8Cr13MoV sucks!

Unfortunately not a lot of good options in M4 on the market today, certainly nothing affordable.
You can still pick up a Kershaw Blur Magnacut for $130 though. A Blur is well, well worth going $30 over your budget for.
 
Was just talking with someone about this same issue. He has a Kershaw with an AUS8 steel blade. He asked me to sharpen it because the edge is full of chips and obvious wear. He swears the worst thing he cuts is cardboard boxes and the stitched together edges of sacks of dog food. Everything else is the occasional apple, envelope, Amazon package and other things you wouldn't think would wear out or chip an edge.
 
Maximumbob54 said:
Was just talking with someone about this same issue. He has a Kershaw with an AUS8 steel blade. He asked me to sharpen it because the edge is full of chips and obvious wear. He swears the worst thing he cuts is cardboard boxes and the stitched together edges of sacks of dog food. Everything else is the occasional apple, envelope, Amazon package and other things you wouldn't think would wear out or chip an edge.
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Depending on the size a lot of cardboard boxes have metal staples. Once the knife is blunt they can't cut straight and they start wandering into other solid stuff.
 
Danke42 said:
Depending on the size a lot of cardboard boxes have metal staples. Once the knife is blunt they can't cut straight and they start wandering into other solid stuff.
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I did ask about that since I've hit two of them myself in the last few months testing my K390 Delica. He says no to include he hasn't bottomed out a cut into the ground by accident.
 
NativeCraft said:
I've got two different Kershaw knives, a Volt II and an Oso-Sweet, each with 8Cr13MoV steel. I love the ergonomics of both of them, but they dull just by looking at them.

What are some tougher steels that I should be looking for? I use my knives hard, doing carpentry work and other things like plumbing and auto repair.
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What are you doing with the knives and how are you sharpening them? The answers to these questions will influence which steels are more suited to your use.
 
You can get an Ontario Rat 1 or 2 in S35VN for just under $100. It’s been a good knife for me and holds an edge well. There are good budget blades in 14C28N that are reasonably tough, sharpen easily, and hold an edge decently well. If I know I’m going to be cutting stuff that will dull a blade quickly and possibly cause chipping, a razor knife like the Civivi or the Oknife comes along with me. Paired with the Lenox gold blades, they cut well and don’t need sharpening.
 
For a budget of $100 or less I agree with everyone who suggested D2 or S35VN.
 
The edge performance is a combination of the steel, the heat treat, the edge geometry, and how it was sharpened. It is possible that you sharpened it but didn't remove the burr and that is why it seems dull.

All the other factors aside- aus8 and 8cr are lower grade steels used on relatively inexpensive knives. S30V, VG10, D2 and Cruwear are good mid grade steels that can perform well. S35VN is another mid grade steel but I seem to remember it is below S30V in edgeholding and above it in toughness. I know some knifemakers such as CRK choose it for ease of sharpening. When you go beyond the mid grade steels you get into the super steels such as M390, M4, K390, Rex45, S110V, S90V, and then beyond those there are real esoteric steels that I'm not that familiar with.

You can get steels with very high edgeholding according to tests but depending on what you are cutting you can always dull them, hopefully it will take a little longer. I haven't had good luck with Kershaw steel myself, I normally carry M4, K390, S110V, Rex45 by Spyderco.
 
Or spend more money and get a Spyderco Military 1 and not need another knife.
 
I would look hard at a $50 or less D2 knife. Lot of your issues are the fact those are entry level Kershaw knives that are a low hardness.

To be honest your not going to see a huge difference in performance between D2 to M390 in budget knives. You have to spend Spyderco money to get into high end steel with a good heat treatment. I wouldn't even bother spending money on Magnacut as it's overpriced currently.
 
Check out Manly Knifes from Bulgaria. They have sub $100 offerings for knifes with S90V steel.
The edge retention on those is crazy. I have a Wasp that has seen nothing but hard use. It just keeps holdung up.
 
