How blade steel affects your buying

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Gary W. Graley said:
I was going to do a poll of different steels listed for you guys and gals to click and select, but, far too many to list and the Polling software limited that, so you can just post the ones you favour and if you want, the ones you avoid.

Seems every year we get a new flavour of steel that takes off and is suddenly the one everyone 'needs' or rather 'wants'. Take S45vn for instance, probably one of the shortest lived ones out there, I know some folks will favour it and that's good too.

Myself I like stainless steels, but I do like how the CPM3v takes an edge, just need to keep it cleaned after using. I have one knife in Magnacut, more a small leather working knife so it doesn't see any EDC type of work so I can't judge or compare its benefits to other steels.

But many years ago, 440C was touted and used by a lot of custom makers, as was ATS-34. Then BG-42 took the scene but I don't think it made as much improvement over the ATS-34, just a new version for us steel snobs to set our sights on ;)

So, lets hear if you have a preference for a particular steel, I'm still looking to get one in Magnacut to try out and hopefully soon, but it made me think of this scene from Jaws...

Untitled by GaryWGraley, on Flickr

:)

G2
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Don't have a favorite. I prefer stainless over non-stainless or semi-stainless (D2).

As long as the steel is appropriate for the intended use, I'm pretty much OK with it.

I generally like using steels containing carbides for pocket knife blades and hunting knives. And I agree with using non-carbide containing stainless steels for choppers and hard use knives. But there are so many alloys which do a "good enough" job that I'm usually much more interested in the ergonomics and blade profile than I am in the exact alloy being used.

But I have been known to buy a knife just because it was made using a blade steel I had never used.
 
I have the Norwegian classic Helle Temagami Carbon (they keep the steel type a secret). I think it's a classic hunting knife and the patina bothers me. I also have Condor 1075, Buck 5160, Buck 110 420HC, Helle Nying (I don't know the steel grade) and Elmax, which I recently bought. But I put 5160 and Elmax in a separate place. 5160 has never let me down. If it is Elmax, let's see, time will tell.
 
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Ok, confession time - blade material just affected a buying decision. I just ordered a Buck Sprint Pro, the newest version with S45VN steel and marble CF handle. I could have gone cheaper with the S30V and micarta handles; but I already have two with S30V, and while I was looking for S35VN in my next knife, I couldn’t thumb my nose at its arguably better successor; and I greatly prefer CF to micarta. But it was the blade steel combined with the form factor that got me hooked on this specific knife. GUILTY. 😬
 
My woods knives are typically O1. My main kitchen knife, a Matt Paul K-tip, is 1095 - and the heat treat is so good that I have sharpened it twice in three years (it does get stropped). I have a great little discontinued CRKT folding skinner in 12c27 that lives in my hunting stuff. Benchmade's Griptilian in 154cm was my favorite work/utility/beater ever. it's a shame they went over to s30v for their grips, because I would trade one in s30v for 154cm any day. I still don't know the difference between m390 and 20cv, if there is any.

I might be in the minority here, in that some supersteel I've never heard of will turn me off of a purchase, because I know I'll be paying a premium for a performance bump I don't need. I simply don't care if something can outperform what I've got, or what I'm used to, because what I've got works just fine. Design, ergos, and a handle that works are waaaayyy more important to me than uber-tough CPM whatever. I like sharpening, and I'll do it as often as necessary on a knife I like.
The stuff I've got works, and fits my hands, and it shows age and patina and dings and knicks and I like that too.

Having said that, I've got a new knife on the way today!


edited for clarity
 
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I think the only time when blade steel made a difference to me was when I picked a Rat I in D2 over AUS8.

For me, I'm much more interested in the model or pattern of the knife, the handle material, the blade style and length. Those are the factors that drive my purchases way more than the type of steel. Once I've selected all of those, most of the time the knife only comes in one kind of steel anyway, so it's not even a choice.

At some point, I'll probably grab a knife in M390 or some other super steel just to check it out, but I'm not even close to doing that yet.

