Decided on a PM2, now what steel

I bought into the hype as well, and it ended up being frustrating and disappointing. While many have mastered the fancy steels, I'm just as happy with a steel I can handle.
 
If you watch the exchange forum so that it sends you alerts and emails I'm sure you can catch a s30v pm2 there.
Good luck and let's us know what you end up with.
 
They're all good, but I'd recommend the S110V.
Stainless and good edge retention, cheap.
I've got most of the blurple sypderco's and no regrets.
 
Tarheelpwr said:
lol, the red M390 lasted 2 min.
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The dlt m390 ones are really hot right now. Don't get discouraged you'll find one you'll be happy with. I check the exchange a few times a day, if you want I'll let you know if I see one . Idk if you can get pm's with your membership so I'll post here in your thread.
Just let me know, id be happy to help you hunt.
 
Sonnydaze said:
Yep, it's supply and demand...be really careful. Emotions run hot.
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More true words never spoken. Think with the big head, and leave the little head and the heart out of it. I've screwed up this excellent advice way too often.
 
PWatkins said:
The dlt m390 ones are really hot right now. Don't get discouraged you'll find one you'll be happy with. I check the exchange a few times a day, if you want I'll let you know if I see one . Idk if you can get pm's with your membership so I'll post here in your thread.
Just let me know, id be happy to help you hunt.
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I appreciate the offer, but that’s not necessary. I’ll find one when it’s meant to be. I’m going to grab an S30 most likely and hope DLT gets more.
 
I bought one in 52100 and like farmboy said it is a razor blade! I put Tuff-glide on the blade and it acts just like any other stainless. Easy to sharpen to. I would like to try M390 also. I kinda feel like S110V is to much of a good thing. I have never owned a knife in this steel so what do I know? Lol
 
Personally, I'm an S110V fan. I've had PM2s with several other steels, but this is my favorite to date.

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Razor said:
I bought one in 52100 and like farmboy said it is a razor blade! I put Tuff-glide on the blade and it acts just like any other stainless. Easy to sharpen to. I would like to try M390 also. I kinda feel like S110V is to much of a good thing. I have never owned a knife in this steel so what do I know? Lol
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52100 and Carbon Steel’s have me very intrigued. How rust prone are they in real life? Am I unnecessarily overlooking them?

Anyone who has one, how much maintenance do they REALLY require? If you slipped on that routine, how long until rust formed?

Is Tuff-glide easily user applied, or does that have to be farmed out at additional cost?
 
Most all my knives are non stainless. Unless I'm at the coast or in some other corrosive environment, I rarely see rust.
Steels like 1095, 52100, W2, etc will rust quick if subject to the right environment, but won't hurt anything unless it's left there for days or weeks before being cleaned up.

You should get in the habit of wiping blades to keep crud from accumulating, stainless or not.
cpm-m4, hap40, m2 needs less attention. Then there's cruwear, 3v, D2 types that require even less attention, then there's supposedly stainless (13%+ cr). There's different levels of stainless depending on amount of cr, heat treat, and other ingredients.

If you're always in a corrosive environment and the knife is left unused for days or more, I might prefer stainless, otherwise it's just a matter of attention.
 
I think there's a misconception about high carbon steel, in that it won't rust like an unfinished framing nail left in the rain. And that's especially true of nearly any knife owned by nearly any member here. We all just care enough about our stuff to not let it turn to shit.

It's really more about staining than anything else, and that process is so gradual that by the time your blade has a full on patina, you'll be too attached to let it go anyway. Cutting food, especially acidic foods, will hasten the process, but if you wipe your blade down after you're done cutting food, and keep it dry, it may not ever rust.
 
When you sharpen and reprofile yourself you will understand why many of us are very biased towards certain metals that we like to work on. I am with M390 all day, 204p and 20cv are the pretty much the same but are from different companies. Second best in my book is S35VN. very good steel and not to hard to sharpen, it all depends on heat treat.. I find S110, S90 are great steels but hard to sharpen like many other metals.
Their is a company that is taking pre-orders for an M390 and it is due Feb. 28th. I don't know if they are a preferred vendor or not so I can't mention their name but the scales are a bright blue and the name sounds Japanese. If not the S35 is a great second.
I have 6 PM2's in different steels to choose from. I used to use my S110 alot but stopped when I started doing my own sharpening. I really liked it because of the Scale color. What I did was take the scales off the S110 and swapped them with the S35 w/Tan scales. depending on what I am going to do I will use either the S30V with custom CF scales or the S35 w/ the Blurple scales. They are both great but they are not as good as m390. I have heard about and own a knife in Cruwwear. I'm not sure what it is like but I've heard It's pretty good.
Lets recap:
#1 M390 and it's counterparts (20CV and I forgot the other one I think it's 204P)
#2 S35
#3 CTS-XHP
#4 S30V
Now that I have discussed the steels that I like I will mention my favorite knife for real work, it's the Gayle Bradley 2 in M4. as Nick Shabazz says," it's a gem"
.
 
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M390, Cru-Wear, Elmax, XHP. All are GREAT all around steels. M4 if you don't need stainless.
Not a fan of S110V, but everyone likes different characteristics in steel.
 
emjay4248 said:
When you sharpen and reprofile yourself you will understand why many of us are very biased towards certain metals that we like to work on. I am with M390 all day, 204p and 20cv are the pretty much the same but are from different companies. Second best in my book is S35VN. very good steel and not to hard to sharpen, it all depends on heat treat.. I
Lets recap:
#1 M390 and it's counterparts (20CV and I forgot the other one I think it's 204P)
#2 S35
#3 CTS-XHP
#4 S30V
Now that I have discussed the steels that I like I will mention my favorite knife for real work, it's the Gayle Bradley 2 in M4. as Nick Shabazz says," it's a gem"
.
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Is it safe to say you classify M390 in the same league as far as relative ease to service yourself as s30/s35/XHP, it is there a noticeable jump in difficulty?
 
Tarheelpwr said:
Is it safe to say you classify M390 in the same league as far as relative ease to service yourself as s30/s35/XHP, it is there a noticeable jump in difficulty?
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The reason it is such a great steel is that it is easier to sharpen than S30/35. I was amazed. I actually called Bradford to make sure it was M390 and I described it to them and they confirmed it. I have 3 knives with M390 and they all behave the same. So my experience with the 3 metals I discussed earlier M390/20CV/CTS204P) are amazing metals that I believe will be around for a while and as time goes by will come down in price so we will see it on more knives.
 
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