it good for a knife to be made in steel 440?
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440 is a nice steel for knives. im partial to carbon steel myself, but that is mostly just for its eez to work with.
from my understanding 440 is one of the best stainless steels for edge holding and toughness. although this meens it may be difacult to sharpen with a natural stone and that you might have to use a ceramic or dimond stone to sharpen it. |
Actually thats incorrect. Any knife labelled 440 stainless is always 440A steel, which in fact is a very cheap steel (cheapest of the 440-series anyway), and definitely not a very good at edge holding... Because 440 comes in many different types, 440A, 440B, 440C, 440V, not to mention how it was forged, quenching.. etc that give it different properties as well.
The reason why they label it simply as "440" rather than a specific steel type is they are riding on the popularity of the 440C steel, which is the one you are talking about when saying good edge holding and toughness. 440A is just "OK" for simple stuff if heat treated properly. But this labelling is just a technique in advertising, they arent lying about the steel, but they arent telling the whole thing either, which is why you want to stay away from anything labelled simply as "440"... something to steer clear if you want a good knife.
There is some basic but accurate information you can find out about knife steels here... there are numerous other sites you can find, but give this a good to read through if you are interested in getting a good knife that will last you a while:
http://www.agrussell.com/knife_infor...les/steel.html
If you want a good knife, like anything else, there is LOTS of good info you can gain from these sites:
www.bladeforums.com and
www.knifeforums.com, which is useful before dropping down some bucks on a cool looking knife, especially one at a surplus store :wink:
That aside, not to say never get any knife with that steel... it all depends on what you want to use it for. S&W knifes arent bad for show, or kit if you never really plan to use them for anything serious. There are numerous higher end steels you may want to look into if you want a good knife.