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Show HN: I built a knife steel comparison tool

(new.knife.day)
132 points p-s-v | 5 comments | 17 May 25 17:13 UTC | HN request time: 1.157s | source

Hey HN!

I'm a bit of a knife steel geek and got tired of juggling tabs to compare stats. So, I built this tool: https://new.knife.day/blog/knife-steel-comparisons/all

It lets you pick steels (like the ones in the screenshot) and see a radar chart comparing their edge retention, toughness, corrosion resistance, and ease of sharpening on a simple 1-10 scale.

It's already been super handy for me, and I thought fellow knife/metallurgy enthusiasts here might find it useful too.

Would love to hear your thoughts or any steel requests!

Cheers!

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bberenberg ◴[17 May 25 18:50 UTC] No.44016203[source]▶
I would be interested to see all the steel types ranked by total surface area within the polygon.
replies(2): >>44016511 #>>44016699 #
1. smiley1437 ◴[17 May 25 20:16 UTC] No.44016699[source]▶
I went through manually and these appear to have the highest volumes:

H1

H2

CPM Magnacut

Sandvik 12C27

Interestingly they are all weak on Edge Retention.

replies(1): >>44016836 #
2. shawn_w ◴[17 May 25 20:38 UTC] No.44016836[source]▶
Calling magnacut weak on edge retention is an... interesting take. It's not record setting, but it's far, far above the other 3 you listed.

The data this site is using really seems questionable.

replies(1): >>44017062 #
3. Zak ◴[17 May 25 21:23 UTC] No.44017062[source]▶
Magnacut is given the same rating as D2, 3V, VG10, and "440" (presumabbly 440C). Elmax, M2, and Cruwear are rated higher.

CATRA testing by Magnacut's creator[0] suggests D2, 3V, VG10, and 440C should have a lower rating than Magnacut for edge retention, while Elmax, M2, and Cruwear should be the same. 5 probably is a reasonable rating for Magnacut though when Maxamet is 10.

[0] https://i2.wp.com/knifesteelnerds.com/wp-content/uploads/202...

replies(1): >>44018210 #
4. shawn_w ◴[18 May 25 01:08 UTC] No.44018210{3}[source]▶
Exotic outliers like Maxamet or 10V skew things so much they should be left off of ranking scales.
replies(1): >>44018840 #
5. Zak ◴[18 May 25 03:36 UTC] No.44018840{4}[source]▶
Larrin's ratings handle this by not having a fixed scale; REX 121 gets a 12 for edge retention. The rating seems to be roughly CATRA cards cut divided by 100.