Stainless vs high-carbon steel test

Llllladies and gentlemen! This is the main event of the evening!
Introducing first: fighting out of the red corner! These are two cheap high-carbon steel knives from Mora and Hultafors!

Q511 carbonHultafors-Craftmans-Knife-Carbon

Fighting out of the blue corner! Two slightly more expensive but still unbelievably cheap stainless steel knives from the same companies!
546 StainlessHultafors Craftmans Knife Stainless

Ok, lets try and find some answers to the age-old-question: stainless or carbon? Which one is better, under what circumstances and why?

I don’t intend to compare all the high-carbon and stainless steel types. That would simply be impossible. What I can do is to get some similar inexpensive and very popular bushcraft knives and put them to the test.

This test, like all other tests, is partial as it shows knives used for tasks I use my knives for most often, and focuses on features I consider important under specific circumstances.

The knives of choice are: Mora q511, Mora 546, Hultafors Craftmans Knife Stainless and Hultafors Craftmans Knife high carbon (I suppose you could also call it a Mora vs Hultafors test). Why? Because they’re good and very affordable knives. You can have one even if you’re homeless. In fact, you’d probably need one more than I do in that case.

I don’t want to bore you with all the details. It’s all in the videos. If you have any questions or comments, please post them below.

 

Disclaimer:
In the videos I mention that the steel used to make Mora 546 is equivalent to 440A. That is what I’ve been told. However, after a quick research I’m not so sure that this is true. The steel may behave similarly in some situations, but its composition is actually quite different from 440A or any 440 for that matter.