Knife metal
Encyclopedia
A knife metal is a metal, usually consisting of steel
or stainless steel
, that is used to construct a knife
blade
. Below is a list of various steel types for knives and their characteristics.
Steel
Steel is an alloy that consists mostly of iron and has a carbon content between 0.2% and 2.1% by weight, depending on the grade. Carbon is the most common alloying material for iron, but various other alloying elements are used, such as manganese, chromium, vanadium, and tungsten...
or stainless steel
Stainless steel
In metallurgy, stainless steel, also known as inox steel or inox from French "inoxydable", is defined as a steel alloy with a minimum of 10.5 or 11% chromium content by mass....
, that is used to construct a knife
Knife
A knife is a cutting tool with an exposed cutting edge or blade, hand-held or otherwise, with or without a handle. Knives were used at least two-and-a-half million years ago, as evidenced by the Oldowan tools...
blade
Blade
A blade is that portion of a tool, weapon, or machine with a cutting edge and/or a pointed tip that is designed to cut and/or puncture, stab, slash, chop, slice, thrust, or scrape animate or inanimate surfaces or materials...
. Below is a list of various steel types for knives and their characteristics.
| name. | stainless? | common? | reference. |
|---|---|---|---|
| AUS-8 | yes. | very common. | SOG website,blade magazine. |
| AUS 8A | yes. | common. | BLADE magazine. |
| CPM S30V | yes. | common. | BLADE magazine,kershaw website,spyderco website. |
| CPM 154 | yes. | fairly common. | BLADE magazine,kershaw website. |
| 154 CM | yes. | common. | BLADE magazine. |
| 440C | yes. | fairly common. | BLADE magazine,spyderco website. |
| 440A | yes. | unfairly common. | spyderco website. |
| standard stainless. | yes | very common. | BLADE magazine. |
| N690Co/cobalt vanadium | no. | uncommon. | BLADE magazine,spyderco website. |
| 8CR14 | yes. | uncommon. | SOG website. |
| vg-10 | no. | very common. | SOG website. |
| san-mai | no. | very uncommon. | SOG website. |
| 420 | yes. | common. | spyderco website. |
| 6cr12MOV | no. | uncommon. | spyderco website. |
| 7cr13 | yes. | common. | spyderco website. |
| 7cr17 MOV | no. | common. | spyderco website. |
| 8cr13 MOV | no. | uncommon. | SOG website. |
| 420j2 | yes. | very uncommon. | SOG website,spyderco website,kershaw website |
| OU-31 | no. | rare. | SOG website. |
| AUS 6 | no. | very uncommon. | spyderco website. |
| 3CR13 | yes. | uncommon. | kershaw website. |
| 12c27 sandvik | yes. | common. | sandvik website. |
| 13c26 sandvik | yes. | uncommon. | sandvik website. |
| 14C28N sandvik | yes. | uncommon. | sandvik website. |
| 19c27 sandvik | yes. | uncommon. | sandvik website. |
| 6c27 sandvik | yes. | common. | sandvik website. |
| 7c27M02 sandvik | yes. | common. | sandvik website. |
| 12C27M sandvik | yes. | very uncommon. | sandvik website. |
| 7CR13MOV | no. | uncommon. | |
| AUS6A | yes. | very uncommon. | |
| 420HC | yes. | uncommon. | |
| cpm-d2 | no. | very uncommon. | |
| elmax© | no. | uncommon. | kershaw website. |
| M390 | yes. | very uncommon. | |
| cobalt special | no. | very uncommon. | spyderco website. |
| 52100 | no. | extremely uncommon. | spyderco website. |
| 9CR18MO | no. | uncommon. | spyderco website. |
| ats-34 | no. | uncommon. | spyderco website. |
| ats-55 | no. | very uncommon. | spyderco website. |
| aus-10 | no. | uncommon. | spyderco website. |
| BD1 | no. | very uncommon. | spyderco website. |
| CPM-S35VN | no. | very uncommon. | spyderco website. |
| CPM-S90V | no. | very uncommon. | spyderco website. |
| CTS-20CP | no. | uncommon. | spyderco website. |
| cts-bd1 | no. | very uncommon. | spyderco website. |
| CTS-XHP | no. | uncommon. | spyderco website. |
| gin-1 | yes. | very uncommon. | spyderco website. |
| gin 1 | no. | Extremely uncommon. | spyderco website. |
| MBS-26 | yes. | common. | spyderco website. |
| MDS | yes. | extremely uncommon. | spyderco website. |
| super blue | no. | rare. | spyderco website. |
| d2 | yes. | common. | spyderco website. |
| H-1 | yes. | very uncommon. | spyderco website. |
| 3cr | no. | uncommon. | spyderco website. |
| o-1 | no. | uncommon. | spyderco website. |
| ZDP-189 | no. | uncommon. | spyderco website. |
| CPM-M4 | no. | uncommon. | spyderco website. |
| CTS-BD30P | no. | uncommon. | spyderco website. |