Nothing beats a well-made knife that slices smooth all your food. While the use of knives is pretty simple, its making isn’t. So, even if there is a single mistake made while making a knife, it can decrease its overall utility.
A knife’s blade is its most important part since it does the major part of the job. Thus, picking the best blade material for the knife is a crucial job. Below we have made a list of the top three metal blade materials that are used for knife making.
Tool Steel
Tool steels are one of the most popular choices when it comes to knife making. Tool steels are just another carbon steels whose mechanical properties have been increased, due to the addition of other alloying elements. Because of the alloying elements added to the carbon steel, its corrosion resistance gets improved. However, it still remains unmatched to the level of stainless steel.
A2 is one of the tool steel grades that is commonly used as a knife material. It is considered the best in terms of toughness, however, it lacks hardness as compared to other tool steels. Moreover, A2 grade requires proper care, or else it is prone to rust. The other option is a D2 grade tool steel which provides better corrosion resistance and edge retention than A2. However, D2 grade tool steel isn’t the best when it comes to toughness.
Carbon Steel
A lot of knife makers prefer to use carbon steel grades which have high amounts of carbon because of the hardness and strength provided by the material. Consequently, the knives made from such materials are better at holding up against the impact as well as wear. However, materials with high amounts of carbon need to be precisely treated with heat.
If that is not done, the knife can come out too brittle which can lead it to fracture. It may be the case that the blade will be too soft, so the knife won’t hold its sharp edges. Apart from that, knives made from high carbon materials also rust easily because of the alloying elements present in them. Thus, such knives also need proper care to retain their shape and utility.
Stainless Steel
You must be aware of stainless steel already since it is a common material that is used in kitchen utensils. The extra benefit that stainless steel provides is due to the addition of chromium and other alloying elements. As a result, the corrosion resistance of the material increases. Maybe that’s why stainless steel has been considered as their most favorite knife-making material by 53% of knife makers.
These stainless steel knives are usually made of ferritic or martensitic stainless steel. It is recommended that you do not use low carbon versions of austenitic stainless steels as their blade life is secondary.
Apart from all the metals mentioned above, there are other types of materials as well, such as ceramic, alloy steels, obsidian, and even plastic.
That was all! Now you know about the top materials used in knife making.