Better Steel on XM-18's

I bought my XM-18 from a guy who now owns an XHP one. He says he liked his previous one better (20CV). Just anecdotal, but there you are. According to the interactive steel chart at zknives.com, 20CV is identical to M390. I remember it surprised a lot of guys when I first mentioned that. M390 was all the rave (and rightly so) and 20CV had been in use on the XM-18 for quite a while before Spyderco and Benchmade started using M390. I guess 20CV just sounds so nondescript.;) But it's a supersteel alright.
 
Sure its a super steel, just check the cutting tests of Jdavis882 with a 20CV Microtech Socom Elite....he was very surprised how well it holds an edge.

Microtech already used 20CV in the LCC about 10 years ago, so its not that new, it was a very good choice to use it for the XM-18's.

Since the XM-24 is also more of a "field knife" if you can call it that way, I can also understand the choice of CTS-XHP and S35VN, anyway they are all great steels.

[video=youtube;I-8lue9aJSI]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-8lue9aJSI&feature=plcp[/video]
[video=youtube;lhzgvzK2uIM]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhzgvzK2uIM&feature=plcp[/video]
 
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Yes the Fieldtac is awesome, here is his little friend the FXM in Duratech 20CV, actually its a very big chunk of 20CV, the blade is at .190” thicker than the XM-18 (.165") and the XM-24 (.185”) ;)

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I never said they were too beefy ;) and that line you wanted to go first on is already very long, to quote the late Charlton Heston "from my cold dead hands"

Here are some family shots of those "too beefy knives" for size comparisons, enjoy :D

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I have a 3.5 gen 3 flipper, spanto. Is there anyway to tell which steel i have. It has a stonewash finish.
 
Bob45 said:
I have a 3.5 gen 3 flipper, spanto. Is there anyway to tell which steel i have. It has a stonewash finish.
Click to expand...

Most likely if unmarked it is Duratech 20CV. CTS-XHP are usually marked as such. This topic has been discussed several times. Search a bit and confirm what you have as I may be mistaken.
 
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Emel, those fixed blades are awesome! How do you like the Fieldtac? I saw one at this years ECCKS and it looked great.
 
Like all hand ground Hinderers it has a very nice grind, great ergo's and balance and the "working finish" suits the knife really well.

Here you see how thick it is at .235" :D

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emel said:
I am a bit surprised CTS-XHP should be easier to sharpen than 20CV, Duratech 20CV is basically as wear resistant as M390, while CTS-XHP is a tougher steel similar to D2 but more rust resistant ??

Here is an old thread about XHP vs 20CV : http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php/797302-CTS-XHP-Duratech-20CV/page3
Click to expand...

Perhaps it is due to the edge geometry of the two more so than the steel. The 3.5" was much more obtuse from the factory and didn't have near as steep or fine of an edge as the 3" XM (by design I'm sure). Maybe that is what prevented me from being able to keep it as sharp.
 
If you use a Spyderco Sharpmaker with only ceramic stones, the edge geometry of some knives could take some or a lot of time before you even hit the apex of the edge, especially on those super steels.

I once tried to sharpen a M390 Benchmade on the Sharpmaker ceramics and it took almost forever before actually I hit the edge ;)

But with the diamond stones on my Wicked Edge I can sharpen any of those steels razor sharp really quick and easy.
 
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