laminated vg-10 or s30v

D

DL Robin

Joined
Dec 1, 2007
Messages
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Interested in feedback regarding the above steels. I am in market for 4-4.5" fixed blade. Want s/t stainless or semi stainless that will take a beating and am able to sharpen in field conditions (using diamond stone or field strop).
Considering ZT 0121 or Fallkniven F1
Thanks
 
The ZT's recurve might give you trouble if you're only carrying a flat stone and not some kind of rounded rod. I'm also not sure how comfortable I'd be giving an blade S30V a "beating." Plus, the ZT is kind of a brick.

I'd go with the F1.
 
A lot of folks like S30V, but I don't. I've had really bad luck with it having poor edge holding. On the other hand, I've never had bad luck with VG 10, it's one of my favorite steels, and Fallknivens are very good quality.
 
Have a look at Bark River knives... A2 is rust resistant with about 5% chrome, very tough (as heat treated by BR), easy to field sharpen...
 
DL Robin said:
Interested in feedback regarding the above steels. I am in market for 4-4.5" fixed blade. Want s/t stainless or semi stainless that will take a beating and am able to sharpen in field conditions (using diamond stone or field strop).
Considering ZT 0121 or Fallkniven F1
Thanks
Click to expand...
F-1 in vg-10 any day.
 
I like both VG10 and S30V.

I'd take the Fallkniven F1 over the ZT 121. For a fixed blade I don't want a recurve.
 
I just got an Al Mar SERE Operator SRO-V w/VG10 blade and linen micarta slabs. I'm pretty impressed with it and it's absolutely scalpel sharp. It'll be my new hunting fixed blade from now on. A little pricey though, but in the same price class as these others. I considered it over the Spyderco Temperence 2 and F1. They were all close competitors for what I wanted and I liked the nylon sheath with the Al Mar.
 
+1 on Fallkniven F1...

I own a few Fallknivens. Quality, built to last a lifetime, easy to sharpen, hold a wicked edge.

JRE industries sells some nice custom handled F1 varieties plus sheaths...

You can't go wrong.:thumbup:
 
VG-10 for me, anytime. easy to sharpen and takes a really sharp edge.
 
The two steels are close enough in overall performance that the choice between them is really trivial. One advantage of the laminated blade is that it will take less work to sharpen because the hard part is thinner. Other than that, I would make the selection based on other criteria than the type of steel.
 
VG-10 is Japaneese while S30V is American cutlery steel. Knivesshipfree.com has the F1 blades handled by Bark River and sheathed by Sharpshooter, making it a US made product with an imported blade, if that's important to you. Nice handles and sheath - beat the heck out of rubber and nylon.

I personally love S30V - but it isn't all created equally. Benchmade and especially Buck, with their Paul Bos heat treating, do a great job with it. My BM 610 Rukus is a handful of 4.25" x .150" S30V blade - and my BM 630 Skirmish's 4.3" x .160" recurve blade of S30V is even more so, despite it's Ti handle. Both are armhair poppers and seem to stay that way. The Cabela's 'Alaskan Guide' Buck 110 is a Paul Bos S30V bladed knife at a decent price - that comes as a shaver. My AG Buck 192 is still a shaver, too, as is the #347 Vantage Pro. My Spydie Native in S30V was an EDC, where it cut everything, for a year before I introduced it to the Sharpmaker. Even my Gerber Stag/S30V is a hair-popping keeper. My S30V experiences have been great.

My only VG-10 bladed knife is a Kershaw #1993-2 'Gentleman's Folder', which mainly rides the pocket on Sundays. Still a hair popper, it was a razor... and only openned a little mail that I remember. Cute knife, however. Not a fair test of VG-10 - and since I haven't chopped/battoned with S30V, either, perhaps the Jury is still out there, too. Still, I'll stay with S30V...

Stainz
 
I've yet to own a Fallkniven fixed blade with laminated VG-10. But there are 2 of them ranking very high on my want list. As good as Spyderco's VG-10 blades are I have no doubt that Fallkniven's laminated VG-10 is probably an excellent hard user blade. The 2 guys I know personally that do own Fallkniven VG-10 blades really talk highly of them.

The funny thing about S30V is that I personally don't think it's better than it's predecessor 440V ( S60V). I'm currently carrying an older Spyderco Native with 440V and it holds an edge better than any of the S30V blades I tried out. And I'm a fanatic about Crucible's super blade steels. But I personally don't think that S30v has lived up to it's hype.

I've never used a VG-10 blade that I wasn't fully satisfied with. I think that Crucible has a couple of blade steels better than VG-10 but S30V isn't one of them IMO.
 
S30V would be really hard to sharpen in the field. Though that can be taken care of easily, if you carry a diamond rod, and an UF rod. Also, it's more likely to chip, that then VG-10 steel. The recurve is a no-no, at least for me.
 
Stainz said:
VG-10 is Japaneese while S30V is American cutlery steel. Knivesshipfree.com has the F1 blades handled by Bark River and sheathed by Sharpshooter, making it a US made product with an imported blade, if that's important to you.
Click to expand...

Wouldn't it be more accurate to call it an imported product with a domestic handle and sheath?
 
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