CTS204P - It is just me, or is this steel amazing? Tell me more about it.

kidcongo

kidcongo

Joined
Jan 12, 2013
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3,195
So, finally got around to truly EDC-ing my Southard, meaning walking around with it in my pocket at work and at home and using it for everything under the sun, including some reasonably "hard-use" tasks. I am really, truly impressed with the edge retention on this steel. I would say it equals, or possibly trumps the CPM M4 on my Gayle Bradley. My go-to test these days is cutting a tomato. My wife doesn't let me cut up the notepads any more :D. Anyways.....what the heck? I EDC this knife for two weeks and still slice a tomato? What gives? Is it micro-chipping and thus still cutting like a champ? Needless to say I am impressed.

Anyways.....not a huge amount written about this steel compared to the other Carpenter offerings, just wondering what y'all think, especially if anyone has a different model in this steel (or a different opinion).
 
Yes it is really that good. I keep a coarse edge for my southard and it seems that it never lose its edge and keep cutting and cutting. It's an amazing steel!
 
No user experience with CTS204P steel yet, but i did receive quite a bit of feedback about it from a Dutch forum member for whom i sharpen sometimes.
The man is a scout leader and knows his way around knives.

On August 12, 2014 i sharpened this Spyderco Southard with CTS-204P blade, which had been in use for a few years.
The knife had already been sharpened several times by the owner on stones, plus two times by me on Paper Wheels (once up to 6 micron diamond compound (semi-polish), and once up to 15 micron diamond (bling & bite), the latter performing noticeably longer for the owner)

This time the knife was reprofiled from about 30 degrees inclusive to 25 degrees inclusive with a standard Paper Wheel with 220 grit SiC, then deburred with a second Paper Wheel with 0.25 micron diamond compound.
This produces a polished semi-coarse edge with an aggressive bite, as the knife is going to be used to cut a lot of 10 mm polyprop rope in the coming weeks.
You can click the pics 2 x for a bit more detail.





Update i received from the owner 6 January, 2015:

He had used the tip of the knife to cut open about 50 dusty/dirty cardboard boxes filled with porcelain mugs, and this resulted in blunting that tip to a point that it could only barely cut copy paper.
But according to the owner this was most likely due to the fact that the tip hit the mugs every now & then.

After all 50 boxes were opened & emptied the Southard was used to cut down each box, which he measured to be a total of about 80 meters or 262 feet of cardboard.
Afterwards the edge was still able to easily shave the hair from his legs (except about 15 mm of the tip), and the owner feels that the knife isn't due for a touch-up yet.
He also noticed that the CTS-204P steel holds this edge noticeably longer than the S30V steel in his Spyderco Sage, which he had sharpened himself and used earlier for the same job.
 
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Update i received from the owner on 12 May, 2015:

He informed me that he had managed to damage the edge while forcefully cutting seasoned oak (cutting apart stuck pieces of log that he was splitting with an axe), and in his view the knife needed to be resharpened.
Until the oak cutting he had been using the knife for a host of tasks, among which: to cut quite a lot of sisal and other rope, to whittle sticks, and to remove bark from trees, all without any problems.
When i received the knife and inspected the edge with my loupe i saw both some relatively minor chipping and rolling, but nothing serious that couldn't be fixed with sharpening.

I did not take pics this time, but after removing the old apex i resharpened the edge on my experimental Rubber Wheel coated with 230 grit diamond powder, and removed the tiny burr with a Paper Wheel coated with 0.25 micron diamond compound (polished semi-coarse); aggressive & treetopping sharp.
This time to an edge angle of 30 degrees inclusive again to provide a bit more strength to better stand up to the tasks the owners uses the knife for.
From what i hear the new edge is performing very well again.
 
My edc was a Southard for over a year at work, and it was only used two or three times for light duties. One of the only times I used it, I tried to cut a small zip tie. It completely chipped the factory edge, and is pretty unsightly. Needless to say, I wasn't very impressed, and it's sat in my closet since then. I tried to smooth it out, but I'd have to remove a ton of material to make it look even again.
 
This is the only knife I currently own in this steel, it seems that this steel is not used in a lot of knives besides the Southard and a few sprint runs that I am aware of. This knife has been carried on a couple occasions as a dress knife but it has only seen light and minimal use so far, although I do plan to carry this one more often now, it is a chisel ground model.

 
CTS-204P is Carpenter's equivalent of Bohler's M390 and Duratec 20CV.
It has a hair more tungsten and features very high wear and corrosion resistance.

I have it in other knives and have been pleased with its performance. It's not difficult to sharpen and takes an edge well.
 
kidcongo said:
So, finally got around to truly EDC-ing my Southard, meaning walking around with it in my pocket at work and at home and using it for everything under the sun, including some reasonably "hard-use" tasks. I am really, truly impressed with the edge retention on this steel. I would say it equals, or possibly trumps the CPM M4 on my Gayle Bradley. My go-to test these days is cutting a tomato. My wife doesn't let me cut up the notepads any more :D. Anyways.....what the heck? I EDC this knife for two weeks and still slice a tomato? What gives? Is it micro-chipping and thus still cutting like a champ? Needless to say I am impressed.

