Anyone have a Buck Vantage???

[mattz357]

I saw this knife at Dick's and and it looked and felt great so I came home to look it up. Turns out there is an S30V/G10 model! Does anyone have one of these? How do they hold up? Are you happy with it? Is this a Mayo collaboration? Thanks in advance for any info!

 

[Plumberdv]

Here you go.
http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=644462&highlight=Vantage

http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=655961&highlight=Vantage

 

[Badhammer]

It's actually the Vantage Pro. There are several other Vantage models with different steels. I've got one and like it a lot. One of the best, if not the best values going. Picked mine up online for just under $40 + shipping

 

[Stainz]

I think the local Bass Pro had the #347 Vantage-Pro in S30V for <$45. Great knife - decent local price. That is essentially the same blade as the 172 Mayo TNT has - and at an MSRP of $75 vs $350+! My 347 is a keeper.

Stainz

 

[imafritz]

Love em-get one....or 2 or 3? The Vantage Avid is a sweet alternative. It has Dymondwood scales and Sanvik steel blade.(wish I had one of those too)

 

[mattz357]

Several questions, comments and observations about the replies (thank you all, by the way)... Plumber, great links! Hammer, what vendor did you use (if you can say)? As far as the blade steel goes, what are the pros and cons of the Sanvik vs. the S30V? Thanks again!

 

[Badhammer]

I got mine from cutlery shoppe dot com.

As far as the steels go, S30V is just a great steel IMHO. I have several knives from several makers in this steel from the Buck Vantage Pro to a Chris Reeve Sebenza 21. All are easy to sharpen, take a very, very keen edge and hold it. The Vantage Pro is about the lowest priced knife I've found that has the S30V steel. It really is a bargain in more ways than one.

 

[gd526]

The 347 Vantage Pro is an outstanding knife and considering the price....??? I really am happy with mine, to be sure!

Dave

 

[Neo]

As far as the blade steel goes, what are the pros and cons of the Sanvik vs. the S30V? Thanks again!

13C26 is designed as a razor blade steel it sets a high standard for edge stability and is thus an ideal stainless steel for those who desire a high initial sharpness and keep their blades very sharp.

S30V is more wear resistant with harder carbides, good to use on abrasive materials.

So a doctor would prefer a scalpel out of 13C26, a chef in his kitchen would prefer 13C16 for his knife. A carpenter would prefer S30V.

To quote from this post: http://www.knifeforums.com/forums/showtopic.php?tid/809833/

13C26/AEB-L: These are two steels made by competing Swedish companies and was designed in the early 1900s for razor blades. As you can imagine, being developed for razor blades means it has very high edge stability. The carbide structure is very fine, matching the size of even the finest carbon steels. The wear resistance isn’t impressive compared to other stainless steels, but still exceeds most carbon steels other than the Blue series, these steels have similar wear resistance to A2. 13C26 has the highest wear resistance of any stainless that has excellent edge stability. They are capable of being heat treated to 63-65 Rc. The toughness is high.

S30V: A PM grade that has very high wear resistance, higher than any of the previous grades listed, with greater edge stability than 154CM, but probably lower than VG-10. Good toughness, and can be used up to 62 Rc. Also has very good corrosion resistance. Has high enough wear resistance that it can be difficult to sharpen using waterstones, due in part to the vanadium carbide. Difficult to finish for a knifemaker.

About edge stability

Edge Stability – Simple explanation: Ability to hold a fine, acute, polished edge.
In depth: Edge stability is controlled most by carbide size and volume. The finer the carbide structure, the better a steel is at holding sharpness when sharpened very acutely and at a high polish. Evidences of a steel with low edge stability are losing initial sharpness quickly or chipping either while cutting or while sharpening with an acute bevel. The finer the edge and the finer the polish the more this will be apparent. Edge stability and toughness are often connected, but not always the same. Sometimes a steel can have high edge stability with fairly low toughness, or a steel with low edge stability can have moderate toughness. Blue Super has fairly high edge stability but low toughness; D2 has low edge stability but moderate toughness. Generally wear resistance and edge stability are opposed to each other since a greater volume of carbides means greater wear resistance but less toughness and edge stability, meaning one of the most important factors for selecting a steel are how much slicing it will be doing and how thick the edge will be. As already said, usually edge stability is more important in kitchen knives.