Ok. most or hopefully most of you should have heard of this metal.
it's practically everywhere. in buildings, buildings themselves, cookware, campware,etc.

basically it's iron with carbon added to it.in addition to other elements. the carbon amount is between 0.2% to 2.14%.

although steel was invented around 3300 years ago. in fact a primitive form of steel called noric steel was used by the Roman army. a primitive form of carbon intermediate steel was developed by the Chinese in the 1st century C.E.

it didn't become a common material until the mid 19th century. although it was developed. before it was an expensive matrial which was used mainly for knives,swords or parts for clocks.


the most common form of steel is Stainless steel.High carbon and silcon steel are other forms of steel.
and there are literally a dozen or so different grades. the most common is 440 type which is also divided into 5 types, the 440A,440B,440C ,440E and 440J. these are commonly used for knives,daggers and swords as well as a few other things. the 440 steel has a sense of power to it. my guess would be the 440C grade for my athame. sometimes stainless steel that is listed as just 440 might be actually 440A or 440B OR even the 440J variety which is not as strong as the 440C.440c is the best and most commonly used for smaller knives, daggers, etc. Larger swords are a different story.well 440C is supposedly the strongest of the 440 grades. although 440A and b are more suited if the knives are used for heavy water.Because the A (has a carbon content of 0.60 - 0.75% ) and B(has a carbon content of 0.75-0.95%) grades are more corrusion resistant than grade C but are more brittle. hence these are good for deep sea diving knives in normal conditions. although the best steel for knives is supposedly CPM440V. there is a CPM420V stainless grade that is supposedly better.

But essentially from my experience 440 grade is like playing lotto. one guy took a 440 steel claymore and hacked a small tree with it. no damage to the sword. I had a sword breaker dagger. fell off my desk and the sword just broke and i never used it for hacking. what probably happened was they made the steel too hard.


since this steel is common for fantasy daggers,knives and swords. both sold at fantasy and metaphysical shops(on and offline) lets get a little info on what is in this type of alloy. this is a form of martensitic steel which is an alloy of chromium,molybdenum,nickel and carbon.

some people did find 440 stainless steel to have more magical power than other forms of steel.


High carbon is more geared and i believe tool steel as well. especially w-grade tool steel and Chrome-Vanadium steel with a hardness of 50HRC. A2 and D2 tool steels are fairly reliable and great when heat treated properly. A2 is tougher than D2. high carbon steel is good for swords but you have to becareful with certain Indian, Filipino and Malaysian companies . As they will use superior steel, but the heat treating end of it sucks resulting in lousy blade.
terms like
high carbon steel,
high carbon spring steel
live steel

are all the same type of steel. as many products will have multiple names to it.

Referable places for swords of stage combat quality


S-5 grade steels are good but are hard to find. makes excellet swords and might be better than the 1050 grades if you can find it.
Aisi 1055 and CK55 krupp is basically the same steel except Aisi is made in the USA and CK55 is European.

although supposedly the best steel used in swords is the traditional Japanese version. which is made up of iron, 0.6-0.7%carbon,silicon. one version of Japanese sword steel is 0.04% molybdenum, 0.05% tungsten, 0.02% titanium, 1.54% copper, 0.11% manganese, with it's carbon being only 0.1-03%.

also Damascus steel.much of what is sold on the market is actually pattern weilded steel. this is a mixture of hard and soft steel etched in acid. just good for display purposes. actually anything that is pattern wielded is sometimes called damascus.

also when looking for a quality of steel. do not look so much just for the type of steel but rather also the heat treating process that goes with it.

now if you want powerful swords that are battle ready and not just for show you are gonna pay money for it.

A few companies that make good swords are

Arms and Armor

Christian Fletcher swords and scabards

Starfire swords

now this discussion is mainly done for metaphysical properties of steel. the above links are for elite swords with a price range way over the $200 mark. these are geared towards functional swords and/or stage combat.