Choosing the Right Knife Steel: Balance Between Performance and Maintenance

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khaliad noor

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Jan 29, 2026
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One topic that always comes up in the knife community is blade steel, and after using different knives over the years, I’ve realized there is no “perfect” steel—only the right balance for your needs.
Many beginners focus only on hardness numbers or edge retention, but real-world use tells a different story. A steel with extreme edge retention can be great, but if it’s difficult to sharpen or prone to chipping, it may not be ideal for everyday or outdoor use. On the other hand, tougher steels might need more frequent sharpening, yet they are easier to maintain in the field.

From my experience, the environment and intended use matter more than specs alone. For camping and general outdoor tasks, I’ve found that toughness and ease of sharpening are more valuable than maximum edge retention. For light EDC tasks, corrosion resistance and fine edge stability become more important.

Another thing worth mentioning is heat treatment. Two knives made from the same steel can perform very differently depending on how well the heat treatment was done. This is something I didn’t fully appreciate until I tried knives from different makers using identical steel types.

I’m curious to hear from other members here:

Do you prioritize edge retention, toughness, or ease of sharpening?
Have you noticed big differences in performance due to heat treatment?
Is there a steel you trust regardless of brand?

Looking forward to learning from your experiences.
 
diamond abrasives are the great equalizer, making ease of sharpening a non-issue. It is more about what kind of geometry can a certain steel maintain without chipping and rolling while being used for a specific task.
to cover both extreme use cases i like slicey folder blades in maxamet or s90v paired with robust fixed blades in tough 3v.
 
Synov said:
You didn't mention the most important factor: geometry. With lower edge thickness and edge angle, 3V can cut for as long as extreme high speed tool steels and still have 4 times the toughness. If a steel is good for making a sword it's also good for a straight razor.

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If you want a steel that is equally good as a razor & a sword, AEB-L would be a much better choice.
 
For my needs (which is 99% of the time in the form of a folder) , a good stainless with excellent edge retention and corrosion resistance matters most. And even though MagnaCut seems to be the popular choice these days , there are many other steels that fit the bill nicely. Current favorites include M390 , S110V , S90V and even S30V is a tried and true classic.
 
While I appreciate technological advancement and the science of metallurgy, I’ve been using knives my entire life, and have never really had an appreciable “problem” with any knives I have had. Granted, I’m not using knives for rigorous cutting all day every day, but usually find no issue with pretty much any modern steel for my uses. Geometry is super important, as stated above, and some knives are just better cutters because of that alone. I prefer to carry stainless steels because I live in a humid environment, but have all kinds. I only recently got a couple in Magnacut, so it’s fair to say I don’t chase the trends, but it seems to be good for anything I would use it for.

I feel like we get wrapped around the axle about ultimate performance and innovation, but we live in a time where pretty much any modern knife is probably, at the very least, perfectly good enough for most people’s uses (especially those of us that are just hobbyists or “EDC” carriers/users, and not truly relying on them for life or livelihood), and often it seems those who are using them for life or livelihood seem to typically use simpler, more “primitive” steels and are fine to push them to their absolute limits, which may be well below the capabilities of modern “super steels”. Much of it is simply status and style, and that’s ok, too.
 
The first time I remember noticing a difference was back in 90s I bought myself a SOG Spec elite with VG10 blade. It was a noticeable improvement over my Bucks and Gerbers and it was pretty easy to sharpen. I did an unscientific study recently by cutting up some thick cardboard. Sharpened up my buck 119 to shaving sharp and compared it to a mule team magnamax a hogue decks in MC and a Bowie in cast440c aka Boye dendritic steel, The buck in 420HC lost its edge way faster than the others.
That said if one can sharpen a knife most good steels will do the job.
 
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Synov said:
You didn't mention the most important factor: geometry. With lower edge thickness and edge angle, 3V can cut for as long as extreme high speed tool steels and still have 4 times the toughness. If a steel is good for making a sword it's also good for a straight razor.
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This was my first thought as well; I've grown to appreciate "lower end" steels that don't have as much edge retention but are much tougher, as long as they're utilized in really thin blades. The toughness protects the edge from chipping or breaking despite the thinness, and they're easy to resharpen since the edge doesn't have a lot of material. They cut like they're sharp even when they're relatively dull.

I still like supersteels, but ironically I've grown to prefer them for safe queens or novelties that I use more sparingly. That way, the minimal wear that I put them through doesn't necessitate sharpening out the factory edge.

Another detail to keep in mind is what your frame of reference for sharpness is. There have been a bunch of tests that show that all steels go from "razor sharp" to "just sharp" at about the same rate, but supersteels take much longer to go from "just sharp" to "dull." So if you're doing something that demands "razor sharp," like a straight razor, it makes sense to use a lower end steel that's easy to sharpen (O1 is the gold standard). If you were to make one out of M390, the edge you need to shave wouldn't last any longer and it would be much more effort to hone and strop back to shave ready.
 
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