All About Pocket Knives

Which steel make a better blade; 1095 or 440? Thanks.


Luckypaul777

Barring a few types of steel, it really depends on your usage and the type of blade being designed, but onwards I go into the hornets nest

I'm partial to 1095 myself, and some of the other basic and tool steels. O1, W2, L6, D2, etc. These can produce, under optimal hardening/tempering a fantasticly sharp edge, which is both durable and easy to get back should it go dull. Nearly all of my knives are of the carbon steel variety for this reason. It's also a "nostalgic" steel. Carbon steel is the steel your grandfathers and before used and abused. It teaches you to respect your tools by forcing you to take care of it (I.E. a little oil and love after use)

When it comes to the 440 series, there are some standouts. On the high end, 440C and it's direct relatives are very good cutlery steels, again depending on their heat treatment being done correctly. some of the latest "Super Steels" like S60V and S90V are actually modified 440C (Did you know S60V was originally named 440V? this was changed partially due to the negative connotations with "440 stainless") Here's the problem though. The 400 series has some steels that have no business being in cutlery. 410, 420j2, etc. Even the cheaper 440A is not a really good blade steel. they simply do not have the chemical makeup to compare to an edge from a real "blade" steel. The bad reputation the 440 has is almost solely due to the business practices of cheap importers. It has become common practice to stamp knives "440 Stainless" and then use whatever cheap, recycled can steel you have available. The implied connotation is that your knife is one of the higher grades of 440, but in fact, it could be anything, often it's not even heat treated (I've seen this on many "fantasy" type weapons. I used to know a guy who loved those things)

Anyways, to sum it up, if you have two, identical, middle of the road type blades, one in 1095, one in 440C and corrosion is not going to come into play, then the knife in 1095 will cut longer before it needs to be sharpened. same goes for 440B and A. You probably would not be able to get a compatible starting point if you used 420 steels for such a test, they won't sharpen to that degree.

Same test, but add in saltwater or some kind of corrosive agent, you might see very different results.

Someone else hop in and correct my logic, if there are flaws I like being wrong almost as I like being right