S90V VS. CPM4 Comparision.......

C

clockman

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Jan 14, 2009
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How does s90v vs cpm4 compare in edge holding,cutting ability, sharpening, and all the

other qualities we look for in a premium steel?

I have an s90v Millie but nothing in cpm4 with a plain blade

Those of you that have knives in both s90v and cpm4 which do you like

best and why.
 
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Hard to say. I would like to see a side to side test with the Mule Team blades done,but with all of them. But even then I'm not sure those would both be at the same hardness level.
 
horses for courses. i find s90v to be more wear resistant but to not take as keen an edge as m4. m4 gets very sharp and cuts aggressively but will loses that screaming edge on cardboard quicker than s90v. i love them both but if i had to take only one it would be s90v. and this is from a guy who loved m2 above all others in its day
 
It's not often - to never that I do unnecessary cutting to test an edge. I don't just cut a bunch of cardboard or rope to see how many cuts it takes to notice a difference. I just use the thing when needed and touch it up when needed. I DO usually sharpen after a bunch of cutting though. I know how the things I cut should affect the blade.

I had a S90V Millie for around 6 months and I currently have a M4 Griptilian. I did a good amount of cutting and sharpening with the Millie and it was incredibly wear resistant and was not toooo hard to sharpen on the SharpMaker. The M4 Grip came duller than any new knife I've ever bought. I did sharpen it which was more difficult than I would prefer. So far I have not noticed it to be much better than any other good steel. We'll see with more use though.

My impressions so far: The S90V was simply incredible. It was soooo good that I never really even noticed much wear. I just figured... "well, I've used it a good bit and I better touch it up before it gets reeeeeally hard to get sharp." Maybe I need to get the m4 sharper to really get a good idea of what I'm dealing with. I was prepared to be blown away by the CPM-M4 but so far it is nothing I would write home about. The Gold Class Grip as a whole package is REALLY nice though!
 
try a spidie bradley, i've got one, a 760 and a m4 ritter and the spidie is clearly better in term of both ease of sharpening and edge holding.
 
S90V seems to be more wear resistant and harder to sharpen. M4 I am still undecided about. It gets super sharp, the sharpest of any steel I have sharpened, and pretty easily. I don't find it hard to sharpen at all which if it has good wear resistance doesn't make since. I can get S90V sharp, but had a hard time getting it sharp after I attempted to reprofile it. I sent it to someone who got it blazing sharp with his diamond plates which I don't have enough of. Right now I would say I like S90V more but I need to try and do some informal testing to see how M4 does. I just got a Gayle Bradley which is supposed to have M4 at 65 HRC and it seems a lot better than the 60-61 stuff I have been using.
 
Without equalizing blade grind and hardness, it's hard to draw really accurate comparisons. Even the two MT blades don't work perfectly because the GB folder suggests that higher Rc numbers will improve the performance of CPM-M4, even when from the same manufacturer (Spyderco).

It also depends what you're looking for in the edge and what you're cutting...

I will say that I think the two CPM-M4 blades that Spyderco has shipped perform significantly better than the CPM-M4 blades that I've got from another leading manufacturer, but YMMV.
 
it seems that everyone who has tried m4 at those differing Rc's prefers the harder steel.
 
just because benchmade's is too soft. any steel under a certain rc gets weird at sharpening imho.
 
M4 can get much harder than s90v I don't have a s90v knife, but if your comparing production folders (except for the gayle bradly I heard those came out harder than they intended like 63-65 Rc) the M4 is probably not going to be at peak performance, because most are only around 60-62 Rc, but it really gets much better at 65 Rc
 
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here found this it was hidding in shop talk, but I still say it depends on how hard each steel was
 
thanks guys your info supports my cutting with m4. i'm wondering what m4 could really be tweaked to do. phil wilson probably has some interesting info on maxing m4.
 
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