Many gerber knives are made out of what gerber calls high Carbon steels and I was wondering if anyone knew exactly what is this mysterious steel.
The carbon content of the knife is done during the smelting process.For instance a knife that has a high carbon content will keep an edge much longer than one with a lower content. It is tricky because too much will cause the knife to be brittle and break easily. Annealing is also part of the process of knife making.
Carbon, when added to steel increases the hardness of the metal. The higher the carbon content the harder(pure carbon = diamond) the blade will be and the longer it will hold its sharpened edge. Too much carbon however can make it too brittle to use as a blade. iron, carbon and chromium(for the stainless in stainless steel) mixed in the right portion makes a high carbon stainless steel knife. All of which is kinda pointless if the blade is not forged correctly.
A steel knifeblade is like a box full of a million ball bearings. The molecules pile up/line up just like those ball bearings. When it's pure, though, you can easily deform it....just like you can ram your hand down into that box of ball bearings. What happens if you pour a gallon of heated wax over those bearings, though? It fills the gaps between the molecules and solidifies the entire mass into one solid shape. If you smack it then, you'll break your hand. It'll hold its shape *much* better and longer. That's pretty basic but what do you expect at 04:00? ;) Addendum: At one time, in the late 80's to mid 90's, it was 440a...they then switched to 440c on their mass market stuff and 154 on their special runs....late 90's-2005 went to all 440c....today's knives are a mix of 440c and some pricier knives sporting S30V blades. If it's Gerber and it costs less than $40 today, 99% of the time it will be 440c.
