ats55 vs vg10

SIRGALANT

SIRGALANT

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i just boguht a plain edge ss dragonfly , and i was wondering why spyderco used ats55 instead of vg10?
 
If my notoriously poor memory is working tonight, ATS-55 was around quite a while before VG-10, and there seems to be quite a lot of "new, old stock" with ATS-55 steel around. I wouldn't sweat it, the ATS-55 is a great premium steel. I seem to remember Sal saying it was made up specially for them. If it wasn't, it should have been. :thumbup:
 
I think it is due to when the Dragonfly was first produced, VG-10 was not being used yet. I think that the knife was introduced in 1994 and VG-10 first showed up in 1995.

You will like this knife. I carried one for quite a while as an "office" knife,and it never let me down. I didn't baby it at all, and it stayed rock solid and sharp.
Never felt that I needed a bigger knife, either. Others around here have allegedly done things to SS 'flys that would make most of us cringe,and it held up to the task.

Hope this helps,

Bruceter
 
I had also heard that ats 55 was made especially for spydercoI don't know if there's any truth that rumor though,although I've never seen another knife made a in ATS 55 outside of spyderco.anyway in my opinion, ATS 55 is a premium knife to this day.my basis for this is I believe it is as good an if not better than Ats 34 which is still used by many custom knife makers.has for an actual comparison I don't know if there is one between the two in a quantifiable sense. if I had my choice, I might actually choose ATS 55 largely because VG-10 has become so ubiquitous.honestly with the size a my everyday carry rotationmy blades could be made out of bronze, and they will probably hold an edge long enough for most of my needs.
 
yablanowitz said:
If my notoriously poor memory is working tonight, ATS-55 was around quite a while before VG-10, and there seems to be quite a lot of "new, old stock" with ATS-55 steel around. I wouldn't sweat it, the ATS-55 is a great premium steel. I seem to remember Sal saying it was made up specially for them. If it wasn't, it should have been. :thumbup:
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but i looked at the website and the current dragonfly steel is ats55
 
SIR (may I call you SIR, sir?) I carry around a lot of knives, to the point that knife knuts think I'm crazy. I have knives with the following steels on my person at this moment: ATS-34, 154CM, ATS-55, AUS8, S30V, VG-10, ZDP-189, BG-42, D2, 440C and Case's CV (non stainless) steel. The AUS8 is my FRN Dragonfly, which is pretty good steel, but ATS-55 is even better. I would consider ATS-55 to be an upgrade from AUS8. Why not VG-10? Maybe Sal will chime in with that one. It could be the difference in steel cost or manufacturing cost would have driven the price point higher than he wanted. It could be that he felt the ATS-55 was enough of an upgrade, at least for now. He could be creating more variations for the collectors to chase :D
 
I think this is simply a model that they haven't gotten around to. I am pretty sure that you don't change the steel in a production knife just like that. The tooling and the entire set up, maybe even a minimum order or remaining stock is set up for ATS-55. But since Spyderco has been slowly replacing all ATS-55 and other japanese steels with VG-10 am very sure that it is going to happen and that it is just a matter of time. Please consider that the SS version of the Delica and Endura were also still AUS-6 before the new D4/E4 came out.

Having said that, ATS-55 is a very good steel very similar to ATS-34.
 
I have several delicas in ATS-55 and my complaint with them is THEY RUST. I do live near the coast and fish alot, but these things rusted REALLY quickly. I now carry a Salt 1 in H1 or an Endura in VG-10 and have no problems now.

I personally don't take my ATS-55 blades if I will get wet or sweaty.

