Scottish Sgian

Which grade of stainless steel is better- 420 or 440?

I’ve been browsing the internet looking for a sgian dubh (traditional Scottish dagger), and a lot of listings describe the blade of the dagger as ‘[#] grade stainless steel’. 440 and 420 are the most common, and I’m curious which grade of steel is better (toughness and corrosion resistance); 440 or 420?

Ok, there is a simple answer:

440 of any type is a higher grade of steel than 420.

And there is a more complicated answer:

It depends on what you want to do with it and what properties you want. All variants of 440 steel have higher carbon content than 420 which makes them hardenable to higher Rockwell hardness values which allows the blade to hold a better edge. They also have better alloying properties so they don’t lose ground in toughness to 420. However, 420 does have more chromium content, generally which is what contributes to stain resistance, so in equivalent platforms the 420 will be slightly more stain resistant. However, the difference in hardness is significant.

And the detailed answer:

440A chemistry runs ~.75 – .8% Carbon and 17% Chromium
440B runs .75 – .85 Carbon
440C runs .90 – 1.01% carbon all with the same Chromium.

420J2 (the most common used for knives) runs ~.55% Carbon which is a huge difference
425HC runs about ~.65% Carbon. Better, but still not a great performer.

Are there higher performing steels than 440C? Sure, more expensive too. There are still plenty of good knives that are made with 440C in particular even at a custom level and certainly as production knives.

Thinkingblade

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