Blade steel is becoming less important to me

I think at this point, metallurgy and manufacturing has advanced to the point that it's unlikely that a new steel will come out and be a quantum leap forward for every desirable characteristic. Instead, new steels just tweak things a little to find slightly different balances between edge retention, toughness, and corrosion resistance.

Edge geometry can make more of a difference in actual use than the minor variations between competing high end steels. And the design and quality of the knife overall are more likely to determine whether or not I use and enjoy a knife.
 
kobold said:
I am amazed rn that after four days of cutting open gardening soil and manure bags, delimbing bamboo and cutting twine my microconvexed Native in Spy27, (a steel very similar to S35VN) can still slice paper.
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I hear you, but why would that matter in the real world? If I have to stop every few hours to swipe the blade a couple of times with a stone, how is that a problem.

N2s
 
not2sharp said:
I hear you, but why would that matter in the real world? If I have to stop every few hours to swipe the blade a couple of times with a stone, how is that a problem.

N2s
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I don't want to strop or carry a strop and/or a stone in the garden or wherever I am using the knife?
 
Happens to pretty much everyone. I like my Maxamets, my M4s, K390s, 15V, but I'll also happily carry knives with AUS 8, 154CM, VG10, 14C28 on most days. First meet I went to, someone told me not to get too hung up on steels and that past S30V there's not much point. At first I didn't believe him "Bro hasn't even tried K390", but here I am completely agreeing with him 10 years later. As long as its well made and reasonably priced any steel is gonna make my day better, as long as it's noname/surgical steel or paki pot metal - I'm not a steel snob but I have standards.
 
I would be fine with nothing but Buck’s 420hc and ESEE or Kabar 1095. But, I still enjoy trying the new stuff. I like s35vn and have recently been very impressed with K390. I’ve got Magnacut on the way that I plan to try out as well. There’s room for all of them, in my opinion, but I’m not going to pretend I need anything more than the simple steels.
 
JWright214 said:
I would be fine with nothing but Buck’s 420hc and ESEE or Kabar 1095. But, I still enjoy trying the new stuff. I like s35vn and have recently been very impressed with K390. I’ve got Magnacut on the way that I plan to try out as well. There’s room for all of them, in my opinion, but I’m not going to pretend I need anything more than the simple steels.
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1095 is eternal. Countries that will never have state of the art CNC machining shops will get along fine with their 1095 or 1075
 
I actually came to the same conclusion not long ago that the steel was of little importance to me once past a certain price point because it was garunteed to be good enough for my needs and uses. I’ve bought many knives in the past year without even knowing what steel I was getting.

However, if I was a hard user beating the hell out of my knives everyday then maybe I’d have stronger opinions on them.

SwissHeritageCo said:
80crv2, aebl, and 14c28n for me. When all is accounted for, I actually don't view supersteels as a net positive for my taste.

I want easy to sharpen, easy to strop, and easy to reprofile when damage is concerned. In this way I wont be scared to use it.
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I’ve often thought what the knife world would be like if the focus of blade steel was toughness and ease of sharpening rather than edge retention. The fact is no matter how long a knife stays sharp at some point it will have to be sharpened. So would I prefer to sharpen a blade for 30 minutes once a month or 5 minutes at the end of the week.

Another Shepherd said:
I was buying mostly Magnacut for a year or so, because I already had a lot of excellent knives and did not see much point in buying another knife that was just excellent without some distinction. Now I have three great fixed blades with Magnacut and a couple great folders with Magnacut, so I'm looking for other aspects of distinction in great knives and not coming up with much.
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Maybe you’ve exhausted all these avenues of distinction already but what about finding the best knife in the hand, or the pocket. The best action, the best deployment method, the best of that method, the lightest, the best overall edc, the worst edc…

You can’t just stop buying knives! 😉
 
Other than hobby/ enthusiast interest ...I'm good with what I got . 🤗

Got a few in H-1 for the salt water fun . A handful , or two , of 3V fixed for really hard use .

XHP and S35VN on folders .

How much better does it need to be ?

Super ER is not an issue for me . I can sharpen and don't mind .

Blades breaking , chipping out , bending , folding ...nope , not acceptable !

Everything I got was at very good prices . I can't see myself paying multiple times the price on a knife, just for small gains on steel .
 
most folks could not identify a knife steel if their life depended on it. Oh sure, most of us can tell carbon steel from stainless, but not always. Personally, I still use and like knives made from A2, O1, S3, 1095, 440C, ATS134, CPM154, S30V................
 
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mitchnola said:
I actually came to the same conclusion not long ago that the steel was of little importance to me once past a certain price point because it was garunteed to be good enough for my needs and uses. I’ve bought many knives in the past year without even knowing what steel I was getting.

However, if I was a hard user beating the hell out of my knives everyday then maybe I’d have stronger opinions on them.





….

Maybe you’ve exhausted all these avenues of distinction already but what about finding the best knife in the hand, or the pocket. The best action, the best deployment method, the best of that method, the lightest, the best overall edc, the worst edc…

You can’t just stop buying knives! 😉
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I am putting that to the test next month. I am planning to stop by SMKW to see if they have anything interesting. I have been there before (it’s a trek from FL) and like the store, but after 50 years+ of knife collecting there usually isn’t much there that excites me.

N2s
 
not2sharp said:
I am putting that to the test next month. I am planning to stop by SMKW to see if they have anything interesting. I have been there before (it’s a trek from FL) and like the store, but after 50 years+ of knife collecting there usually isn’t much there that excites me.

N2s
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Good luck bro, I hope you do. Collecting for 50 years is a success in its own right. Could only imagine what a state of the collection pic would look like!!
 
I have a soft spot for 154CM and S30V. 154CM was popular when I got into knives years ago. And S30V was a super steal in those days. 154CM sharpened up nicely and easily. However , I had a hard time with S30V comparatively for a while. But I learned as I went.

I like decent stainless. So steels like S110V and MagnaCut are great. But I’m totally happy with the older steels too. Room for all. And if I had to pick a favorite, it’s S90V for me.
 
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