Is the best hard steel knife REX 121?

It seems to me that I read that Spyderco runs their zdp-189 at around 65 rc. That would be a readily available steel for a reasonable price. I like it for some carry knives.
 
Just FYI,

Boehler S290 (also a HSS ) can get to HRC-71-72
CPM REX -HRC 70-71 (maybe more)
Maxamet -HRC-70-72
I dont think that any steel can beat the Boehler in terms of Hardness, just that its not known in the US
But that doesnt make it a good knife steel, nothing comes close to 10V , Boehler K390 for blades (dont know much about 15V)

DST
 
^yeah, someone the other day resurrected an 8 year old post, just continuing the conversation like it never stalled for a decade.
 
Personally I think those make more sense than creating a new thread likely duplicating much of what was in a prior post. At least when they are not just a "do you still have XYZ and can I buy it?" post.
 
JamesQ said:
Interesting to read this old thread, it seems that some of the statements have to be revised.

For example, Rex 121 not taking a fine edge. It seems that it does:

Or steels like Maxamet not being suitable for knives, even the toughness seems to be pretty great:
https://www.spyderco.com/forumII/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=72877
Click to expand...

Well if we're going to resume the discussion...

My impression was that Rex121 and Maxamet are in the same ballpark both for edgeholding and for toughness. Spyderco themselves were not convinced that Maxamet would work out before they brought it out in the mule. It seems that Maxamet has in fact worked out, but is still low on the toughness scale as we have seen people post about breaking those blades. K390 is as far as I've gone in this realm, I wanted an example of Maxamet but then decided I would worry about it too much.
 
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