Benchemade 20cv

chislett2025 said:
Is benchmades 20cv chippy? I will be using my knife for edc which consists of cutting zip ties,rope, and plastic mostly. I would go with m4 but I live on the east coast of Canada and I don’t want a battle rust every couple of days Due to air moisture and rain at least once a week. I’ve also had some chippy s30v from benchmade and wanting to try a different route.
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IMO, 20CV / M390 are somewhat prone to chipping, but do have very good wear resistance. This is "in general" and not just "from Benchmade". That alloy has a very high carbide loading.
 
Personal experience leads me to believe M4's rust-proneness is vastly exaggerated. I've gone out of my way and left it as is after cutting acidic feed like tomatoes, apples and lemons and nada. Been in my pocket on all day rainy mountain bike trips and still nada. Worst it got was a patina that rubs off at the next use. Seems to patina fairly easily but the patina offers a degree of rust protection, maybe that's why people are stressed about it.
 
M4 and 1095 are the only steels to have pitted on me. I put away my Bradley Air because of the pitting. I have EDCi now, so I should bring it out of storage again.
 
Kryme said:
Personal experience leads me to believe M4's rust-proneness is vastly exaggerated. I've gone out of my way and left it as is after cutting acidic feed like tomatoes, apples and lemons and nada. Been in my pocket on all day rainy mountain bike trips and still nada. Worst it got was a patina that rubs off at the next use. Seems to patina fairly easily but the patina offers a degree of rust protection, maybe that's why people are stressed about it.
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You never know until you try. I don't have m4, but do have a couple tool steels in that same class of steel and have had no issues. I've also left my knife with acidic foods etc on it with no patina happening. Over a long time it did develop a very slight patina but you almost gotta have the right light to see it. I like to encourage folks to try tool steels. Maybe it's for them and they enjoy the knife and have no corrosion issues. Maybe it rusts red overnight. I went alot of years wondering thinking I could only buy stainless because I "needed" it, I'm glad I tried some different steels. I still have some stainless ones too
 
SharpBits said:
M4 and 1095 are the only steels to have pitted on me. I put away my Bradley Air because of the pitting. I have EDCi now, so I should bring it out of storage again.
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Interesting because the only steel I've had pitting on was S30V

https://imgur.com/ciIsomG

It's a Manix 2 from 2012, and it's still in my collection, but it has seen a fair bit of use since then, resharpened so many times a 17 degree edge looks like a scandi grind and the blade is 2-3 mm shorter. In any case I'm 99% the rust came from contamination from the tooling used to grind the bevels, the photo is a decade old and not very clear, but the spots all occurred in deeper scratches. It would not surprise me if some of the cases where M4 has developed rust are similar. Among the knives I've carried on bike trips (think sweaty pockets, rain and mud) are my Maxamet PM2, K390 Stretch, and 20CV XM18, and I haven't had issues with either.

Speaking of 20CV I've cut shifter cable with the Hinderer when I destroyed my shifter in a crash and had to convert to single speed to get home. It got damage but nothing I couldn't fix in a couple of minutes on my Falkniven DC4. But Hinderer's heat treat is on the softer side, favoring toughness over edge retention (supposedly). I had a Griptillian in 20CV a while back and it seemed to handle itself well too, but it was way thicker than a Bugout behind the edge and that helps a lot with apex stability.
 
I have blades in M4 (BM SuperFreek) and M390 (Microtechs), both take a great edge and are durable, but I prefer M4. Less likely to chip, takes (IMO) a slightly better edge, and has similar edge retention. Rust isn’t an issue with appropriate maintenance.
 
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