It seems like the steel data comes from larger database on hardness/toughness/corrosion? Can you say where that data is coming from or if it's your own measurements? If you could show the data (eg HRC) that supports the radar chart it would be easier for a purchaser to know if their steel actually meets the purported performance after purchase.

I guess what confuses me most is that heat treatment/hardening seem crucial to understanding how a knife is going to perform, but that seems left out. It's even possible to have a great treatment on a blank and screw it up (overheat) when doing the initial edge shaping. Furthermore, the sharpening angle of a blade edge seems to greatly affect edge retention especially for softer steels. It would be great to know what angles different (properly hardened) steels could reasonably support. That's something the user can control after purchase.

I would be interested to see all the steel types ranked by total surface area within the polygon.

Impressive work. I've always wondered how it's possible to "decompile" steel types. For example, one of my everyday use knives is a Kabelmesser pocket knife (WW2). It's probably from Solingen, although there's no logo on it.

I really like it because of the high-carbon steel, but I have no idea what specific type of steel was used, as I don't see much of such steel these days.

Anyone else like ceramic knives? I have a couple paring knives.

Super sharp but very brittle.

As a knife-maker, may I request 80CRV, 1084, and 1075? They're very commonly-used steel grades in knives.

Also, 440 has a number of grades.

Cool tool!

EDIT: It might also be interesting to point out the manganese levels, and whether the steel is a deep- or shallow-hardening steel. Those factors help indicate whether the steel will form a hamon or not.

> [Maybe attach the screenshot here if HN allows, or link to it]

I think the AI intended for you to edit out this part?

Hmm, it feels like there'd be some interesting crossover between this and https://seattleultrasonics.com/pages/knife-database but while the "Quantified Knife Project" has a lot of numeric test-result data, it looks like they only have "marketing names" for the steel used (if you click through the links in the "model name" column for each knife.)

(Ah, the raw data is available https://github.com/seattleultrasonics/Quantified-Knife-Proje... has a "Blades" tab which might be enough to correlate.)

I looked through most of the charts, and I it seems like you cannot get the best of two worlds. Can you get good edge retention, ease of sharpening and toughness at the same time?

It would be nice with an example on how knife steel properties work. I assume there are balanced tradeoffs.

comparison is kind of fun; i'd recommend keeping static colors per selection though (when toggling items, the change to colors of items already in the graph made it a bit annoying to decipher)

So what do knife people think about outdoors55?

Tangent: I had a decent benchmade griptilian folding knife for the last 10 or so years. Wasn’t the sharpest knife but I loved the form factor, grip, etc.

I left it on the bed cover of my truck the other day while unboxing some towing equipment in a parking lot and took off accidentally.

Looked at Amazon to replace it and they’re going for $200+ now. Is this just Amazon tax? Tarrifs? Something else? No way in hell I paid that for it initially. It was probably $50! It’s listed at $160 on their website right now.

Why?!?! It’s a simple plastic body and a small piece of steel. Make this make sense.

Sandvik 14c28n is common for budget knives. It would be nice to see it on this list.

Obligatory link to the amazing blog about knife sharpness:

https://scienceofsharp.com/