440A in stock
It is the entry rung of the 440 family. 440A carries about 0.6 to 0.75% carbon and 16 to 18% chromium at 55 to 58 HRC. It has the highest corrosion resistance of the 440 family because it has the least carbon tying up chromium, and correspondingly the weakest edge retention.
440A, 440B and 440C differ mainly in carbon. More carbon means more carbide, which means better wear resistance and slightly worse corrosion resistance. 440A sits at the low-carbon, high-corrosion-resistance end.
That makes it a sensible choice for marine and dive knives, and a poor one for anything that has to hold a fine edge through a long day.
Budget folders, promotional knives, and anywhere corrosion resistance matters more than edge holding. It is a step above the low-carbon Chinese grades and a step below 440C.
Toughness is good, so it bends rather than chips, and it sharpens on anything.
Treat it with caution. A listing reading only "440 stainless" does not tell you the sub-grade, and the performance gap between 440A and 440C is real. See the unspecified-440 answer for how we handle that.
Where we know the sub-grade, our product pages say so.
The grid below shows 440A listings from Gerber and Böker Magnum, chosen from the catalog when this answer was written. Each one carries 440A in its own specification table, and its price is read from the live catalog every time the site is built.
The full reference entry, with the published composition and hardness range and every listing we carry in it, is 440A in the Steel Lab.