Mark
 
Danny Linguini said:
Ok, confession time - blade material just affected a buying decision. I just ordered a Buck Sprint Pro, the newest version with S45VN steel and marble CF handle. I could have gone cheaper with the S30V and micarta handles; but I already have two with S30V, and while I was looking for S35VN in my next knife, I couldn’t thumb my nose at its arguably better successor; and I greatly prefer CF to micarta. But it was the blade steel combined with the form factor that got me hooked on this specific knife. GUILTY. 😬
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I bought a Carothers Performance Knives Kephart in their D3V on Monday. Three reasons:
1, The outstanding response the company gave in public to a reported problem.
2, I'd like to see their product first hand and try to understand what drives the demand for and loyalty to their knives.
3, I want to see what that steel is like.

So, I'm backpedaling from it doesn't drive my purchase decisions to it depends.
 
Ratatoskr said:
My woods knives are typically O1. My main kitchen knife, a Matt Paul K-tip, is 1095 - and the heat treat is so good that I have sharpened it twice in three years (it does get stropped). I have a great little discontinued CRKT folding skinner in 12c27 that lives in my hunting stuff. Benchmade's Griptilian in 154cm was my favorite work/utility/beater ever. it's a shame they went over to s30v for their grips, because I would trade one in s30v for 154cm any day. I still don't know the difference between m390 and 20cv, if there is any.

I might be in the minority here, in that some supersteel I've never heard of will turn me off of a purchase, because I know I'll be paying a premium for a performance bump I don't need. I simply don't care if something can outperform what I've got, or what I'm used to, because what I've got works just fine. Design, ergos, and a handle that works are waaaayyy more important to me than uber-tough CPM whatever. I like sharpening, and I'll do it as often as necessary on a knife I like.
The stuff I've got works, and fits my hands, and it shows age and patina and dings and knicks and I like that too.

Having said that, I've got a new knife on the way today!


edited for clarity
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This Buck I just ordered, the design and ergos were definitely the first criteria that attracted me to the model. But they have several versions, and I picked the one I did mostly for the steel. But I’m with you, I don’t need the latest and greatest super steel; but if something better than ‘good’ is available, I’ll take it.

penguin9 said:
I think the only time when blade steel made a difference to me was when I picked a Rat I in D2 over AUS8.

For me, I'm much more interested in the model or pattern of the knife, the handle material, the blade style and length. Those are the factors that drive my purchases way more than the type of steel. Once I've selected all of those, most of the time the knife only comes in one kind of steel anyway, so it's not even a choice.

At some point, I'll probably grab a knife in M390 or some other super steel just to check it out, but I'm not even close to doing that yet.

Mark
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I do have one knife with M390 that wasn’t the deciding factor. The design is what grabbed me most, but the fact that it has that nice steel just sealed the deal. If it was junk steel, I’d have passed. I’d have been good with a CPM-154 or something similar, but M390 was icing on the cake in this case.
 
Boattale said:
I bought a Carothers Performance Knives Kephart in their D3V on Monday. Three reasons:
1, The outstanding response the company gave in public to a reported problem.
2, I'd like to see their product first hand and try to understand what drives the demand for and loyalty to their knives.
3, I want to see what that steel is like.

So, I'm backpedaling from it doesn't drive my purchase decisions to it depends.
Click to expand...
I think ‘it depends’ is probably the answer in most cases. For me, a bunch of other factors come first. When it comes to the steel, it’s ‘yes’ insofar as I don’t want garbage, but I also don’t have to have whatever they’re calling the ‘best’ particle cocktail this week. I just want good steel that #1, I can put a hair-splitting edge on, and #2, can reasonably hold that edge without chipping for the menial tasks I’ll put it through. I don’t mind sharpening, in fact I kinda like giving my knives that bit of TLC, but I also don’t want them turning into butter knives at the first sign of harder use. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it. :)
 
Ratatoskr said:
All other factors being equal, do you think you could tell which steel was which, if you had all the versions to play with?
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In actual use, probably not. Although I do have a couple of cheapos with garbage blades that don’t cut worth a crap, so I can easily tell those from the rest. For sharpening, I think so … to a point. I can definitely feel the difference sharpening my S30V blades vs the other steels like 8Cr13MoV, CPM-145, and whatever magical stuff Vic makes their SAK blades out of.
 
