EDC XIII Which knife or knives are you carrying today?

Thorgrim Thorgrim regarding your question about a steel comparable to Cruwear …
I think Maxamet might be close, but rather than throw you a fish, here’s a link to a listing and analysis of various steels.
I think it’s a couple years old but it’s still a pretty good reference … scroll down past the descriptions of steel characteristics, and it lists the various steels, and how they are rated.

www.bladehq.com

Knife Steel Guide - Knife Life

In its most basic form, steel is just iron and carbon, but people have been studying, experimenting with, and perfecting steel with other elements for specific applications for millennia. The study of steel is now so complex and nuanced that one can acquire a graduate degree in the subject and...
www.bladehq.com www.bladehq.com

I also sent you a PM, but I thought others might benefit from this as well …

Hope it helps.

~ Paul
 
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Thorgrim said:
Same ol' same ol', the PM2 CruCarta. It's starting to darken from skin oils so it isn't as pretty as when I got it, but the wear is slowly changing the scales in a favorable manner. I may still buy a Maxamet knife just "because", but for the first time in my adult life I'm becoming a "one knife" kind of guy. Of course, I keep a Matriach in my Jeep for when I have to go some place that doesn't allow guns, but this knife just keeps on keepin' on.

I bought the Cruwear because every source I could find marked it as a "balanced" steel, with roughly equal points for ease of sharpening, ability to hold an edge, rust resistance, and resistance to breaking. Someone here mentioned a different steel that was all of that but more - if you remember or know that please PM me as I've forgotten it (maybe S90V?). I'm old and on meds, and some of the meds I have to take to remain upright, jitter-free and alive are hard on the short-term memory), and thus my memory is shit. I can tell you almost everything that happened in my life up to about 2007, but the rest is hazy at best. If you give me enough time I might remember some of the rest, but that knife steel, it "plumb evades me", as Jimmy Buffet sang in "God's Own Drunk" (to be clear, alcohol isn't one of my problems, it's all the pain and neurological shit. I've badly abused my body and that's all coming home to rest thanks to two particularly nasty forms of arthritis).

Enough of my shit, does anyone know the steel? I'm unusually attached to the PM2 but a larger knife would be fine (I have trouble with the Spyderco's like the Endura with the tapering tail, I like the more square tail of the PM2 and the compression lock. I'd love to have a new model Spyderco Military that's drilled and tapped for four positions instead of two (so I can carry point-up), but it would have to be Cruwear or a better steel for me to buy one at current prices.
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Based upon what you described looking for, I think MagnaCut would fill those wants and needs nicely. But Spyderco has yet to produce knives in MagnaCut as far as I'm aware. I don't know anything else that would fit that particular bill and have ease of sharpening as Cruwear. S110 and Maxamet both offer better edge retention and corrosion resistance but will be a lot harder to sharpen from what everyone describes. Not many things will be as tough as Cruwear though, but kind of unnecessary in a folder in my opinion. K390 has better edge retention but not as corrosion resistant as CruWear, I don't understand why Spyderco only makes certain models in particular steels but not others. They do offer more variety than most and I like that about Spyderco, wish they would use S390 and MagnaCut. I think S390 can give 15v a run for it's money. Although its high speed tool steel so it's in its own category but does well up to 68-70 hrc. Only a few Russian knife makers are experimenting with this stuff from what I've seen. I think M398 would offer close to ease of sharpening as CruWear (better edge retention) but nowhere near as tough or corrosion resistant. How tough does a folder need to be really? A CruWear blade will survive a drop to the ground most knives would suffer greatly from, so it has that going for it. S90v definitely has the better edge retention and corrosive resistance but will be a lot harder to sharpen. I think guys prefer S90v over S110 for it being slightly easier to sharpen and is definitely tougher. Most of us don't need a super stainless knife blade for every day use, unless your climate calls for it, don't see the importance if the blade is well taken care of.
 
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