And here I am.
The first thing I should stress is that my use is not typical. I work in building maintenance, and our apartments have a lot of concrete, steel and sheetrock in their construction. As a result, I deal with a lot of rather abrasive materials, which skews my results in favor of high vanadium steels. So take what I say with a grain or ten of salt.
In acending order, this is how I personally would rate Spyderco's steels.
AUS-6. Takes a good sharp edge, but just doesn't stay that way for long. More prone to rolling than chipping.
AUS-8. Holds up better than AUS-6, but still not too impressive. My first Spyderco knives were AUS-8, and I moved on to other brands for almost a decade with no idea why people thought Spydercos were so great.
440C. Spyderco does a good job with the heat-treatment, and the steel is pretty good stuff.
ATS-55. I know some folks really like this stuff, but it doesn't really impress me. It seems to work better in serrations than plain edge, at least for me.
8Cr13MoV. The Chinese alphabet soup steel used in the Tenacious and Byrds has proven to be much better than the price point would hint at.
H-1. I really haven't used this steel much. I live a very long way from the ocean, in a place that averages less than 18" of rainfall per year, so rust-proof is not a big selling point with me. I'm carrying a Mariner Salt now, so we'll see how it goes.
52100 (MT01) Takes a very fine edge, but it didn't stand up to my work all that well.
154CM. Note: This is where I rank non-Spyderco 154CM, as I do not yet have a Spydie in this steel.
GIN-1/G-2. The more I use my older Spydies, the better I like this stuff.
VG-10. A Very good all-around steel. More prone to rolling than chipping, this is better than the average knife user would ever need.
ATS-34. Maybe it should be below VG-10, but for whatever reason, I like it better and it seems to hold an edge a bit better for me.
S30V. More prone to chipping than rolling, but the vanadium carbides let it take on abrasive materials more successfully.
BG-42. Good stuff, takes a very sharp edge and holds it better than it should for how easy it is to sharpen.
CPM D-2. Less prone to chipping than S30V, good edge holding and nearly stainless. Makes a very good work knife for me.
CMP M4 (MT02). Good stuff if you keep it dry. I had rust issues with it even here in the near-desert.
440V/S60V. Aside from the early Military batch that used the CPM suggested heat-treat that proved to be a bit too hard, an excellent steel that holds a good working edge for a long time.
ZDP-189. A somewhat tricky steel. Once I learned how to sharpen it correctly, it takes a very fine edge that lasts very well, although it is more prone to chipping than rolling.
S90V. The best I've found so far for what I do. Sure, it takes longer to sharpen, but for me, it is definitely worth it.
