Stainless steel kitchen knives are popular because of their excellent anti-rust performance, easy to maintain, and relatively cheap price. Coupled with modern technological development, stainless steel kitchen knives can basically meet all cutting needs. If you want to know more details about other types of blade materials, you can refer to this article: What is the best kitchen knife blade material.
It's not easy for home cooking enthusiasts to choose the appropriate kitchen knives because there are so many different types of stainless steel on the market such as 300 series, 400 series, AUS series, CPM SxxV series, CTS series, CrMo/CrMoV Series, DSR series and so on. Do you feel a little dizzy?
Don’t worry, today we will tell you which steels are commonly used to make stainless steel kitchen knives.
1. 2Cr13
2Cr13 belongs to 420 stainless steel, which can be hardened by heat treatment, the HRC can up to 50. It has good ductility in the annealed condition and corrosion resistance. it is widely used in economic cutting tools.
2. 4Cr14MoV
4Cr14MoV stainless steel is similar to T5MoV made by the French. It contains about 0.4% carbon and adds more elements Chromium, Molybdenum, and Vanadium than based 4Cr13 steel, which is great for making kitchen knives. It has better wear resistance, anti-corrosion, and high hardness.
3. 5Cr15MoV
5Cr15MoV is popular in kitchen knives making, folding knives making, hunting knives making, etc. The HRC ranges from 55 to 57.
It has the following characteristics:
- It has high corrosion resistance due to its high in Chromium.
- It offers great edge retention, it’s not very hard, and it contains less Carbon in it.
- It's easy to be resharpened. as we all know, the harder the steel is, the harder to sharpen it. 5Cr15Mov is easy to be sharpened as it’s not so hard as steel.
- It delivers medium to good wear resistance.
- It offers good toughness which endures low to mid of the tough work.
- In a nuts short, it's a great steel kitchen knife for the home chef because it has good corrosion resistance and it’s easy to sharpen and it’s a low-budget steel cost.
4. 7Cr17MoV
7Cr17MoV is a good choice for stainless steel kitchen knives.
It has the following features:
- 7Cr17MoV contains high amounts of Carbon(0.7%), comes with Vanadium and Chromium, makes the steel pretty hard. After the heat-treated process, the HRC can up to 60 which is a definitely sharp-edge blade.
- It has high corrosion resistance and hardness because the chemical composition of the 7cr17MoV is a mixture of high Chromium and mid carbon.
- 7Cr17MoV Steel contains Sulphur and Phosphorus which may increase the brittleness and compromise edge retention, but it adds good amounts of Carbon and Vanadium to increase hardness and help boost edge retention. Though it may not be the best in terms of edge retention, it does make sharpening easier work.
- In terms of toughness, it doesn't perform well. Good hardness and high corrosion resistance lead to a low toughness, but, it is also a decent choice for its price.
In conclusion,7Cr17MoV steel is a pretty good blade that is among the best entry-level steels that provided high performance. If you don't want to invest so much money in kitchen knives, this one could be your choice. The edge retention is also decent for its price range.
5. 8Cr13MoV
Similar to Japanese AUS-8 ,8Cr13MoV belongs to 3cr13 steel series, Mov implies the addition of Molybdenum (Mo) and Vanadium (V). Higher Carbon content allows it to reach a higher hardness.
It has following features:
- High carbon content, adds some of the other additions such as the Vanadium specifically to increase the overall hardness and attain a HRC hardness of range from 56to 60 which helps hold its edge quite well.
- Good toughness.
- 8Cr13MoV is a durable steel which can endure a bit of abuse before it will chip or break. It offers a great edge retention for its price.
- High corrosion resistance.
- 8Cr13MoV contains more than 14% of Chromium in it to makes it a great Corrosion Resistance.
- Wear Resistance: 8Cr13Mov offers a great Wear resistance, due to the mixture of Chromium and Vanadium in it.
- It’s easy to sharpen.
- Cost effective.
8Cr13MoV steel durable and sharp enough to hold up well to normal cutting tasks. It does a good job about everything you need a knife steel to do. It has perfect perfect performance for its price, Generally, it is a decent all around steel that comes at a very affordable price for its performance.
Of course, you can find tougher and harder steels on the market, and you will find some of the more quality steels will definitely do better than 8Cr13MoV at specific cutting tasks, but they need much higher price. 8Cr13MoV steel is the most cost effective steel for kitchen knives.
6. 9Cr18MoV
9Cr18MoV steel is one kind of 440B steel, it's a high-end stainless steel that’s popular among blade manufacturers globally. It is added amounts of Molybdenum and a very small amounts of Vanadium to have positive affect on grain refinement which benefits for its strength, durability and functionality.
It has following features:
- 9Cr18MoV contains a high content of Chromium and Carbon (close to 1% of carbon), after the heat-treated process, the Rockwell hardness can up to 60HRC, which makes it hard with a great Edge Retention. In addition, the presence of Vanadium helps with the overall hardness and wear resistance.
- Good edge retention.
- The high content of Carbon in 9Cr18MoV steel gives it a solid build, which helps in withstanding friction. going through heat-treated, 9Cr18MoV steel can hold its edge pretty well.
- High toughness.
- Generally, the harder the steel is, the easier to brittle, there by reducing its toughness. You may think 9Cr18MoV doesn't perform well in toughness due to its high hardness of 60 HRC. However, it adds the element of Nickel and Manganese in the steel to increase the overall tensile strength to make it decently tough.
- High Corrosion Resistance,It contains 18% of Chromium to offer great corrosion resistance.
- Good wear Resistance,It's a mixture of Carbon, Chromium, and a little bit of Vanadium (0.12%) to benefit wear Resistance.
- To be honest, it's not easy to sharpen it because it's high hardness. You should know some basic knife sharpening skills to sharpen it.
About sharpening skills, refer to this article: How to sharpen kitchen knives at home.
In conclusion, 9Cr18MoV is a premium steel used in kitchen knives making and is popular in the world due to its great edge retention, corrosion resistance, great edge retention, wear resistance, and staining.
In conclusion
There are different types of stainless steel kitchen knives sold in the market, and the prices of different types are different. I hope this article will let you find value-for-money kitchen knives.
0 comments