Whatever happened to BG42?

[Doc Dan]

Whatever happened to BG42? I know S30V came along, but BG42 has good qualities of its own. I've owned a few knives in the past in BG42 and had zero complaints. It is a high carbon steel with vanadium and other stuff added to the mix. Is it even still made? Or perhaps made under other names?

[sal]

Hi Doc,

The steel was produced by one steel company that got it's material from another steel company. We worked with a bit, but then the steel was priced out of competition, so we dropped it. I've got a Military made with it. Like many steels, it had it's good points, but as the steel revolution sped up, many new steels offered more for less cost.

sal

[Doc Dan]

Thanks, Sal.

I am not surprised, but it was a good steel. I suppose in some ways S30V was the nail in the coffin.

[sovereign]

Thread deserves a pic, from today.

[Josh Crutchley]

Whatever happened to BG42? I know S30V came along, but BG42 has good qualities of its own. I've owned a few knives in the past in BG42 and had zero complaints. It is a high carbon steel with vanadium and other stuff added to the mix. Is it even still made? Or perhaps made under other names?

I was curious about it awhile back but lost interest because of its rarity. It has a similar microstructure to 154cm and ATS34, clumpy chromium carbides. It was expensive because it was vacuum induction melted then vacuum arc remelted. That was to get the steel as clean as possible. LC200N is another steel that advertises cleanliness but uses a different method, pressurized electroslag remelting.

BG42

BG42

There was a powdered version CTS-B75P that got a Mule. It's kinda in a group of lower end powdered steels that never caught on like CPM-D2.

[Doc Dan]

Thanks. That's helpful information. I don't know why it didn't catch on. I've had knives in this steel, as I said, and there was nothing to complain about. Certainly, by today's standards it might fall short of some steels, but it was pretty good.

[The Mastiff]

I was a Bg 42 fan myself and still like it. I seem to remember the BG 42 use as a premium steel for knives ending wasn't just the intro of S30v but was also partially due to it being difficult to purchase when needed and waiting times as well as a lack of effort by it's maker to work with knife makers and knife companies the way other companies did turned some potential customers away. They were selling all they made and had no need to court the knife industry.

They showed more enthusiasm later when they brought out powder steel versions of 440c ( CTS 40 cp ) and 440XH ( CTS XHP which is powder version of modified "stainless" D2). Seems like I recall complaints of difficulty sourcing CTS XHP for a while too. I'm not sure what it's like now.

[Razor G43]

I think it was some of the best steel I ever tried. I had the military model in that steel and it would get scary sharp and stay that way.

[JNewell]

I have three Sebenzas with BG-42 blades (large and small Regular; large Classic 2000). As a subjective impression because I've never done any sort of comparative testing, these CRK BG-42 blades, which I think I remember were advertised as 62 on the Rockwell C scale, will hold an edge for an almost unnaturally long period of use...*but*...they are a screaming pain to resharpen, or at least that's my memory. I don't carry them any more (sad face). I've got a 15V Shaman in my back pocket right now and I'm sure it holds an edge longer and it certainly sharpens back up faster and easier. Love my BG-42 blades, but quite a few premium steels today are better performers and more user-friendly.

Another steel I have very fond memories of but don't really yearn to see back in knives is M2. At one point I had three Benchmade 710s with M2 blades. I still have one (gave one to each of my two adult sons). I was looking at something at Knife Nerds last night, coincidentally, and noticed that M2 is still a very respectable performer if given a proper heat treat.

[kennethsime]

Oddly enough, after hearing nothing about this steel for years, I saw a handful of Tim Britton traditional made in BG42 on KnifeCenter’s new items list. Here’s a beautiful doctor’s knife.