The steel we use, and how hard it is
Two steels, two hardness ranges, and what we will not claim about either.
6 min read
There are two steels in this catalogue. Plain 1095, and Damascus made from 1095 and 15N20. That is the whole list. This page says what each is, how hard it is run, and where the limits of what we know sit.
What 1095 is
1095 is about as simple as knife steel gets. Roughly one percent carbon in iron, with nothing else added in a quantity that changes how the steel behaves.
Two things follow. It takes a keen edge, because a plain carbon steel heat treated properly has a fine, even grain, and fine grain lets an edge come to a genuinely thin apex instead of crumbling first. And it comes back fast, because no hard carbides fight the abrasive. A stone puts a fresh edge on in minutes.
The cost is rust. There is no chromium to speak of, and chromium is what makes stainless stainless. Leave a 1095 blade wet overnight in a humid room and it will show grey or orange spots by morning. That is not a defect, it is the price of the composition, and it is paid with a cloth and a bottle of oil.
Why we stop at 58 on the plain 1095
We run plain 1095 at 54 to 58 HRC. That is a choice, not a limit of the steel. Push the heat treatment harder and the blade starts behaving like glass.
Hardness is resistance to being dented, which is why a harder edge holds its shape longer. But resisting deformation and resisting fracture pull against each other. A hard blade that meets a bone or a hidden nail loses a chip, and a chip has to be ground out. Run softer, it rolls instead, and a rolled edge stands back up on a strop in seconds. We would rather the edge bend than break.
Plain 1095: 54 to 58 HRC
What the Damascus actually is
Our Damascus is 1095 forge welded to 15N20. Nothing else goes into the billet.
15N20 is also a carbon steel, at a similar carbon level, with a couple of percent nickel in it. It was originally rolled for bandsaw blades, where the nickel lets a band run around a wheel all day without cracking. Knife makers took it up for a different property. Nickel resists acid.
That is the whole trick. Alternating layers of the two steels are forge welded into one bar, folded, drawn out and ground, then the blade goes into a mild acid. The 1095 darkens and etches back. The 15N20 stays bright because the nickel shrugs it off. The pattern is two steels answering the same chemical differently, so it is a material fact and not a decision made at the end.
Ours run 58 to 60 HRC. Both steels in the billet harden, so there is no soft filler layer inside the blade.
Damascus, 1095 and 15N20: 58 to 60 HRC
A real pattern against a printed one
The pattern is not on the blade, it is the blade. Cut a forge welded bar in half and the pattern is on the cut face too, because the layers run right through. There is a lot of printed Damascus about, one bar of ordinary steel with a pattern laser marked onto the surface. In a photograph it convinces.
- Sharpen it and the pattern carries down onto the fresh bevel.
- Scratch it or polish it back and the pattern is still there underneath.
- Sharpen it and the pattern stops dead at the bevel, leaving a grey stripe along the edge.
- A deep scratch cuts through to bare steel and the design does not continue below.
Why we do not sell stainless
Stainless means enough chromium in the steel, around 10.5 percent as the usual threshold, that a thin oxide film forms and keeps the metal underneath from corroding. That is a real benefit and we will not pretend otherwise. If a knife lives on a boat, or with someone who will never dry it, stainless is the better answer.
What it costs depends on the grade. The cheap ones sold on volume, at the 420 and 440A end, are soft, and a soft edge does not last. The powder metallurgy grades hold an edge far longer than 1095 ever will, but they want tight temperature control and a foil wrapped heat treatment, which puts them beyond hand forging.
So we picked two carbon steels, stated the hardness we run them at, and left stainless to the shops set up for it.
What HRC actually means
HRC is the Rockwell C scale. A diamond cone is pressed into the steel under a fixed load, the load comes off, and the machine measures how deep the dent is. Shallower dent, higher number. It is a hardness reading and nothing else, and says nothing about toughness or grinding.
In the hand it goes roughly like this. Below 54 an edge deforms under ordinary work and dulls quickly. From 55 to 58 it holds reasonably, gives way by bending rather than chipping, and comes back easily on a stone. From 58 to 61 it lasts longer, prefers chipping over bending when abused, and takes more work to sharpen. Above that is razor and chisel territory.
We give a range rather than one number because a range is what a heat treatment produces. Hardness moves with soak time, quench speed, the temperature a shop holds across a batch, and where you test. Two knives out of the same run can land two points apart.
Where these are made
Ransack Viking is a United States company based in Memphis, Tennessee. Every knife and every Viking piece we sell is handmade in the Czech Republic, the old way. The pieces are imported, inspected here in Memphis, and shipped from Memphis. Engraving is done in the United States after a piece has arrived.
We do not forge anything ourselves and we will not tell you we do. The country of origin page has more.
Looking after it
Dry it. Wipe the blade and dry it before it goes away. Salt and acid make matters worse, so citrus, vinegar and blood want washing off promptly.
Oil it. Any light oil suited to the job, food safe mineral oil for anything that touches food. A thin film is enough, since you are keeping air and water off the surface, not soaking the blade.
Never put it in a dishwasher. The heat, the detergent and the long wet cycle will corrode the steel and can loosen a wooden handle. Wash by hand.
The first orange spot is not a disaster. Red rust lifts off with a cork dipped in oil, or with 1000 grit wet and dry paper worked gently along the blade rather than across it. Oil the whole blade afterwards. The grey patina that settles on a well used blade over months is a different thing, and it protects the steel underneath.
Strop before you sharpen. A blade that feels dull usually has a rolled edge rather than a worn one, and ten passes a side on a leather strop stands it back up. When that stops working, go to a stone: medium to reset the bevel, fine to finish, at the angle the maker ground. Damascus sharpens like any carbon steel, and will not lose its pattern for it.
What we will not claim
Stated flatly, for anyone who arrived here sceptical.
- No lab certificates, because we do not have any. No third party has tested our blades and issued a report.
- No batch test numbers. We are not hardness testing each blade against a serial number. If that changes, the numbers go on the product pages rather than here.
- No chemical assay of the bar stock. The steels are 1095 and 15N20 as supplied to the workshop, which is what we have been told and what we sell them as.
The figures here, 54 to 58 HRC on the plain 1095 and 58 to 60 HRC on the Damascus, are the ranges the maker works to, stated as a band because a band is what hand work produces.
What we do claim is short. Two steels, named. Two hardness ranges, stated. Handmade in the Czech Republic, imported and inspected in Memphis. If a piece is not what this page describes, the returns page tells you what to do.