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154CM – My Favorite Blade Steel

154CM – My Favorite Blade Steel


Posted on April 17,2017 by Kyle Daily

154CM is one of my favorite blade steels for knives.

Background

154CM is a variation on the famous 440C blade steel.  440C is the most common stainless steel in production knives and tons of other industrial applications.  Crucible was one of the American steel companies that worked to improve the performance of 440c.

What they Changed

The main element that they added to the steel was Molybdenum, which helps to improve hardenability, tensile strength, and corrosion resistance of the steel.  Even though they reduced the Chromium from 17.5% to 14%, 154CM is considered much more corrosion resistant.

154CM Typical Properties (Info From Crucible Industries)

  • Carbon: 1.05%
  • Manganese: 0.50%
  • Silicon: 0.30%
  • Chromium: 14.00%
  • Molybdenum: 4.00%
  • Maximum Hardness: 65 HRC

440c Typical Properties (Info From Crucible Industries)

  • Carbon: 1.00%
  • Manganese: 0.50%
  • Silicon: 0.30%
  • Chromium: 17.50%
  • Molybdenum: 0.50%
  • Maximum Hardness: 60 HRC

Why I like it

I like 154CM so much because you can get it hard to hold an edge, but not so hard you need diamond stones to sharpen the blade.  I like the increased properties of 154CM over a lot of the competitors steels.  It can be sharpened easily, it doesn’t stain very easily, and is easier to work with than some of the powdered metal steels.

In the End

I feel it gives the user some of the best attributes, while maintaining its ability to be easily to maintain the edge.


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