Steel History - The First Stainless Steel Was for Knives

[Larrin]

An article about the riveting history of stainless steel! Where the name “stainless” came from, the first knife company to use stainless steel, and more!
https://knifesteelnerds.com/2018/07/16/ ... or-knives/

[Cycletroll]

Very interesting Larrin. Thank you!
I had no idea stainless was such a relatively recent invention and because of knives no less.

[tvenuto]

Time and time again we see that those who are pushing the boundaries are doing so out of raw curiosity. Often the potential of what they find isn’t immediately appreciated. Nice article.

[Nate]

Another interesting read, thanks Larrin!

Btw, glad you continue to share these articles on the forum, I didn't get the usual email notification this time.

[SpyderEdgeForever]

THANK YOU Larrin! Wow in some ways you and I think alike. I read that steel history book, and it has become one of my favorites.

One of the saddest chapters in steel history involves that great man who is mentioned in the book and on the website you posted: Benno Strauss. He was a pioneer of stainless steel working for Krupp of Germany and he was put into a death camp during the Nazi takeover of Germany, and he died. Later on Germany gave an official apology and named a street after the man.

Here is some info on him:
It is in German but you can translate it

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benno_Strau%C3%9F

That is very good history on Bearley and the original stainless steel knives.

Is this true? A custom knife maker told me that one of the main reasons why many knife users were not trusting towards the use of stainless steel blades in serious work knives until the 1970s was because up until the 1960s and 1970s, most stainless steel had a bad reputation for being poor at edge holding and was more fragile, and it was in the 60s and onwards that more robust stainless alloys began to be developed that could stand up to the use in knives and cutting tools. How true do you think this is? They claimed that the Swedes and Finns began to produce better quality stainless steel blades and then others followed, with Japan and the USA and Germany and so on and so forth, and then he claimed the famous custom makers like Bob Loveless and a few others began to bring quality stainless into the market, and those combined efforts helped to improve stainless steel in the eyes of knife users.

He claimed that if you had gotten ahold of say an average stainless steel bladed hunting knife made around the 1930s or 1940s or even into the 50s, the quality would have been so low when it came to edge holding ability that you would have quickly gone back to carbon steel.

[Larrin]

It is true that stainless steel had a bad reputation and that carbon steels dominated among custom makers up until the 1960s. Apparently D.E. Henry claimed to be the first to use 440C in 1960. I’m not sure what Sweden and Finland had to do with any of the evolution in terms of the American custom knife market because it was 440C that became very popular. The poor reputation of stainless was in part due to perception and in part due to low hardness stainless steel used in production knives.

[Larrin]

Another interesting read, thanks Larrin!

Btw, glad you continue to share these articles on the forum, I didn't get the usual email notification this time.

The spam filter must not be interested in stainless steel. :)

[Bloke]

Thanks again for another interesting read Larrin! :)

[curlyhairedboy]

Thanks Larrin!

[ThePeacent]

great read,
Thanks much Larrin!

[JD Spydo]

yeah that was very interesting and I'm going to start checking out that website more when I get time. It is amazing the progress that has been made with stainless cutlery steels in the past 15 years especially. I got a feeling that the best is yet to come because I'm seeing more focus on stainless blade steels far more than I've been seeing with high carbon steels.

It's also interesting to add that Spyderco was in business for a very long time before they ever did a knife in a non-stainless blade. Also I'm completely convinced that stainless steels are far superior to high carbon steels for serrated edges. Why that is I'm not exactly sure. Even the older GIN-1 that Spyderco pretty much started out with was a good steel for serrated edges. I don't look for that to change anytime soon either.

[Larrin]

I will be writing about more modern steel development as well but I already know all about that so it isn’t as interesting to research.

[ThePeacent]

always interesting if it comes from you anyways,
you'll have me to read it with excitement :D

[The Mastiff]

When I was a kid the only knives I could afford or get were inexpensive and pretty junky by my standards now. Stainless and inexpensive knives from Japan were the norm and pretty often the steel was riddled with voids and inclusions. 440A was probably the one I saw the most of. When I tried 440C later I was less than impressed as I was a Schrade Old Timer 1095 guy and the stainless sharpened pretty difficultly in comparison. I liked the edge I was getting with the non stainless steels and to a point I still do. To me even to this day 440C feels like I'm sharpening grains of sand and makes almost the same sound. Perhaps pre concieved notions are affecting my judgement. I don't mind sharpening S110V, S90V etc. They have a completely different feeling and experience on my stones.

Joe

[The Meat man]

Great article as always, Larrin. Thank you!