Otherwise they take and hold a great edge and seem similar to ATS-34
 
yablanowitz said:
SIR (may I call you SIR, sir?) I carry around a lot of knives, to the point that knife knuts think I'm crazy. I have knives with the following steels on my person at this moment: ATS-34, 154CM, ATS-55, AUS8, S30V, VG-10, ZDP-189, BG-42, D2, 440C and Case's CV (non stainless) steel. The AUS8 is my FRN Dragonfly, which is pretty good steel, but ATS-55 is even better. I would consider ATS-55 to be an upgrade from AUS8. Why not VG-10? Maybe Sal will chime in with that one. It could be the difference in steel cost or manufacturing cost would have driven the price point higher than he wanted. It could be that he felt the ATS-55 was enough of an upgrade, at least for now. He could be creating more variations for the collectors to chase :D
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DUDE I'm sorry that I need some kind of a description are you wearing a flak jacket with knives hanging all over it/if I'm reading this right you're carrying least 11 knives and or utility tools:confused: :eek: :)
 
yablanowitz said:
SIR (may I call you SIR, sir?) I carry around a lot of knives, to the point that knife knuts think I'm crazy. I have knives with the following steels on my person at this moment: ATS-34, 154CM, ATS-55, AUS8, S30V, VG-10, ZDP-189, BG-42, D2, 440C and Case's CV (non stainless) steel. The AUS8 is my FRN Dragonfly, which is pretty good steel, but ATS-55 is even better. I would consider ATS-55 to be an upgrade from AUS8. Why not VG-10? Maybe Sal will chime in with that one. It could be the difference in steel cost or manufacturing cost would have driven the price point higher than he wanted. It could be that he felt the ATS-55 was enough of an upgrade, at least for now. He could be creating more variations for the collectors to chase :D
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DUDE I'm sorry I need some kind of a description are you wearing a flak jacket with knives hanging all over it/if I'm reading this right you're carrying least 11 knives and or utility tools:confused: :eek: :)
 
Ya gotta love carpenter jeans :D
What good is a pocket without a pocket knife or two?
 
yablanowitz you really are a knife knut. i`d hate to see what happens when a cop catches you carrying 11 knives on your person.
 
Well, since I know most of them around here, and am on a first name basis with the Chief of Police and the County Sheriff, I really don't sweat that too much. There are some advantages to getting older...to the young cops it is kinda like hassling their Dad. And if you don't give them a reason to pull you over, they never know :D
 
Now that you mention it I don't recall any other knife company offering knives in ATS-55. I really like the steel myself. My main EDC is a C-44 big Dyad which has ATS-55 and I don't need to sharpen it that often. Now it doesn't hold up like ZDP-189 but let's be honest>> what else does that's currently on the market. I have about 30 Spyders with ATS-55 and most of them are long term keepers.

I guess that this is probably 2 blade steels that are collectible as blade steels. Crucible's 440V ( S-60V) is now extinct and I seriously doubt if we ever see ATS-55 again. Something to consider> collectible blade steels.

As far as comparing ATS-55 to VG-10 I just simply have to go with what the experts have determined. The General has stated on a couple of occasions that they did extensive testing of VG-10 before making it one of their main blade steels. He said that it outperformed ATS-55 and others significantly at the time. But I'm not about to abandon my ATS-55 blade steels because I am very satisfied with their performance. Consider all the great blade steels ATS-55 beat out to get to be one of Spyderco's marquee steels to begin with.
 
silenthunterstudios said:
I had a Cricket and a Military with ATS55, both worked great for me.
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I didn't know a Military was ever made with ATS-55.
I believe it's very similar to ATS-34. Great steel, one of my favorites!
 
ok , i guess ats55 is pretty good then . thanks guys . i really need to learn how to sharpen and buy a sharpmaker.
 
i only mention my above post because it doesnt matter what blade steel you`ve got if you don`t have the means to sharpen it.
 
BlackNinja said:
I didn't know a Military was ever made with ATS-55.
I believe it's very similar to ATS-34. Great steel, one of my favorites!
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I've seen a lot of Military models but I have never seen one with ATS-55 blade steel :confused: I'm not saying for sure that there wasn't but if there were they must have been a very limited production item because that is one model I follow pretty closely. I thought that ATS-55 was used in Seki City Japan Spyders?

The Military model as far as I know has always been a Golden Colorado Spyder. Would someone please clearify this?
 
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