Anyways.....not a huge amount written about this steel compared to the other Carpenter offerings, just wondering what y'all think, especially if anyone has a different model in this steel (or a different opinion).
Click to expand...
Lmao. My wife yells at me all the time when she finds cut up notepads or God forbid scrap mail on the table which are really receipts that we need to file a way for our records!
 
kwackster said:
No user experience with CTS204P steel yet, but i did receive quite a bit of feedback about it from a Dutch forum member for whom i sharpen sometimes.
The man is a scout leader and knows his way around knives.

On August 12, 2014 i sharpened this Spyderco Southard with CTS-204P blade, which had been in use for a few years.
The knife had already been sharpened several times by the owner on stones, plus two times by me on Paper Wheels (once up to 6 micron diamond compound (semi-polish), and once up to 15 micron diamond (bling & bite), the latter performing noticeably longer for the owner)

This time the knife was reprofiled from about 30 degrees inclusive to 25 degrees inclusive with a standard Paper Wheel with 220 grit SiC, then deburred with a second Paper Wheel with 0.25 micron diamond compound.
This produces a polished semi-coarse edge with an aggressive bite, as the knife is going to be used to cut a lot of 10 mm polyprop rope in the coming weeks.
You can click the pics 2 x for a bit more detail.





Update i received from the owner 6 January, 2015:

He had used the tip of the knife to cut open about 50 dusty/dirty cardboard boxes filled with porcelain mugs, and this resulted in blunting that tip to a point that it could only barely cut copy paper.
But according to the owner this was most likely due to the fact that the tip hit the mugs every now & then.

After all 50 boxes were opened & emptied the Southard was used to cut down each box, which he measured to be a total of about 80 meters or 262 feet of cardboard.
Afterwards the edge was still able to easily shave the hair from his legs (except about 15 mm of the tip), and the owner feels that the knife isn't due for a touch-up yet.
He also noticed that the CTS-204P steel holds this edge noticeably longer than the S30V steel in his Spyderco Sage, which he had sharpened himself and used earlier for the same job.
Click to expand...

262 feet of cardboard and still shaving hair? How is that possible?

I broke down 2-3 boxes of cardboard with my ZDP-189 Dragonfly when it was brand new and it would barely shave hair after that.
 
ejames13 said:
262 feet of cardboard and still shaving hair? How is that possible?

I broke down 2-3 boxes of cardboard with my ZDP-189 Dragonfly when it was brand new and it would barely shave hair after that.
Click to expand...

Well, maybe this steel is amazing? I dunno. I'm starting to think it might be a "sleeper". Starting to eye those PM2s in CTS 204P. Anyone rocking that sprint run in the PM2?
 
I am rocking that 204p PM2 today:

20150502_135532-small_zpsdbocdg6g.jpg
 
Brock O Lee said:
I am rocking that 204p PM2 today:

20150502_135532-small_zpsdbocdg6g.jpg
Click to expand...

You like taunting me with my grail knife? :p



CTS-204p is considered the most well rounded super steel. Its very stainless, wear resistant, but also takes a keen thin polished edge, and is acceptably tough. It typically scores higher than all production steels but s90v, s110v, and 10v in edge retention tests, but, is tougher and easier to sharpen.
 
SBaker34 said:
You like taunting me with my grail knife? :p



CTS-204p is considered the most well rounded super steel. Its very stainless, wear resistant, but also takes a keen thin polished edge, and is acceptably tough. It typically scores higher than all production steels but s90v, s110v, and 10v in edge retention tests, but, is tougher and easier to sharpen.
Click to expand...

Totally! Love this steel. I prefer it vastly to s110v.
 
I little bump for a short discussion about my favourite steel. I don't know if my Southard is an anomaly, but the edge retention this knife has continues to impress me. It's just a great thing. CTS204P!!

Is there any drawbacks?
 
ejames13 said:
262 feet of cardboard and still shaving hair? How is that possible?

I broke down 2-3 boxes of cardboard with my ZDP-189 Dragonfly when it was brand new and it would barely shave hair after that.
Click to expand...

You need to sharpen a brand-new knife at least a few times before you get down to the steel that will be indicative of how that knife performs. There are a lot of things that can come into play with a brand new edge that will appear to make the steel perform less than what you would expect . Again , most often , those issues disappear with just a few sharpenings.
 
on_the_edge said:
You need to sharpen a brand-new knife at least a few times before you get down to the steel that will be indicative of how that knife performs. There are a lot of things that can come into play with a brand new edge that will appear to make the steel perform less than what you would expect . Again , most often , those issues disappear with just a few sharpenings.
Click to expand...

My worst case of this so far is a recently aquired s30v blade.
I could/can literally hear, and feel the edge breaking away as I sharpened it on clean diamond benchstones. It's still not completely right, but much better than it started.
 
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