Thanks to Gabe Newell, George Thorpe, Jason, Rogelio Escobedo, Wes Newman, and Wayne Sears for becoming Knife Steel Nerds Patreon supporters! On Patreon there is a new article exclusive to supporters about Artisan Cutlery’s exclusive steel AR-RPM9. The composition was recently announced so I analyzed the composition.
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My new book Knife Engineering is now in stock at BladeHQ.
There is an excellent review of my new book Knife Engineering from Nick Shabazz on Youtube that you can watch here.
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My new book Knife Engineering continues to receive excellent reviews from amateur knifemakers, experienced knifemakers, and knife enthusiasts. Click here for more information about the book and links to buy. If you have purchased a copy, please go leave a review on Amazon.
My new book, Knife Engineering: Steel, Heat Treating, and Geometry was released last week. The reviews have been coming in and the feedback is very positive so far. Go get one! And make sure you leave a review on Amazon. Also, Australian readers are now telling me it is possible to buy the book now from Amazon USA. So if you had issues ordering in the past give it another try. But do not order from Amazon Australia, see my article to learn why.
Update 4/14/2024: Gameco is sold out but Amazon Australia has it now.
Update 3/29/2022: I added that SD Knives and Supplies is the place to buy in South Africa
Update 3/31/2021: I added that Gameco is the place to buy in Australia.
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General Heat Treating Myths
1. Heat Treating is the most important factor for high performance knives. This one started out along the lines of “even the best steel will perform poorly if given a bad heat treatment,” and that I can’t disagree with too much. However, it has become somewhat fashionable to talk about knife performance as entirely (or almost entirely) controlled by the knifemaker’s skill in heat treatment. This has some truth to it as knifemakers who use a subpar heat treatment will certainly have subpar performance. However, the heat treatment can only do so much. No heat treatment is capable of making high carbide CPM 15V into a high toughness steel. No heat treatment can turn 1095 carbon steel into a stainless. And I would argue that the single most important factor for knife performance is the edge geometry rather than the steel selection or heat treatment. The edge geometry greatly controls the cutting ability and edge retention of the knife and also resistance to chipping and rolling. The image below shows measured edge retention of 154CM knives with different edge angles so you can see the vast difference in measured performance (higher number means more cardstock cut). Of course, focusing on any one of these factors at the expense of the others: steel selection, heat treatment, and edge geometry, is a mistake and each should be optimized for the given knife. But if we were to pick one factor that is the “most important” I’m not sure that heat treatment would be the one.
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Metallurgists
I have enjoyed writing many articles about the history of different knife steels over the past couple years of this website. It has been very challenging to track down the history of different steels to see where they came from and how. I decided to write an article about some of the greats who have made contributions to knife steel and knife tests. Many of these metallurgists didn’t know they were developing steels that would be used in knives. Some were developing tool steels or high speed steels. However, their steels have since been used in knives or their steel designs influenced other steels which have been used in knives. To keep this article manageable in size I have focused on those that developed steel or tests of knives. In other words, those that studied different aspects of steel are not included. Some notable people that were omitted for this reason include:
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History of M390 Development
