Your Opinion: The best PM stainless steel you have used.

I will make a point here, as has been made by a few people;

A good steel perfectly heat treated will outperform an amazing steel with mediocre heat treatment.

I find that polish has a lot to do with a blades ability to resist rust and staining. Simply put, there is less surface area on the blade when you have a medium level of polish applied (Lets say 600grit). When you are rockign a 120grit belt finish, the actual size of those ravines in the face of the steel are gigantic when you are trying to form a chromium oxide layer that is consistent. (Stainless steel is 100% oxidized, it just so happens that the 3-5 nano-meter thick layer of chromium oxide is clear). The higher the polish, the greater rust resistance.

The more I hear about R2/SG2 from custom or individual makers makes me seem like this will be the next frontier for me. It is just a shame NB-1 does not come in san-mai or laminated steel. Those Hitachi LSD steels don't look to bad either.

It is such a shame I cant get Hamons on stainless steel.

 

The heat treater I use does thousands of custom blades per year and is used by a bunch of the best custom Knifemakers in the US. For every other type of steel I have sent them, they have met or exceeded my expectations and turn out heat treated blades that I am delighted to put in the hands of home and pro chefs. And the feedback from the chefs and home users has confirmed this with repeat orders.

I think that what I am not conveying is that I think AEBL is terribly finicky with respect to heat treating. It takes someone with a real dedication to perfecting its treatment to get good results. But perhaps slight temp deviation or the phase of the moon, or whether Jupiter is ascending in Orion affects it dramatically enough to give seriously variable results. Therefore, I'd rather not be faced with the guesswork.

I have had CPM 154CM blades treated by two different heat treaters several times at different times and the resulting blades have had identical performance. It clearly is not as finicky. Also it is 14.5% chromium and a little vanadium which is better in my personal opinion for edge retention and abrasion resistance. I definitely feel the difference on the belts when I grind it and in the stones when I sharpen it.

Cris and Devin obviously have AEBL dialed in to where they are happy with the performance for their customers. They do their own heat treating and obviously do it better than my heat treater does. Therefore, since that is the resource I use, and it does a poor job of it on that specific steel, I will avoid it. Since my heat treater does a spectacular job on other steels that I like to use, those are the ones I will stick to.

 

That last photo I posted was a blade finished to 800 grit. More widespread rust than my autopsy knife finished to 120 grit.

 

I think that last part of it is probably the key. It seems from all reports AEBl is great when HT properly but it takes some time/patience to get that right. And most people that seem to have it nailed do it themselves.

Maybe your HTer just hasn't had the experience for it. But he is nailing the steels you and his other customers are sending so why care about another steel that he doesn't work with much.

 

That's interesting. What's so challenging about R2/SG2 in this respect?

 

Limited supply, quite expensive

 

Yeah. I've never used it. If there is one steel I'd like to use it's R2/SG2... Or perhaps one of the really expensive and wear-resistant modern steels like ZDP189. I'd almost bought a pocket knife in CPM-20CV, but then decided I thought it was too expensive...

 

How about srs-15? I know a guy that likes it...

 

I Googled it and if the information I found is correct, it could be an ideal steel for a kitchen knife. Both great edge retentention and an ability to take a very keen edge... And the knives in SRS-15 I found online were not even that expensive (relatively spoken).

 

Does he have it in an Akifusa knife or a custom? If it's Japanese steel, then you have to be part of the cabal to get some of it. It looks like a stain resistant version of Aogami Super.

 

Yes I'm guessing a akifusa. And yea he's been trying to source some of the steel but no luck.

 

Hi there!
I got one of those SRS-15 Akifusa.. one of the oriental line with d-shaped handle (well the handle is to heavy for me, so i want to change it)
I did not have very long term experience with it , but it holds the edge pretty good.. i also got 2 SG2 Kotetsu knifes for comparison..

well actually i was just curious about the SRS-15

 

Sharpened my Sukenari ZDP 189 last night...I though it was going to take a considerable amount of time. Felt very smooth on the stones like it was not doing anything, but really only took a few minutes more on the GS 1k to get a small bur.

I always thought one of the main drawbacks of these steels was difficulty in sharpening, but for this one the extra 10 minutes on the stones is a big payoff for longevity of edge.

 

That's about correct. It would take aogami super about 1 min to get a burr. ZDP 189 takes 10x longer. But since the time scale is only minutes, no biggie. If you were shapening a meter long blade, then it's significant. I explain this to my customers as what I mean when I tell them super steels take muck longer to sharpen than others. But it's reall just relative comparisons rather than absolutes.

 

The AEB-L in my HHH production is awesome. No staining, gets crazy sharp and edge retention is very respectable. Touches up very easy too.
The R2 knives I have don't get as sharp as AEB-L, are somewhat harder sharpen but hold an edge incredibly well.
Have a gyuto in S35VN @61Hrc and really like it. Gets as sharp my AEB-L and edge retention is very good, close to my R2. Not any harder to sharpen than my R2. I have abused it pretty badly at times, cutting gristle in ribs, hitting bones, with no noticeable damage.

 

now that a bunch have posted and it might not be a shock to some
for me my knives and razors i make and my workshop work flow and HT XHP is the best i have found for now (for other knives folders hunters and choppers i like other steels that have different set of benefits for those styles)

 

I like R2 a lot. Although I barely tried the others. But I am waiting for a knife in AEB-L from @Robin that should be ready in couple of months, so it might change .

 

Yay! I'm getting parked by the grinder to close in on yours

 

Really like the XHP in my Spyderco, would like to try it in a gyuto someday.

 

Just picked up a Shun Elite Santuko, 3 layers with a SG2 core, only powder metallurgy kitchen knife I own. I sharpened it with a 750 grit diamond stone, then 1 micron, then .1 micron diamond paste on a rough leather free hanging strop. Did great on the free sitting tomato test. Made it through a 3-sack crawfish boil, cutting onions, garlic, potatoes, lemons, limes, mushrooms, and some light kitchen duty with no discernible loss in sharpness. Seems to outperform my VG10-cored Kanetsune and Tanaka knives. So far I'm very impressed. I'm in south Louisiana, so rust resistance is important to me.