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Originally Posted by Maytime
For the stainless tool steel question: My answer is yes, you can have a stainless tool steel.
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Correct.
The term "stainless steel" got a deservedly bad reputation back when manufacturers figured out that you don't have to use a good grade or do a good heat treat to sell knives. Hard use knife folks got it and the word was "stainless sucks".
Much has changed. For one the business of selling knives is very competitive and if quality slips, someone else gets your market share.
Steel companies are supplying good working grades of these steels on a regular basis to knife companies who are careful to get the heat treat right because reputation is everything.
We now have more metallurgists than ever before working directly with knife companies to keep this stuff sorted out.
(I keep my metal guys on speed dial.
)
The knife buyer is the winner.
Now we have a grades of stainless tool steels with hardness, toughness and abrasive resistance properties that few tool steels could even dream about 20 years ago.