Steels and alloys in cutlery, characteristics and comparison

Steels and alloys used in cutlery:
What is expected of a steel cutlery is primarily the hardness that will determine the quality of the blade edge and wear resistance.
Another important factor is resilience, ie resistance to breakage, which takes in the manufacture of forged knives to modulate the rate of carbon depending
on the nature of the blade to achieve but also to be able to play on the most suitable heat treatment.
Finally, a third important quality is expected inoxidizability, which is even more important for outdoor knives (hunting, survival or diving ...)

In summary, choosing a type of steel and alloys is directly related to the purpose for which the knife is intended.

Important elements to consider, apart from the budget that you want to devote to it, obviously, and the favorite
for aesthetics when buying a knife are:
. Blade carbon levels: a high carbon content = excellent cut quality, carbon bringing the blade hardness.
. The rate of chromium for corrosion resistance, chromium bringing inoxidizability: from 13% chrome stainless steel is said.
. Rockwell hardness HRC: process which consists of driving a steel ball to measure the hardness of a metal:
from 53-54 HRC, a knife blade has a correct quality hardness
over 58-60 HRC, it is a very good blade.

But we must not forget that a very tough blade will also be more difficult to re-sharpen.

Regarding pocket knives and hunting, a 440C steel blade is always guarantees a very high quality.

Damascus blade knives:
The damascene technique involves superimposing layers of hard and soft steels on each other and then to highlight these layers by an acid treatment.
This results in a visually very aesthetic and single blade, this method also provides little flexibility
for knives with a very hard steel core, thereby making the blade less brittle.