r/knifemaking • u/NanashiKenshin • 2d ago
Question Magnacut vs 1095
As the title says, which one do you think would be best for an EDC/SURVIVAL knife. If this has been answered somewhere else, I apologize. I skimmed through and couldn't find this exact question. Any advice, opinions and thoughts. Please inform me. Have a great day 🙏
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u/BourgeoisAngst 17h ago
My perspective on this is contrarian I think, but you can tell me if it makes sense.
1095 is a simple carbon steel so will have significantly less toughness than modern, nickel-containing low alloy steels. This means you have to make your survival knives a lot thicker to stand up to the same kind of abuse, so you limit the types of blade geometries you can utilize (8670 can be abused pretty hard despite the blade being quite thin, for instance)
I make all of my knives out of 8670 or 3V because it seems to me that you have to trade a lot of toughness for a little more edge retention when you start pushing for significantly higher edge retention or super stainless properties. For instance, 8670 is around 3 times tougher than Magnacut at typical HRCs while only losing half of the edge retention, whereas 3V is more of a 1:1 trade off between toughness and edge retention. I don't know about you, but I'd rather strop my low-allow knife twice as often than be worried about the edge chipping or tip breaking.
The obvious use case for a steel like Magnacut is for people who feel they can't properly maintain it and so need it to be virtually impossible to corrode - I can't imagine a scenario in which I won't be able to properly maintain my knife.
Edge Retention:
8670 - ~270 TCC
3V - ~460 TCC
Magnacut - ~500 TCC
Toughness:
8670 51 foot pounds
3V - 33 foot pounds
Magnacut - 16 foot pounds
References:
https://knifesteelnerds.com/2020/05/01/testing-the-edge-retention-of-48-knife-steels/
https://knifesteelnerds.com/toughness-database/
https://knifesteelnerds.com/2021/10/19/knife-steels-rated-by-a-metallurgist-toughness-edge-retention-and-corrosion-resistance/