• The BladeForums.com 2024 Traditional Knife is ready to order! See this thread for details: https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/bladeforums-2024-traditional-knife.2003187/
    Price is $300 $250 ea (shipped within CONUS). If you live outside the US, I will contact you after your order for extra shipping charges.
    Order here: https://www.bladeforums.com/help/2024-traditional/ - Order as many as you like, we have plenty.

  • Today marks the 24th anniversary of 9/11. I pray that this nation does not forget the loss of lives from this horrible event. Yesterday conservative commentator Charlie Kirk was murdered, and I worry about what is to come. Please love one another and your family in these trying times - Spark

Help me pick the right PM2 steel

colubrid

colubrid

Gold Member
Joined
Nov 26, 2005
Messages
5,125
With so many different steels to choose from in the PM2 I decided rather than to study and look them all up I would take the easy route and ask here.

I am looking for the steel that is the most rust resistant and the easiest to sharpen?

If there one steel that is easier to sharpen and it is not as rust resistant, I would like to know which model that is as well.
 
CPM-S35VN (Brown) or CTS-XHP (orange) would probably be the easiest to sharpen, both are stainless. M390 (blue) or CTS-204P (Dark Green) would probably be the most stain resistant, though both would be more difficult to sharpen than the previous two.
 
Where would you even find any of those aside from the brown s35vn? I've seen that one in stock once, none of the others.
 
Well I had my eye on the M390 (blue)but now I don't want it due to the harder to sharpen steel.

I am rough with my knives and would prefer that they sharpen easily after scraping or some other task which would require more work to sharpen than the chore it performed.

So which one of the two is a softer steel. The CPM-S35VN (Brown) or CTS-XHP (orange)? How much easier are these to sharpen than the S30v?



PS
I have the PM2 in S30v and I hate using it because it is to hard to sharpen.
 
With the right equipment none of them are particularly difficult to sharpen. I happen to love Spyderco S30V just fine.
 
uofaengr said:
With the right equipment none of them are particularly difficult to sharpen. I happen to love Spyderco S30V just fine.
Click to expand...


I just use ceramic sticks by Spyderco. If those can't shapen with a few licks then I don't want the steel. This is why I like Spydercos H1 steel so much. I just wish they would make a PM2 in H1 or one of the more popular Spyderco designs in H1.
 
Ceramic will maintain/sharpen any steel. The problem is when you have to rebevel the edge.
 
Converge said:
Where would you even find any of those aside from the brown s35vn? I've seen that one in stock once, none of the others.
Click to expand...

I thought the same thing. I try not to even think of the PM2 sprint runs, as I'll never cough up the ridiculously inflated prices called for on the secondary market.

As far as the best steel, M390 all the way - it's amazing.
 
I've had Para 2s in M390, 204P, and S30V. I've also had a Chaparral in XHP.

In order of easiest to sharpen to hardest to sharpen:

- XHP
- S30V
- M390/204P

Although I must point out that the difference between sharpening all of those steels was very, very slight. S30V isn't that much harder to sharpen than XHP, and M390/204P are just a tad harder to sharpen than S30V. I have a Spyderco UF rod that I use for finishing and I've found that it handles all these steels just fine.

In terms of corrosion resistance, I honestly don't know since I've never had a problem with any of them. That being said, just based on their compositions, I would say that in order of least corrosion resistant to most corrosion resistant:

- XHP/S30V
- M390/204P

I don't think you'd notice a difference between XHP and S30V, and IIRC M390 and 204P were developed with corrosive environments in mind.
 
Why not try new Cubic Boron Nitride Rods for sharpmaker and use any steel you like, the can rebevel (most time consuming task) harder steels just fine , but the fine / ultrafine rods will still take more time on harder steels...
 
I have 5 steels in my pm2 collection. I found the foliage green Elmax to be easiest to touch up. S35vn is also.
 
As a collector and user of the Para series for well, a long time now. The ELMAX version might be a better option at this point. It is fairly painless to sharpen.
 
Well thanks everybody. Lots of great info here and so complete. Thanks to my brothers here at BF!
 
I vote for S30V and use the hell out of it. Some of the limited run stuff, at least for me becomes safe queens. S30V.....wtf, use it.
 
I'm voting for the Elmax version. Easy to sharpen and very corrosion resistant. I love mine!
 
RevDevil said:
As a collector and user of the Para series for well, a long time now. The ELMAX version might be a better option at this point. It is fairly painless to sharpen.
Click to expand...

I think you hit that one right on the head for the OP. My favorite remains the 204P, though. Hard to think of one that's not excellent!
 
I have a Sage 4 in S30V and a Native 5 in S35VN. The S35VN is much easier to sharpen, but also has less edge retention. I don't know how the heat treat varies between those models.

I think you would notice a distinct difference between those steels.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top