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Is VG-1 Stainless Steel any good in a folding knife?
I've been looking for lots of info on this steel. Cold Steel uses it now in their knives replacing the AUS-8 steel. I was hoping somebody had a knife with this steel who could give me some real first hand knowledge not just numbers. Thanks!
So, I found your question interesting because there isn't alot known about VG1 steel yet. I happen to have a Calphon Kitchen knife made from VG1 and so far it has done fine, maintained a pretty good edge significantly longer than the AUS6 counterparts that I have in the kitchen with no issues of corrosion and takes a polished edge quite well.
I have quite a bit of experience with VG10 and out of curiosity have done some cutting comparisons. They aren't quite fair because the VG10 knives are field knives in comparison to a kitchen knives, but the VG1 specs as being softer than VG10 by a couple of points and performs that way, getting dull somewhat faster than the VG10. I haven't gone into checking imbrittlement because I don't want to chip out the edge of one of kitchen knives, but in looking at the chemistry it should be comparable to AUS8 steel.
Finally, one of the things I have liked about VG10 is that it takes an extremely fine edge, because the vanadium helps to provide uniform carbide distribution. I have done some work with polishing tape on the edge of the kitchen knife in comparison to the field knife and anecdotally think that the VG10 takes that super fine edge better. That's very subjective though.
Now, you specifically are asking in relation to AUS8 steel. So, I have a good deal of experience with that steel as well, but wasn't doing that comparison directly. However, across the different tests that I ran the VG1 performed quite comparably to AUS8 and fell somewhere between 440B and 440C. That is somewhat subjective as well as the knives I have in 440C have different edge geometry which effects how they cut.
However, overall, I was reasonably impressed with the VG1 steel performance. I probably wouldn't hesitate to pick up a field knife in VG1 to do some experimentation with sometime.
Thinkingblade
P.S. Oh, the tests I did? Well here is an approximate list:
- Cutting single ply cardboard from hair shaving sharp. (cereal boxes)
- Push cut through defrosted raw steak.
- Polished edge cut through notebook paper, cigarette paper, kleenex (none of them did that well at that level)
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