How good is Benchmade's S30V compared to their harder-rated D2 and 154CM?

By the way I've always thought of SG2 steel as a sort of souped up BG42, rather than a S30V. They are certainly excellent steels in my eyes.
 
I like BM's S30V even though it seems a bit softer it takes the best edge (highest polish).
I find very little difference between spyderco and benchmade S30V but spyderco seems to have the slight advantage with edge retention. Kershaws S30V seems to be the hardest of the bunch but this does not make it the best, it makes it very hard to sharpen probably 2x more time needed than the others. You would think this would be a plus side for edge retention but its not, I actually find spyderco and benchmade's S30V to outperform kershaws.

Harder is not always better.
 
rockwell hardness is always a major factor. Why choose a steel with a certain carbide volume, but lower practical strength range over one with a higher attainable hardness with comparable carbide fraction? Why use a steel with X impact toughness at Y hardness, when you can use one with X toughness at Y + 2 (or more) hardness? Other than being cheaper, or just plain being the only option in a knife you want, there is no benefit I can see in choosing a softer steel if there is another that gets harder and remains as tough. Who wants S60V at 56 over S90V at 58 (which is still tougher)? Who wants A2 at 60 over 3V at 62?
 
The Mastiff said:
The scratching on the U2 comes from the soft 420J cladding ( VG2 on the other SG blades they make, which is why it's called 3G instead of "SGPS" like on the U2). VG2+ SG1 = 3G ( maybe SG2, they are close. Falkniven doesn't say which super gold they use do they? They call it SPGS=Super Gold Powder Steel) Takefu steel catalog: http://www.e-tokko.com/eng_original_list.htm
Click to expand...

Yeah scratching has been an issue with 420J cladded blades. In the future I am going to only buy single-steel blades.

I don't notice much difference between using S30V@60 rc and SGPS/3G steel in edge retention. Both steels get a little chippy (or are they dents?) at 11 degrees per side though. These steels really need 13 degrees per side.

Bottom line, S30V is NOT a stainless version of 3V. Toughness is not even close. It should also be called S40V because it has 4% vanadium.
 
Bierkameel said:
I just noticed that Chris Reeve also hardens the S30V to 58HRC and they don't make crappy knives.
Click to expand...

You mean the steel used in the Sebenza? For sure it is a very good knife. My Dozier D2 runs circles around it in terms of edge retention though.
 
cotdt said:
Considering that S30V has nearly the same composition as SGPS, both being powder steels, with SGPS having finer grain structure and higher edge stability, I find it hard to beleive that S30V beats out the SGPS for cutting purposes. I never used Benchmade's S30V but I remain skeptical based on my past experience with soft knives.

QUOTE]

I have observed that my S30V knives definitely outperform my one knife with SGPS. A while back I did a head to head comparison of several S30V blades from Spyderco, Buck, and Benchmade, an SGPS from Fallkniven (U2), Dozier D2, S90V (Millie), and A2 (Bark River). I compared edgeholding in cardboard and sisal. The overall winner was the S90V Millie; among the S30V blades, the Buck and Spyderco were a little better than the Benchmade. But the real surprise for me was that the SGPS (U2) was not even in the same class as the S30V blades I have. I was surprised and disappointed with the performace of the U2, I expected more from it.

Not everyone does their S30V at Rc 58. Spyderco and Chris Reeve claim 58-59, and Benchmade says 58-60. Buck is either 59.5-60 (per Paul Bos) or 60-60.5 (per Chuck Buck, more recently).
Click to expand...
 
I have Benchmade knives in both D-2 (710 D-2) and S30V (610 Rukus)

The S30V seems to take a finer edge, by a very slight margin and the D-2 seems to hold it's edge better, again by a very slight margin.

In practical use, I'm not sure there's much difference.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top