S30V: What are your experiences with this steel?

I've had good luck with it, it's my favorite steel. I've had customs and Spyderco and Chris Reeve knives with S30V blades. For some reason my Sebenza doesn't hold an edge as well as the others.
 
It is not my favorite steel at all. I find in the sebenza it goes dull quickly and is very difficult to get sharp again. I prefer BG42 as it allows me to sharpen quickly and easily with the sharpmaker. I prefer steels with less chromium like D2, BG42, or even ats-42 is easier to sharpen than S30V.. And forget about S60V ! Madness!
 
My Dodo was very sharp. I used to give it to people for cuting tasks, just to watch their mouths drop open when they cut with it.

It stayed sharp for a very long time. Once it got dull though, it was a HUGE pain in the butt to sharpen again. Next time it dulls im just going to send it back to Spyerco and take advantage of their sharpening policy.
 
a223cat said:
I find in the sebenza it goes dull quickly and is very difficult to get sharp again.
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Could it be that the edge is overly thick? Perhaps it needs a reprofile. I believe CRK aims for 17-18 degrees but since they are sharpened by hand they are sometimes over 20 degrees. Also, if you don't get it very sharp in the first place after your sharpening it will of course dull quicker since it was not that sharp to begin with. Does it get very sharp after you are done sharpening it?
 
I've had some very good and some very bad experiences with it. I tend to shy away from it now because there are some very good to better steels for my purposes like ZDP 189, 3G laminate, D2, M2, BG42, and several carbon steels like Super Blue. I wouldn't have S30V in a fixed blade, nor any more thin, acute bladed folders. My manix and Chinook seem fine though.

I see it going the way of 440V soon, say two years. there were too many problems with the steel and the company is promoting CPM 154cm , and now CPM M4 over it. Due to availibility and price it ( s30V) will be here for awhile though. When it is doing good it can be very good indeed. It can also seem to self disinigrate the edge. I had a knife chip on a thin plastic bag of dog treats, then chip more during sharpening. It can take a biting edge, and last like heck too though in other knives. I'm done with it when suitable alternatives are available. When not I will still use it, but will not buy any more. Joe
 
Ever heard of the snowball effect? New product comes out. It is great, but also makes a lot of promises. A small few people have a problem with the product that is common with similar products. The reports spread, maybe in backlash to the promises and hype. While the number of people with problems is small, the number of people reporting the reports that they read about other people who heard about a guy who reported a problem that he heard about... is high.

S30V is great. It isn't much different than other steels in the same class. VG10, BG42, 154CM, D2. They have high wear resistance, and are brittle compared to tougher steels like 1085 and A2.

Chipping can be a problem, but it is rare. No more common than similar steels. If you want to lower the chance of chipping, use a tougher steel. The trade off is usually wear resistance and/or stain resistance.

On the same token, S30V isn't going to be much better than the similar steels either. It isn't a magic steel. It isn't going to chip into a million pieces either.

S30V has its detractors, and its fans. The fans far outnumber the detrators and with people like Sal Glesser, Strider, and Chris Reeve standing firmly behind it, I don't think you have to worry that it isn't going to be a great steel. It is also used in mnay heavy use knives that do get used VERY hard and it stands up great. In the *REAL WORLD*, not just snowballing reports of he said/she said problems.

My personal experience: S30V takes a very good edge, cuts very well, and holds an edge for a long time. It takes a while to sharpen it. The only chipping I ever experienced was from cutting metal banding, and that is to be expected.
 
I only got one knife in s30v. That's a Strider SMF recurve. I think s30v is good for folders. I'm not sure about fixed blades. A friend of mine had a CR green beret. After alot of chopping it became slightly dull (No offense to CRK). After some resharpening it was ready to good and my friend says s30v is a b*tch to sharpen. I've only got experience with Busse blades and IMO it's the best steel. Never had any problems with it.

My 2 cents.
 
Well, if you've got the search function going for you, you've probably seen me running my mouth about this stuff plenty, already. The more I use it, the more I like it. I had a couple of problems with initial edges that disappeared with sharpening, but 4 years of use and over a dozen knives in S30V have left me favorably impressed.

Hair...great post. I'd say you did a great job of cutting through the BS, which there seems to be no shortage of.
 
