Recommendation? Any blade materials out there that are completely rustproof besides H1 and titanium?

Your price point of $50.00 pretty cuts out any super salt resistant Steels. As a SCUBA diver & knife maker. Just go with any of the dive knives in production that you like. You might drop it in 100 feet of water etc anyway. The best thing to do is always have fresh water with you and wash it as soon as your done.
 
Fair enough. The $50 was more arbitrary than anything as you start getting into the smaller blades with H1 at around $50-60 (price of my Dragonfly).
 
Stellite 6K! Awesome blade metal! Expensive, but performs very well!

SM100 is decent, but it does not have the "bite" that Stellite or steel has. It does take a polished edge very easily and holds a decent edge.

David Boye’s knives are awesome. I love the folders, and the marlin spike makes a great pry tool. Really well made and priced very well IMO. I clip mine to a string of paracord while fishing and it makes an awesome neck knife. Good stellite folder. Fixed blades are good too.

I just bought one of the Spyderco Caribbean LC200N folders. I really like LC200N/Zfinit. Very easy to sharpen, tough, and extreme corrosion resistant. Does lack some edge stability if it is low hardness. Don't know what Spyderco hardens the blades to. Really excited to try this folder out!
 
I suggest you get a cheap knife in a stainless knife steel like 420hc or aus 8 or whatever, then start saving up for either a serrated h1 fixed blade or wait until Spyderco releases another sweet fixed blade in lc200n.
 
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David Boye's dendritic cobalt knives are indeed excellent, but you won't find them anywhere near as low as $50. Nor will you find anything in H1 or LC200N in that price range either.

If you really want something rust-proof (or nearly rust-proof), holds a decent edge, sharpens up nicely, is durable, etc., perhaps consider saving up for what you really want, instead of settling for something you might consider inferior. TBH, saving a bit of extra money is not as hard as many people think. Give up on that daily Starbucks, or whatever other nonessentials people tend to drop money on here and there. It can add up pretty fast.

Jim
 
Find a knife in 420HC or similar, but make sure its polished and not bead blasted.
 
inkynate said:
Fudge, I planned to grab an LC200N mule soon. Didn't realize they were gone.
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Yeah... still irritated I kept punting on that when I would go check up on it... However, I do notice it just says "out of stock" it doesn't say "discontinued." Other Mule Teams specifically say discontinued... so maybe they are making more? Might be worth asking Sal over on the Spyderco side of the forum.
 
Spyderco will have the Waterway fixed blade out soon (hopefully). Appears to be a very functional design. I also heard the price MIGHT be in the $130 range.
 
Another recommendation for Boye. I've had mine at least 10 years. It's clipped to my swim trunks every time I go in the Atlantic with never a speck of rust and always super sharp. Spring for the marlin spike if you plan to get one.
 
If anyone is looking for a custom in LC200N/Zfinit, I use the steel quite a bit.
So far never had any rust, and it gets extremely extremely sharp. On another plus side it is very tough with good HT. I have made a chopper/ bowie hybrid. And a dedicated chopper, Impressive results.

But 50$ won't cover belts and the steel.

Edit: CPM 154 has a pretty high stainless factor and is a possibility for less money. But no where near as rust resistant at H1 or ZFINIT/LC200N
 
I have a few bars of VANAX from AKS that is a Nitrogen steel with added Vanadium (about 3.5%). Here is what AKS has to say:

"Vanax is the most high tech steel available for knives. It is a third generation powder metallurgy nitrogen stainless steel. The steel has very little carbon. Nitrogen is used in place of the carbon to make the steel hard. The result is a steel with extreme corrosion resistance, excellent edge holding and is easily resharpened."

The drawback is cost...$50 won't even buy the raw bar let alone a finished knife.
 
surprised that 14c28n has not been mentioned here, it's very good on the rustproof scale having a bit over 0.1% Nitrogen and 14% Chrome, but also a budget steel

Ruike makes a couple of fixed blades using this steel and this one is under $50
RKEF815Jc.jpg
 
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