About SteelChart

SteelChart.org is a free reference for knife steels: composition, hardness and performance ratings for 30 steels, head-to-head comparisons, and the specs of popular knives that use them.

Where the data comes from

• Composition is nominal weight percent from the steel maker's datasheet (Crucible, Bohler-Uddeholm, Carpenter, Alleima/Sandvik, Hitachi/Proterial, Takefu, Aichi, Zapp and others) or, for generic grades, from the AISI/SAE, DIN EN or JIS standard. Where a range is published, the midpoint is listed. Each steel page says which kind of source applies.
• Hardness is the typical as-used blade hardness range (Rockwell C) in production and custom knives. Makers can run a steel outside that band.
• Knife specs are for the standard production version, checked against the knife maker's product page where possible. Prices are the maker's list price (MSRP) when we checked; retailers often sell for less.

How the ratings work

Each steel gets four relative scores from 1 (worst) to 10 (best) across the whole population of knife steels, at typical knife hardness:

• Edge retention: wear resistance, as measured by CATRA-style slicing tests.
• Toughness: resistance to chipping and breaking, based on unnotched Charpy impact results.
• Corrosion resistance: resistance to rust and pitting, based on salt-water and pitting test classes.
• Ease of sharpening: roughly the inverse of carbide volume and hardness.

The scores draw on published test data, notably Knife Steel Nerds (Dr. Larrin Thomas), and on manufacturer data. They are a guide to relative performance, not lab results for a specific knife: heat treatment, edge geometry and hardness change real-world performance a great deal.

Corrections

Spotted an error? Email [email protected] with a source and we will fix it.

Affiliate links

Some buy links earn us a commission. Commissions never affect ratings or rankings, which come straight from the data. See the affiliate disclosure.