Danny Linguini said:
In actual use, probably not. Although I do have a couple of cheapos with garbage blades that don’t cut worth a crap, so I can easily tell those from the rest. For sharpening, I think so … to a point. I can definitely feel the difference sharpening my S30V blades vs the other steels like 8Cr13MoV, CPM-145, and whatever magical stuff Vic makes their SAK blades out of.
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Yeah, on stones I bet you'd notice a whole lot more drag on some of them. I'm happy with the basics, I couldn't tell the difference anyway, unless someone told me.
 
Gary W. Graley said:
Curiosity does drive us to splurge sometimes, but, having that 'want to' is I think a great thing, costly at times ;) but steel great...see what I did there lol
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I will continue to report on service of reasonably thinned Magnacut HRC 61 rebladed 940, comparing it to a 940 equally thinned out s20v, which I love like their 710 and 810 m390. For myself, the floor is s30v properly prepared, for family and friend adults 154CM, VG10, 14C28N, ETC. With all that said, I tried a Trapperlock because of the wood handles in 420HC, and took 9 stitches from 440C a couple or 3 years ago, which I like, along with properly prepared D2.
 
Danny Linguini said:
Ok, confession time - blade material just affected a buying decision. I just ordered a Buck Sprint Pro, the newest version with S45VN steel and marble CF handle. I could have gone cheaper with the S30V and micarta handles; but I already have two with S30V, and while I was looking for S35VN in my next knife, I couldn’t thumb my nose at its arguably better successor; and I greatly prefer CF to micarta. But it was the blade steel combined with the form factor that got me hooked on this specific knife. GUILTY. 😬
Click to expand...

I still haven't tried S45VN. With Larrin's heat treatment, he gives it the same ratings as Elmax. I'm generally a fan of Elmax.
 
I wanted to have a broad variety of higher end steels in my collection so it wasn’t always what is the best steel this model comes in as much as it was what steel don’t I have yet. As long as it was considered one of the “super steels” I didn’t put too much thought into it. That said, now that I have a decent collection, I’m probably focused more on the really elite steels. I yet to have something in Magnacut so that’s something I’m watching for. The cheaper heavy use knives I have for cutting up cardboard and stuff I didn’t care too much about the steel at all. Kind of backwards I know.
 
Boattale said:
I bought a Carothers Performance Knives Kephart in their D3V on Monday. Three reasons:
1, The outstanding response the company gave in public to a reported problem.
2, I'd like to see their product first hand and try to understand what drives the demand for and loyalty to their knives.
3, I want to see what that steel is like.

So, I'm backpedaling from it doesn't drive my purchase decisions to it depends.
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The steel, ergos and science Nathan puts behind his product is second to none. He and his wife (Jo) also regularly and actively participate with their customer base. 2 major pluses for me.

Also a huge fan of Busse and Kin knives. Jerry is a great guy and also participates with his customers as well. I actually couldn’t just choose one. It’s either both or none.
 
There is a real fear about using a knife that arrives with a sharp edge, that once it looses its initial sharpness that you can not get it back to the original keeness. While that isn’t an issue for some, there’s a larger group that just don’t have the knack to do it. So I think part of the ultimate steel search is driven by that fear.

There’s a lot of people on Bladeforums that can get your knife back in shape, and many that are willing to help/teach you to succeed in maintaining your blades

G2
 
Gary W. Graley said:
There is a real fear about using a knife that arrives with a sharp edge, that once it looses its initial sharpness that you can not get it back to the original keeness. While that isn’t an issue for some, there’s a larger group that just don’t have the knack to do it. So I think part of the ultimate steel search is driven by that fear.

There’s a lot of people on Bladeforums that can get your knife back in shape, and many that are willing to help/teach you to succeed in maintaining your blades

G2
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As much as I love getting a truly sharp knife in the mail, honesty compels me to state that a 20 year plus user with a superb edge from my bench excites me even more.
I am sure I am not alone.
 
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