M390, 204P, 20CV ?

gull wing

gull wing

Joined
May 4, 2002
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I know they are said to be nearly the same steel, but do you have a preference.
I will say now I like the M390 best, I have all three in different brands.
I like the extremely sharp edge it takes and holds it for a reasonable time.
 
gull wing said:
I know they are said to be nearly the same steel, but do you have a preference.
I will say now I like the M390 best, I have all three in different brands.
I like the extremely sharp edge it takes and holds it for a reasonable time.
Click to expand...
Yup I'm with you on the m390.
 
All 3 are so close to each other, I guess it really depends on the knife in question and the end user. I'll take M390 in most cases but, I won't turn down the other two in a good knife for my needs.
 
I will say, I've actually had minor surface patina/rust with knives in 20CV. No issues with M390 or 204P though. I'm not sure if it's other factors like the finish of the blades or something, but for some reason only 20CV has shown discoloration.
 
CTS-204P for me, please and thank you.
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I have one knife in 204p, two knives in m390, and 3 in 20cv. Amazingly enough, I don't have a single steel duplicated from same manufacturer or same knife so obviously all the blades, grinds, edges are also different. Plus I don't always use them for the same task on a daily basis. So fairly impossible to discern any difference from them.

That said, I have had zero edge chipping from the m390 blades and much less other type of edge deformations. Coincidence? Likely. But given this small sample size I am more than willing to keep trying m390 if I had a choice.
 
If I’m going off of what I have in my little stash, I must prefer M390. 5 in M390, 1 in 20CV. In reality, though, I really didn’t notice much of a difference in use except that I really like the way M390 sharpens up. I can get M390 weirdly sharper than I can 20CV(no experience with 204P yet). Why? No clue, but I can, haha.
 
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I have two m390 knives. One develops a bit of tarnish if I abuse it with salty foods but holds its edge much longer. The other is much easier to sharpen. I think there’s going to be more variance in heat treat, geometry, and finish that will dictate how a knife performs than there will be between these different steels.
 
Wowbagger said:
Thinner behind the edge ?
I only have Benchmade's M390 but am extremely happy with the two examples I have.
Click to expand...

That may be part of it, but just the way it sharpens up seems to be the biggest difference I notice. Maybe not easier, but better somehow. It’s hard to explain. I’d like to think if I was blindfolded and had to freehand a knife in each steel, I’d know what M390 was over 20CV. I highly doubt I could. It’s almost like a gut feeling, hard to explain cohesively.

And my mini Ritter may very well be one of the sharpest knives I have. It just bit me a few days ago, one that went deep enough that it sent a shock through my finger, damn near dropped the knife.
 
Imagine a taste test for which there were three glasses, and three refrigerators. The administrator of the test pulls a can of Pepsi out of each refrigerator, opens each can, and fills each glass from a different can.

Then everybody explains their reason for selecting a favorite glass of Pepsi.

That is this thread.
 
I have several knives in M390 & in 20CV, but they're from different manufacturers & are different blade styles, so even if they weren't practically the same as far as properties, saying one is sharper or one holds an edge longer than another would be a poor comparison.
 
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