[asa400]

Very interesting. Highly corrosion resistant "unconventional" steels have become somewhat popular in cutlery, with steels like LC200N, H1/H2, and MagnaCut. LC200N and H1/H2 in particular can be left in body of water uncoated/unpainted and come back in a year and they'll be fine. Obviously that's a different setting than electrified seawater for hydrogen production, though. So much cool materials science happening!

[amluto]

I'm not at all convinced that the highly corrosion resistant knife/tool steels you mention are actually especially high on the corrosion resistance scale -- I think they may just be excellent for a tool steel.

If you look at the knifesteelnerds article on H1 (https://knifesteelnerds.com/2019/06/24/h1-steel-how-it-works...), you'll find that it's an austentitic alloy (which is highly unusual for any sort of tool steel), and that it seems like it's likely a somewhat less corrosion resistant than usual variant on steels like 301 or 304. And the rather common stainless alloy used for non-tool applications where high levels of corrosion resistance is 316, which is more corrosion resistant than 304.

In any case, this new alloy is weird -- it seems like it specifically has excellent resistance to electrochemical corrosion when it is used as an anode, which is not what people usually use stainless steel for :)

[aidenn0]

Yes. For example, nitrogen alloyed steels like Vanax or LC200N (both of which are more corrosion resistant than the other alloys mentioned by GP) aren't particularly corrosion resistant in the total space of stainless steels, they are just very corrosion resistant as compared to how hard (and/or tough) they are.

[edit]

I should also point out that the two alloys I mentioned are not particularly hard or tough for a knife steel.

[asa400]

Entirely possible! I'm definitely not an expert. I own a few of these (LC200N and Magnacut) and I can confirm they've held up well in my own use of getting wet/dirty/etc. vs. other tool steels I have. Where they stack up against non-tool steels or steels not commonly used in cutlery, I couldn't say.

That said, I have heard plenty of anecdotes confirming these properties from other folks. People losing a knife in a stream or field and then finding it the following year, etc.

> In any case, this new alloy is weird -- it seems like it specifically has excellent resistance to electrochemical corrosion when it is used as an anode, which is not what people usually use stainless steel for :)

100%. Probably almost no crossover into cutlery, but super cool regardless!