I don't feel 8cr13mov is all that bad. i also like aus8, when heat treated well. both are easy to get sharp quick and keep sharp. I don't mind touching up the edge. take very little time.
 
The bigger thing to think about, like when buying a car or bike, Were did the maker put those dollars? So with some companies they have a knife or three that have big production runs so they get the profit on volume, and there is nothing wrong with that, and they have a few that they make less on, but put more effort into. It's all a balance. So for example, benchmade and spyderco both have injection molded scale knives, some people don't like them, but the cost per unit gets better the more that are produced. They also have G-10 or similar material scale knives, (any of the aluminum or similar fall into this as well) that the cost of the scales really is what it is, they make ten or ten thousand, they have to price to pay off the machine, but the costs are more fixed.
Then you get designs, some designs take more final finishing or have tighter tolerating (liner locks are great for this because they are very forgiving of a thou or three, but other designs are not) or do they need washers, specific tension on the pivots.... the list goes on.
Then we get to the steel. Can they buy it in the stock size that is easy for the mill to produce, has little waste, and do they have the ability to heat treat it on site to a close enough tolerance. A lot of makers spend that money on branding and polish, in the low end of the market there are plenty of 50$ knives with 5$ BOMs.

ESEE (mostly fixed blades) did things a bit odd to other companies at the time they re-launched, they did injection molded sheaths when a lot were doing kydex (lower costs if you can move enough units) and running just 1095 at a "good enough" heat treat but a killer warranty. So they calculated the costs and thought, well we can have a few points of RC hardness between high and low, make our production cost a lot lower, and then replace the few knives people choose to break, and that really worked, good knives at a fair price considering what you got. But they made those choices knowing that they had to let go of a few tolerances that their competition said mattered. Seems they are doing alright.

So with the work you are doing, think about, what happens when I break or need to replace the knife? should I stick with the knives I like the shape of and get better/faster sharpening, knowing I'll replace them, or get "better" knives (again, ergonomics are a major factor, and the higher end ones tend to go out of production more) and then also spend more time sharpening when they get dull. Right now in my little collection I've got the range from whatever swiss magic is in a Victorinox to magnacut, and to be honest, only a couple knives have been bought with the steel in mind. I've got a couple spyders for salt water use, and I've got a whiteriver M1 in magnacut because it was worth a try considering the timber where I go hiking. But the rest have been egro and feature considerations, not steel. Don't be precious about sharpening work tools, get a method that works, and rock on.
 
If you wanna cheap out: D2 Ontario Rat.

If you prefer edge retention over stain resistance: K390 from Spyderco.

If you want some stain resistance: S35VN from Cold Steel.
 
NativeCraft said:
I've got two different Kershaw knives, a Volt II and an Oso-Sweet, each with 8Cr13MoV steel. I love the ergonomics of both of them, but they dull just by looking at them.

What are some tougher steels that I should be looking for? I use my knives hard, doing carpentry work and other things like plumbing and auto repair.
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I put a lot of carry on both of those knives about a decade ago. You're right that 8Cr13Mov sucks. Yeah, some people defend it because it is tough and the total edge life can get close to better steels like Nitro-V or 14C28N. However, total edge life isn't where people feel let down by 8Cr13Mov. See, it's very easy to get 8Cr13Mov very sharp. It's that the super sharp fine edge wears down quickly, leaving it with a passable but unimpressive working edge for most of the total edge life.

That said, Nitro-V and 14C28N hold a much more satisfying edge while still being easy to sharpen, are much tougher than 8Cr13Mov, and are actually among the toughest stainless blade steels. I prefer 14C28N because it manages that level of toughness with much higher corrosion resistance than Nitro-V. (Nitro-V is about as stainless as 8Cr13Mov.) Either one would be a solid upgrade and can both can be found in plenty of good knives under $100.

Sure, that's mostly Chinese knives but there are several decent companies making high quality knives in China now. Specifically for Nitro-V and 14C28N, check out Civivi, Kizer, and Kubey.
 
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