I have 2 in S30V and can easily get VERY sharp edges with diamond hones and a paper wheel to polish. It takes some of the best edges of all my knives. No chipping, but my knives don't get very hard use.
Greg
 
S30V is like steak - it's all in the prep (base mat'l), cooking (Heat treat) and presentation (geometry).

CPM is just a cow providing meat.

My S30V blade started out chipping, then stopped chipping, then was just too soft to hold the geometry I wanted. Blade re-heat-treated, reprofiled to utilize the re-HT, and is now a great cutter with minimal edge wear. I'm not a press cutter, so I can't vouch for edge roll (other than it not being a problem for me).

A Rockwell hardness number DOES NOT guarantee the HT process has maximized the best characteristics of the steel for your application (grain size, corrosion resistance, etc) - just like the cut of beef does not guarantee its texture or taste.

IMO.

MAT
 
My experiences with S30V haven't been good, but I lay the majority of blame on difficulty manufacturers and makers have with heat treatment. This in turn is probably due to claims made by Crucible. Even if heat treated properly S30V isn't suited to many of the applications we see manufacturers using it for, and it's advantages IMO aren't a quantum leap over other steels.

As a practical matter for my needs, VG10 seems a better choice in a production knife, and recent experience with Sandvik 12C27 and 12C27M suggests same. If the corrosion resistance of stainless isn't required, S30V isn't even a consideration.
 
I think the issue with S30V is that it doesn't do anything in particular better than other steels of the grade, yet is maybe a bit more sensitive to variations in production. It also may be because it's a 'knife' steel. Perhaps people are more accepting of a limited scope of use for high speed, bearing, or die steels when brought over into cutlery. But they also expect a 'knife' steel to be fine in a 'knife', without defining use further than that.
 
I have fullsize, mini, and fixed Rittergrips, all with S30V. The mini is my EDC and has been moderately abused. Its sliced and chopped through all sorts of woods, carved plastics, sliced through lots of cardboard, and has never chipped, nor does it ever really get dull - though after a while of hard use I can tell it isn't as sharp as it can be. The fullsize is mostly used on wood, rope, and food prep (camping stuff) and also has never chipped. The fixed Rittergrip is young and hasn't even been camping yet (soon!), but I don't expect any problems with that either.

All three are very easily sharpened using my Sharpmaker without a diamond blade. I did an initial sharpening using both the medium and fine sticks that come with the Sharpmaker, both at 15 degrees rather than the recommended 20 degrees (they ship with a 15 degree angle), and then very rarely I just use the white fine ceramic sticks to get them back to the sharpness I like.
 
JoHnYKwSt said:
You probably did not have to convex the edge in order to stop the chipping, it was probably due to the factory edge. If S30v needed to be convexed or have its angle increased from the factory angle just to prevent chipping then it would be a very crappy steel indeed.
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I convexed them because I prefer convex edges. That it stopped chipping was a bonus.
 
I haven't used my S30V blades really hard, but I've found it very similar to D2 - razor edge seems to hold for a bit, then suddenly it's gone, but then it holds a working edge for a long time. Sort of in the middle for sharpening for me (I use my sharpmaker) - not as nice as VG-10, but easier than D2. My S30V blades are a Spydie Paramilitary and Native, my D2 blades are Ka-Bar/Dozier Black Thorn and BM710D2. I also own an Al-Mar SERE 2K in VG-10 along with my Spydies in VG-10 - haven't noticed too much difference in characteristics for edge holding, etc between the two.

- gord
 
The problem with S30V is that you won't know how good it is until you get it. I've had knives with this steel that are great and knives with this steel that are horrible. You see mixed reports because people's actual experiences have been mixed.

The issue is not a few early problems being blown out of proportion. There have been many, many credible reports of problems by experienced knife users and rigorous, credible tests of this steel to show real problems that are way out of line with what we've seen with other steels. I believe the problems have to do with manufacturers having to learn how to work with a new steel. Lots of them, even the best, didn't get it right on a consistent basis. What I don't know is whether the manufacturers have fully worked out these problems and are now able to offer a consistent, high-quality knife with S30V.
 
not very impressed in the steel myself. goes dull fast, rusts if not cleaned all the time and doesn't seem any better than any other steels i've used and i've used a few in my day. too long to list.
 
Gentlemen,
We hear you. Thanks for the feedback and thanks for the support. CPMS30V has its good points and some bad. We will not be complacent.

T.S.Devanna
Crucible
 
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