Hello!

Everybody says on all knife forums that S-7 is too low in wear resistance (that's why almost nobody uses it for knives).
Using my SOD for some time now, I realised it anyway outclasses most ordinary kitchen knives in normal edge holding and it goes side-by-side with my Mora Clipper for cutting edge retention. But I cannot make a proper comparison, because the two knives have very different edge profiles.
Of course, SR-77 has a special heat treating, but the base material is basically still S-7.

I wonder if anybody ever performed some edge retention tests to compare S7/SR77 with other steels and what were the results if so.

This is the only thing I found until now
http://www.scrapyardknives.com/ubbt...mp;amp;Board=Knives&Number=14808
But I'm very curious how it compares to other steels and how much is it above or below other steels for wear resistance.

Thanks for any replay!

I'm not 100% sure but I think many graphs compare the steels at their optimum RC for their desired applications. S7 is used for Jack hammers so you don't want them at too high an RC or they would be brittle and crack.Dan probably runs it at a little higher RC so you lose a little toughness but gain on the edge holding.You often hear of some 'super steels' keeping an edge seemingly forever but you often find they are quite brittle and would never survive what a Scrapyard blade can.Years ago Nessmuk etc liked to have a lower RC knife so that they were easier to sharpen.

I cannot give you a scientific answer, but having used many different steels, I can say that SR77 has edge retention comparable to some 1095 blades. Since 1095 is pretty much a standard cutlery steel, and SR77 is much tougher than 1095, that makes the steel ideally suited to large choppers and other big hard use knives. Those knives that have 1095 tempered more for edge holding tend to be a lot more brittle than SR77. I have found the edge holding of SR77 to be quite acceptable for hard use big knives. In the smaller blades where edge retention and not toughness is the more important quality, I prefer SR101 or even 154CM.