Ranking wear resistance and toughness of S30V, S35VN, CTS-XHP, and Elmax

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Muaddib1116

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Dec 26, 2010
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I've been doing a lot of searching and reading about these steels, but there's a lot of jumbled and sometimes conflicting info out there. I realize that there's only a small chance of this thread really clearing all this up for me, but I figured I'd give it a shot. I'm really only interested in two attributes right now, wear resistance (which I connect with edge retention) and toughness.

To simplify the discussion, assume that four of the same knife are made of all four steels (ie. PM2 regular and sprints). In such a case, I've gathered the following.

For toughness: S35VN is slightly tougher than S30V. I don't know where Elmax or CTS-XHP fall compared to those two.

For a Polished Edge: CTS-XHP holds longer than S30V which is slightly better than S35VN. I'm not sure where Elmax falls.

For a Coarse Toothy Edge: S30V is slightly better than S35VN which is better than CTS-XHP. Again, not sure where Elmax falls.
 
if you want both wear and toughness get CPM-M4

if you have to have stainless go with Elmax or M390. S30V S35VN and CTS-XHP are still EXCELLENT steels, but this is my preference.
 
So, are you saying Elmax and M390 have superior wear resistance AND toughness to S30V, S35VN, and CTS-XHP?
 
I haven't used XHP, but in my experience S30V is definitely the most chip-prone of the steels you've listed (particularly with Spyderco's HT). Edge retention is comparable between S30V and S35VN, Elmax is a fair bit better, and M390 is significantly better than Elmax. I generally don't polish the edges on my users, so I can't comment on that.

All are great steels for folders no matter how you slice it though.

If it matters to you, corrosion resistance is best in S35VN and M390 in my experience, but S30V is still very resistant.
 
The problem you're facing is that toughness and wear resistance are not usually found together at high levels. S35VN will hold an edge about as well as S30V, but it will be a little tougher. Elmax will be a little tougher than S35VN, but it won't hold an edge quite as well.

If you know how much toughness you need and how much wear resistance you need, the question becomes easier. You also have to consider heat treat and steel hardness.

M390 and M4 at about 60Rc strike a pretty good balance of both of those characteristics. You can find tougher steels (3V) or steels that hold an edge a lot better (10V), but it's not easy to find steels that are going to outperform them on both wear resistance and toughness.
 
Twindog said:
The problem you're facing is that toughness and wear resistance are not usually found together at high levels. S35VN will hold an edge about as well as S30V, but it will be a little tougher. Elmax will be a little tougher than S35VN, but it won't hold an edge quite as well.

If you know how much toughness you need and how much wear resistance you need, the question becomes easier. You also have to consider heat treat and steel hardness.

M390 and M4 at about 60Rc strike a pretty good balance of both of those characteristics. You can find tougher steels (3V) or steels that hold an edge a lot better (10V), but it's not easy to find steels that are going to outperform them on both wear resistance and toughness.
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Yeah, I understand. I'm not looking for a blanket statement about which of those four is the "best". I'm just looking for a relative comparison among the four on those two attributes (3 if you specify polished or toothy edge).

So, it seems like the consensus is that Elmax is tougher than S35VN? What about CTS-XHP?
 
Muaddib1116 said:
Yeah, I understand. I'm not looking for a blanket statement about which of those four is the "best". I'm just looking for a relative comparison among the four on those two attributes (3 if you specify polished or toothy edge).

So, it seems like the consensus is that Elmax is tougher than S35VN? What about CTS-XHP?
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I think we are beating a dead horse here unfortunately...... there are lots of topics with wonderful information about all of these steels if you do a few searches.
 
I think they're all close enough that heat treat and hardness would be the final arbiter. From what I've read, I think ELMAX would be the toughest at lower hardness, but might have the best wear resistance at higher hardness. Take this with a grain of salt, though, as I don't have any hard numbers to back it up.
 
Insipid Moniker said:
I think they're all close enough that heat treat and hardness would be the final arbiter. From what I've read, I think ELMAX would be the toughest at lower hardness, but might have the best wear resistance at higher hardness. Take this with a grain of salt, though, as I don't have any hard numbers to back it up.
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That's what I've found in my limited experience with all of those steels except XHP. Elmax for the win.
 
There's a smart phone app called, Knife Steel Composition Chart, that give attribute of different steels. It's a informative app to have searching for differences in steels.
 
From my experience CTS-XHP is the toughest and hold the best edge among the list.
 
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