Does the name of this steel as marked on the blade affect your decision to buy?

What Knife are you more likely to buy out of these?

  • 1. A knife labeled LC200N.

    Votes: 21 40.4%

  • 2. A knife labeled Cronidur-30.

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • 3. A knife labeled Z-Finit.

    Votes: 3 5.8%

  • 4. They are functionally the same, so it doesn't matter.

    Votes: 20 38.5%

  • 5. None of the above because I don't like that steel.

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • 6. Other (please explain in a post)

    Votes: 8 15.4%
  • Total voters
    52
I just checked the Zapp's site: while the supplier/distributor calls it "Z-FiNit", the manufacturer calls it "LC 200 N". Two names, same stuff. I feel perfectly justified using the more recognizable name, and my conscience is not even troubled to remove the spaces.
 
I chose #1.

I'm a Spyderco fan and I have seen the LC200N name more then the others. I thought Z-Finit was the same, I googled it, and it was (go me :thumbsup:) . Honestly, I had never heard of Cronidur 30 until this post. I had to google that too. Yep, all three are the same steel.

I chose familiarity over name "coolness". Z-Finit is the coolest name of the three.
 
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David Mary said:
I just checked the Zapp's site: while the supplier/distributor calls it "Z-FiNit", the manufacturer calls it "LC 200 N". Two names, same stuff. I feel perfectly justified using the more recognizable name, and my conscience is not even troubled to remove the spaces.
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Fair enough.
 
im more likely to buy something named LC200N because that means its probably from spyderco and im an admitted spydie fanboy.
 
totally unfamiliar with the listed names
going by word association.
lc200n..
Multitool Wiki | Super Tool 200

cronidur30
The Con (TV Series 2020– ) - IMDb

more inclined by z-finit
in-like-flint-b.jpg
 
There was study done aomg time ago, if I can find the article I would lol.

It was about why german car manufacturers name trims and models based off of numbers or alphanumeric. Pretty much what the study talks about is what each culture depicts as cool/attractive.

Asian cars: stylish words and non-words, such as Venza, Sonata, Camry, etc
German car: driving machines such as S550, M4, SQ5, 328xi, etc
America: cool names Raptor, Ranger, Superduty, Hellcat, etc.

There are obviously exceptions to the story, such as Mazda, who names alphanumeric because they want to be more associated with driving performance. Subaru makes the WRX which drifts towards the performance spectrum.

Bringing it back to knives, I think it's a similar deal with your poll, LC200N sounds more "performacy" and as a previous poster mentioned, associated with Spyderco (which Sal commented as named after German performance cars).

Anyway, sorry if I overcomplicated things, my thoughts :)
 
I picked other because I'm not sure if there is any real difference between the manufacturing process with LC200N/Z-FiNit vs Cronidur 30. However, if there is a real difference, it would matter which one I'd pick.

It's similar to the CPM420V/S90V vs CTS-20CP, right? There was real tangible difference between how Crucible makes the steel and how Carpenter makes the same formula. IIRC, Carpenter's version of S90V/420V did end up being finer grain and had less issues with chipping and the polishability was much better. In that situation, I would rather have a knife made with CTS-20CP than S90V/420V.

However, I would more heavily lean towards LC200N/Z-FiNit since knives with this steel is currently more readily available.
 
David Mary said:
I'm just curious about this. The poll question is about a knife made from, and labeled as LC200N, aka Z-Finit, aka Cronidur-30, and assumes all other aspects of the knife are identical. Thanks.

ETA: Only one selection asks to explain, but feel free to share your thoughts regardless of what you vote.
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To answer the thread title, this forum taught me that steel should just be one of your considerations. Other stuff I usually look at are brand reputation, ergonomics, overall fit and finish, blade shape and cross-section, and lock type in the case of folders.

If it’s LC200N in the hands of Spyderco or a trusted custom maker, then awesome.
 
doesn't matter to me. im familiar with lc200n more due to spyderco. that means little other than I pay attention to spydercos more, I guess.

regardless of which, I like knives to be marked with which steel used. as I tend to forget and its great we have the internet to look up what we forget, but if it ever goes down forever we are all screwed.😁
 
Other, because I’m not familiar with any of those steels. However if I found a knife I really liked in that steel I’d do some research.
Assuming those 3 are as equal as m390, 204p and 20CV are (to each other) then it wouldn’t matter to me.
 
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I voted "other".
If there is a carbon steel option. I'll buy the carbon steel version over the same knife in stain less steel.
Other than that, the steel doesn't affect my decision to purchase.
 
For everyone's info - they actually ARE different - according to this (from AKS):

Tbl--Elements.gif
Tbl-Cronidur30.gif
Tbl-ZFiNit.gif


cronidur30 has 1% silicon which is not in z-finit or lc200n, and 0.1% less Nitrogen... so I expect the performance is actually different also

always use the actual name, since, as people have already mentioned, the mfg & process are likely different
& since z-finit is a rename for lc200n (Zapp itself calls it lc200n here: https://www.zapp.com/fileadmin/_doc...teel/special_material/en/LC200N_Datasheet.pdf )

I would use the lc200n name since people are familiar with it, due to spyderco

important note: to get the good performance (higher hardness) out of this stuff you need a subzero liquid nitrogen process, AKS is recommending Peters
 
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