CPM-M4 vs. CPM-S110V......GO!!!

I personally prefer stainless steels due to their 'no fuss' maintenance. It is too easy to neglect your blade after cutting food etc and then find rust on it a day or so later. Well, it is for me. :p

The exception is an M4 blade treated with a good coating, like DLC. The CPM-M4 Ritter Grip is a good example of this. With this steel, blade coating, light weight, lock, blade shape and profile, it is quite possibly one of the finest pocket knives ever produced IMO.

The other steel that should be thrown into the equation is M390. Excellent edge retention, stainless, and more easily available than the Crucible steels in an affordable package. BM are making quite a few knives out of this steel at the moment.
 
This thread (which doesn't rate S110V, but does rate S90V at two different Rc figures) suggests that S110V will outperform CPM-M4 by a noticeable margin.
 
M4 because stainless has no soul. and it also separates the men from the boys who get upset that their knife got a bit spotty after they forgot to wipe it down.

Also M4 actually resists staining pretty well compared to most carbon steels I've had :p

if you're just cutting a thousand cardboard boxes a day, s110v will be better. if you want to put a super thin edge on something that is still tough and VERY wear resistant, reach for da SeePeeEm Em-Fo
 
keep in mind too that benchmade doesn't run their m4 very hard [relative to max hardness] and that the lfti is very thick stock
 
jiggyfly16 said:
I am thinking of getting a benchmade LFTi (whenever the hell they come out) in cpm m4 but then I saw a kershaw shallot in cpm s110v and I was wondering which steel is better(in terms of hardness, sharpenability, wear resistance, brittleness, and chipping) corrosion resistance is not really an issue to me.:jerkit::D
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If you are looking for steel performance you should rather look to manufacturers who know how to do heat treatment. Kershaw is OK.

Thanks, Vassili.
 
When Phil Wilson talks about heat treat and real world cutting performance, I harvest his posts and store in a file. I take his word to the bank.

I've been using an M4 Military around the house/yard. It has some black discoloration (not rust) in various places. I have not been vigilant in cleaning and oiling the blade. Such is the case w/ non-stainless steels in general (you don't even have to breathe on O1 to get a dark spot), and apparently with a high alloy tool steel like M4. It is no concern to me as I consider the framelock Military a full blown user at this point.

I was thinking about buying another RJ Martin custom, wondering between M4 and 110V. Phil's opinion on 110V has swayed me. (RJ was in about the same place... the 110V was a bear to finish, but worth it if run hard and used properly).

I also need to cease my fascination with buying "one of each" of Dozier's knives... and get a couple more custom hunters on order from Phil Wilson.
http://www.seamountknifeworks.com/index.htm

Thanks for resuscitating this thread.
 
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... as a side note, I don't think many production manufacturer's will run any steel (except ZDP-189) past Rc61 as a target, as they just don't want to deal with returns from chipped out blades used improperly. If there are some exceptions out there, please advise.

It seems that a very hard blade from M4 or 110V is the province of the careful, dedicated custom maker who takes heat treating very seriously.

I did buy some nice kitchen knives from Sur La Table, Bob Kramer series, with a stainless damascus clad over SG-4 at Rc64. I was surprised to find high end production kitchen knives with the core run that hard. They weren't cheap, but I dig 'em so much I bought another set from Williams Sonoma, Bob Kramer Meija (sp?) series, same blade material.
 
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This is an old thread, I'm glad it was bumped. I think BMs m390 and d2 is as hard as their m4.
 
imaginefj said:
This is an old thread, I'm glad it was bumped. I think BMs m390 and d2 is as hard as their m4.
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their m390 has been pretty consistent at about 60 from what i've read, their d2 is claimed to run up to 62... haven't seen anything about specific testing... but thats about what they run their m4 at.

spyderco seems to run most of their higher end steels above 60... i think their s30v approaches 60 but doesn't surpass it. i know they run their zdp and m4 quite high, higher than benchmade dares to
 
Soul is awfully hard to sharpen and cut with. :p

goodeyesniper said:
M4 because stainless has no soul. and it also separates the men from the boys who get upset that their knife got a bit spotty after they forgot to wipe it down.

Also M4 actually resists staining pretty well compared to most carbon steels I've had :p

if you're just cutting a thousand cardboard boxes a day, s110v will be better. if you want to put a super thin edge on something that is still tough and VERY wear resistant, reach for da SeePeeEm Em-Fo
Click to expand...
 
Rob_Angerer said:
... as a side note, I don't think many production manufacturer's will run any steel (except ZDP-189) past Rc61 as a target, as they just don't want to deal with returns from chipped out blades used improperly. If there are some exceptions out there, please advise.

It seems that a very hard blade from M4 or 110V is the province of the careful, dedicated custom maker who takes heat treating very seriously.

I did buy some nice kitchen knives from Sur La Table, Bob Kramer series, with a stainless damascus clad over SG-4 at Rc64. I was surprised to find high end production kitchen knives with the core run that hard. They weren't cheap, but I dig 'em so much I bought another set from Williams Sonoma, Bob Kramer Meija (sp?) series, same blade material.
Click to expand...

The reason why I bumped this thread was because I had just finished sharpening an S110V Q-36. After getting all the microchips out I went looking for the data sheet on this magnificent super steel. I am no at all impressed its edge stability and wonder if the base for the next super steel should be something like 3V with more vanadium and chromium. The way I use my knives, I prefer toughness over exaggerated wear resistance.

Although I do have a custom in 3V, I don't have enough experience or have made any formal tests as to make assumptions. My experience with M4 made me think that it needed much more chromium to keep the edge stable against corrosive agents.
 
great thread, really enjoyed reading everything! and being an owner of all 3 steels it was an interesting read
 
As long as it's resurrected I'll go ahead and ask what SG4 is?

SG2 = Super Gold ( powder steel) #2 from Takefu http://e-tokko.com/eng_original_list.htm

SGPS = Falkniven's name for Super Gold 1 or 2 core with Gin 2 ( V- GIN 2) (old U2's), or 420J2 as the outer steel in a laminated blade. They used to call the U2 with Super gold and VG2 = SG3. They dropped that and now call it SGPS. If any model now uses Gin 2 instead of 420J2, they make no reference to it.

Can't find SG-4

Joe
 
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