Stainless - Used in decorative swords and knives. Stainless steel blades longer than twelve inches are too brittle for full contact use.
1045 Carbon - Strong, but soft compared to higher carbon steels. Reasonably cheap and acceptable for full contact use.
1060 Carbon - Harder than 1045, but not brittle. Holds a keen edge and is very durable. Somewhat expensive, but great for full contact use.
1095 Carbon - Sacrifices the durability of lower carbon steels for better edge retention and increased hardness. Somewhat expensive, but tough enough for full contact use.
5160 Spring - Extremely tough and durable. Great for full contact use when properly heat treated.
9260 Spring - Amazingly resilient and durable, but not unbreakable. Excellent for full contact use.
T10 Tool - Exceptionally hard and tougher than other steels with similar carbon content. Keeps a good edge without sacrificing durability. Can be expensive, but is still great for full contact use.
L6 Bainite - Can be very expensive, but is the toughest steel on the market when properly heat treat. Excellent for full contact use, but requires additional maintenance to prevent rust and corrosion.
About Damascus Steel:
Historical Damascus blades were made from wootz, an Indian steel with unique properties. The technique for making this type of steel has been lost, but there have been many attempts to recreate it. The patterns found on Damascus steel blades are a direct result of the sword-making process and are not entirely dependent on the type of steel used. Damascus swords were the finest blades of their time.
You are gonna want carbon steel.
Most real swords are always made from carbon steel. The vast majority of cheap swords being sold online are made from stainless steel. While stainless steel is a great choice for knives, it starts becoming very brittle on anything longer than 12? and is NOT a suitable material for a functional sword, no matter what some marketers might claim?.
Stainless steel when it comes to a functioning weapon, is a joke. It's not made to cut and it's not made to last.
Stainless steel is not as strong as tempered carbon steel, especially at that length.
But damascus steel only "looks" different. In terms of metal quality, pure modern steel is better in flexibility.
Cheness uses 9260 spring steel alloy from high carbon steel. Stainless is rated 440. You can look them up on wikipedia to learn about qualities.
Edge retention and hardness is better at the 1095 level or the T10 tungsten steel or tool steel level.
As for who to trust,
http://sbg-sword-store.sword-buyers-guid...
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stainless steel is for display swords. carbon steel if u want to cut stuff up
Damascus steel
They tell what they think will sell the item. TU on carbon steel.
1. do more research, on your own, by some books like "the japanese sword" by Sato or "The Craft of the Japanese Sword" by yoshihara and kapp (these are for japanese blades you will want other books for various types of blades)
2. stainless steal tends to shatter very easily its complete crap, which is why they are so cheap.
learn more about swords then its more difficult for people to take advantage of you, know what you are buying. although sometimes the best way is through your own mistakes.
read up on it.
The guy at this one pawn shop told me that stainless steel is better because it is just as strong and will not rust. The guy at the other pawn shop said that you need high carbon steel for a good sword because stainless steel breaks easily and that damascis is the best kind of steel for swords.
