Does anyone know anything about this type of steel? Pavel Moc and some others use it. It's supposed to be equivalent to the German steel 420 (which should be different from American 420 steel, which is stainless).

Hi Chad

Here is a comparison from some of my books.

14260 -- C 0,55; Si 1,45; Mn 0,65; Cr 0,6

6150 -- C 0,51; Si 0,3; Mn 0,9; Cr 1,1; V 0,15

1074 -- C 0,75; Si 0,25; Mn 0,7

5160 -- C 0,60; Si 0,23: Mn 0,88; Cr 0,8; S 0,04

As far as I could tell the 14260 is not available in the US.

I did not have specs for the German 420. We might be able to find it on line.

Best
Craig

PS Just did a quick check and it seems to be a stainless as well. Used in golf putters apparently.

Is it a decent blade steel? I have a dagger and knife with blades out of it. It seems to be not too bad.

So is 420 or 14260 considered a stainless steel? It looks like 14260's chrome content is lower than some of the others you listed.

American 420 is stainless and used for scalpels, but I couldn't find anything about the German version (if it's any different).

This looks like it could be a good tough knife steel. With the higher silicon level combined with a somewhat modest amount of chromium it should have good depth of hardening as well as form carbides to provide wear resistance. It looks like it would be good for swords and large knives that need some flex to them. There is not nearly enough chromium in the steel to be stainless. Stainless steels are usually 16% chromium or better. D2, a tool steel found here in the states is sometimes referred to as near stainless and it's about 12% chromium.

Did a bit more searching but could not find any reference to a specifically different German 420 that was not the same as 420 Stainless. The 14260 is used in a lot of shaping knives in industry. Basically cutting heads on machine tools.

Best
Craig