Benchmade steel

Yakkiebush

Yakkiebush

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Nov 25, 2016
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Just a Question,may seem stupid,all of my knife collection is benchmade.
Now here goes.i often here people say that benchmade do a great job with their steels over the competition,now do these knife manufactures make their own steel or what.
Or do they buy in the steel in sheets from a foundry ,meaning s30v for eg .
would be the same as on a spyderco or Kershaw .
Or do the steel makers make the steel to each knife company's satisfaction ,
meaning different classes of s30v ?
Was always curious about that .hope someone sets me straight.
 
Yakkiebush said:
Just a Question,may seem stupid,all of my knife collection is benchmade.
Now here goes.i often here people say that benchmade do a great job with their steels over the competition,now do these knife manufactures make their own steel or what.
Or do they buy in the steel in sheets from a foundry ,meaning s30v for eg .
would be the same as on a spyderco or Kershaw .
Or do the steel makers make the steel to each knife company's satisfaction ,
meaning different classes of s30v ?
Was always curious about that .hope someone sets me straight.
Click to expand...
They buy the steel in bulk from the manufacturers. Then they cut them out and heat treat it. They are talking about the heat treatment.
This means bringing it up to temp and then quenching it in a nut shell.

Each steel type has a different recipe for heat treatment. Bringing them up to different Temps and tempering different ways.

They have been known to burn edges when sharpening too (as well as other manufacturers). But after that burnt metal is removed after sharpening it's pretty decent heat treatment for the higher end steels like M4 and m390, 20cv etc.

Ive heard the opposite of there 154cm. But Ive not had any to say myself just what I've read in bladeforums.
 
As I understand it, and i’m sure someone will correct me if I’m wrong, the steel purchased by Benchmade or other knife companies is the same across the board. In other words, s30v arriving raw at Benchmade will be the same product as s30v arriving at spyderco, CRV, etc....... What sets the knife manufacturers apart in terms of hardness, edge retention, all the other variables, is the method of the heat treatment each manufacturer uses on that steel. And from everything i’ve heard or experienced Benchmade seems to have their heat treatment on most if not all steel dialed in to near perfection.
 
154 is awesome stuff!!, 154cm, cpms30v, cpmm4, 20cv come from crucible steel. I believe, somebody else may can confirm
 
HT “recipe” is something that’s a closely guarded trade secret. Manufacturers openly give guidance but what a maker actualily does is not public at all.

BM 154CM is pretty good, certainly better than Emerson’s...unfortunately there are inherent limitations to what that steel is capable of doing. Without question, CPM154 is superior, especially with the increased toughness due to the PM process used.
 
here's Benchmades s30v and Bucks Bos HT s30v.
may be some additional variables due to different grinds, but they are fairly close. Paul Bos is known to have a really good heat treatment with the use of cryo.

both are no slouches.

 
That is interesting because I have had a vantage pro and I thought it was way to chippy to me. They kinda ruined me on s30v because of that. That would also explain why the buck holds an edge a bit longer but now I know a bit more about steels in general so s30v has regained its place with me
 
nick_30 said:
That is interesting because I have had a vantage pro and I thought it was way to chippy to me. They kinda ruined me on s30v because of that. That would also explain why the buck holds an edge a bit longer but now I know a bit more about steels in general so s30v has regained its place with me
Click to expand...
Could be alot of different reasons for chipping. Doesn't mean it's the steels fault per say. I've had lots of chipping with s90v and s110v until I started using diamonds and reprofiled the edge, but not too thin an edge. No more chipping. :Shrug: I've never had chipping with s30v though.
 
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You guys can't be serious about 154CM over S30V. I have a large collection, and a wide variety of "daily" users. I sharpen my Benchmade 154CM most often, next to a Buck 420HC (which might as well be butter). 154CM is good for a few uses, but doesn't last anywhere near as long as S30V (we're strictly talking Benchmade products here).

Two of my favorites are M390 & S90V though - my EDC's rotate between the two. My "around the house" steels are 154CM & S30V.

Not hard to sharpen with diamond stones, but just sayin' - 154CM is second to last to 420HC. Was great in its' day, but there's much better now - M390, S90V, M4, etc.
 
I was kinda thinking quitely to my self...seriously, 154cm over s30, that is crazy. Even 154cm over d2 is just about as crazy. The edge on 154 last about .37 seconds to me
 
For my EDC purposes, a knife is dull when it no longer shaves hair. The difference between S30V and 154CM in MY experience is that there is almost no discernible difference between the two when it comes to getting "dull" (my version of dull probably differs from yours). The difference lies in what it takes to bring both steels back to glory. S30V isn't the hardest thing to sharpen, but it takes me 4-times longer to bring it back than 154CM. The added bonus of 154CM is that it will take a finer edge than S30V due to carbide volume, and with that property, 154CM also has better edge stability.

S30V will stay "working sharp" longer than 154CM, but I never really let my knives reach that point.
 
An aside from the two steels in question, if you want the king of stainless "working sharp", get a PM2 in S110V from Spyderco for 70% the price of Benchmade's S30V.
 
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