GB42 or S90V

[ryosuke]

I have a question about Spyderco military. I can choose from two steels. Which one is harder to find? I mean more rare?

 

[MORIMOTOM]

bg42?

i see far more s90v millies available than bg42 millies. both were sprint runs, but the bg42 was a few years ago, or a couple, not sure.

but the s90v was very recent, so there are still many retailers that still have them in stock.

 

[orthogonal1]

Look a few years down the road and both should be equally rare.

Which will be worth more? Who can guess.

 

[brj]

Which one is harder to find? I mean more rare?

I guess that would be the BG42 one, since it seems that BG42 is scarce / expensive enough to keep companies / makers away from it
on the other hand, the S90V is also a landmark, being the first production folder made in s90v
just pick both... that's what I did

 

[The Mastiff]

They are both excellent, but slightly different premium stainless steels. BG42 is a stainless high speed steel primarily used for ball bearings. It's known for it's cleanness, and costlyness.

S90V is a stainless tool steel known for wear resistance due to it's large amount of very hard vanadium carbides. Also expensive, and untill now rare in production knives. ( Microtech is the only other, with two small runs of S90V Socom Elites.)

Both are very high quality millies, with excellent feeling carbon fibre scales. I believe the pick is a can't lose one.

Diamond sharpening stones really help when sharpening both, but are especially helpfull for S90V, with it's huge wear resistance.

Not sure about final totals of made in each run. I'd guess that were more likely to see S90V, and other crucible products in the future as they are easier and faster to order in the quantity neded by knife companies. BG42 takes over a year to recieve the order now, which makes it tougher for knife companies planning production.

Good luck, but you can't miss either way. Get both if you can. Joe

 

[brj]

Microtech is the only other, with two small runs of S90V Socom Elites

I didn't know that, thanks Joe

 

[The Mastiff]

No problem. Glad to help. One's on the board actually. Joe

 

[AMRaider]

All else being equal, S90V will likely have superior wear resistance to BG42. BG42 generally is tempered to a higher hardness (from what I have seen) so it will have better edge retention. In the case of the Spyderco Military, I cannot say for sure since I don't know the hardness of each version. BG42 will have better hot hardness than S90V (as a bearing steel, BG42 was designed specifically with this in mind); I can't really think of any situation where this would apply to a knife user though. Afterall, if the blade is that hot, it is more than likely that the handle will be too hot to hold on to. Cheers.