CF stretch or Gayle Bradley

[termiteslayer]

+1.

When I think back to all the "hard use" cutting & scraping I grew up doing (ahem, it was called "just daily chores," back then) with plain-jane 400c/420/420HC/1095 Buck, Boker, and Schrade slip-joints and the occasional "hoss" of a Buck 110 (considered overkill to many at the time), I am reminded just how "good" we have it with all these "super steels." My eyes still prefer the lines of a well-worn slip-joint, but I have become a fan of many newer steels (though, I'm still using many "golden oldies" in regular rotation).

If it were to come down to it I'd likely choose a SAK as my ultimate survival knife.
CPM M4, at least when I abused it, was a miracle of edge retention on the job.
I hit bolts, steel sheeting, various epoxies, fiberglass... whatever. I was in a blue collar environment that demanded results.
CPM M4, though it is the best steel this nobody has run across (I'm sure something is better), clearly wins the utilitarian tests.
M390 was a close second, but it didn't seem to hold an edge in laterally twisting applications like CPM M4 did.
After all of this rant, I must say that one of the best work knives I've used was a bent Swedish $5 knife.
That $5 knife (yep, it was a slipjoint) made me money and took a stupid sharp edge within 30 seconds.
CPM M4 takes a very large amount of time to reprofile in comparison.

 

[Warriorsociologist]

I am going to have to reverse my stance on this. Having now owned both....I now possess only a GB and I'm looking for another to put away. For me, I only carry a folder of this size (or at least one clipped to a pocket), only when I'm outdoors or doing farm/woods work. Otherwise, I have a < 4" slip-joint tucked away in a pocket. Simply put, the GB fits my "big folder" requirements better. FWIW, the only 2 locking folders I own now (save for the Buck/Strider 881SP I'm trading) are my Spyderco GB and a BG-42 Buck 110.

 

[termiteslayer]

I am going to have to reverse my stance on this. Having now owned both....I now possess only a GB and I'm looking for another to put away. For me, I only carry a folder of this size (or at least one clipped to a pocket), only when I'm outdoors or doing farm/woods work. Otherwise, I have a < 4" slip-joint tucked away in a pocket. Simply put, the GB fits my "big folder" requirements better. FWIW, the only 2 locking folders I own now (save for the Buck/Strider 881SP I'm trading) are my Spyderco GB and a BG-42 Buck 110.

It's a very good tool... can't be denied.
Keep up on the edge. I let mine go very dull (tons of hard use) just to see how hard it was to get an edge back.
It's hard steel and it took me FAR longer than I ever would have expected to get it back to a good edge. I was actually stunned at how much time it took to reprofile. Couple swipes a day on the sharpmaker is not a bad idea at all.
It's hard to deny the GB if you're someone that works with a knife.

 

[Warriorsociologist]

It's hard to deny the GB if you're someone that works with a knife.

That's exactly what I found.

FWIW, my EDC these days is most often either a Queen-made Canoe (lots of varieties), a Barlow (Dan Burke gets favored), a SAK (Alox Soldier, usually), or the 2010 Trad. Forum Moose...