Better fixed blade steels in the UK/EU these days?

[Erbswurst]

14c28n is good and obviously affordable.

 

[Parbajtor]

Agree with both @Bearmont and @mikehill, that is the trend I am seeing too. The budget stainless that is really coming up the ranks is 14c28n (similar to AEB-L), thanks to Realsteel mainly.

14c28n is a really good balanced steel, but elmax and m390 are the current top European steels, with the K390 type steels starting to get a look in. All thanks to LionSteel.

I too remember 440C as a supersteel, with the early stuff being very hit and miss. There is still a place for older steels, D2 is the perfect example, that in recent years has only really become more available.

The carbon steel religion all stems from the hit and miss of the early stainless steels, easier to obtain consistency in carbon steels.

Boker seem to have their 440C HT down pat. Never had a problem with their 440C blades

 

[Damascus]

ATS34 anyone?

 

[trashcanman1984]

Boker seem to have their 440C HT down pat. Never had a problem with their 440C blades

I had a boker plus fixed blade in 440c, it did sustain chips on the edge with normal use, after grinding them out and increasing the edge angle, it was okay....but I lost my trust in it, so gave to a friend that really wanted it.

 

[wickerman]

01 steel rules

 

[alphaburner]

I am eyeing up the Leatherman Arc in Magnacut. Pricey though. I am a fan of RWL34 and Elmax. I’m right by the coast so tend to avoid high carbon steels. I didn’t use my axes over the winter and I checked them last night and they’re balls of rust and some mould on the leather. Lucky it’s a bank holiday weekend as it’ll take me hours to clean and treat.

 

[C_Claycomb]

01 steel rules

Have you tried AEBL or one of the improved (and more available) evolutions of it, like 14c28n?

I used to make most of my knives in O1 (oh one). It works, but AEBL does everything we want O1 to do but more and better. Gets harder while being tougher and able to carry a finer edge, still easy to sharpen, and resistant to corrosion. O1 starts a fight with AEBL