SPY27 Users?

What blade steel would you pick?

  • S30V

    Votes: 6 20.7%

  • SPY27

    Votes: 18 62.1%

  • I haven't noticed enough difference between them to choose one over the other.

    Votes: 5 17.2%
  • Total voters
    29
R

Rusty Shackelford

Joined
Jul 19, 2020
Messages
145
I have another active thread going about knife handle material but this didn't really seem to fit so I created a new thread. I am getting ready to buy my first Spyderco and decided on the Native 5 but now I'm conflicted between S30V and SPY27... SPY27 is only a couple years old so I'm struggling to find a lot of long term opinions on it's performance, for those of you that have used it and S30V, how do they compare in your opinion? I'm not scared to sharpen my knives but I don't really like it either, I like to use a strop with some Flexcut Gold to maintain my blades when I can then use my Sharpmaker if more is called for so I'm leaning towards the SPY27. I am usually a fan of the age tested tried and true and Spyderco's S30V is all of that but I am also not scared to try something new that's an improvement. Is is just popular because it's new or is it actually an improvement over S30V/S35VN in your opinion?
 
I wouldn't pay extra over S30v for a steel designed as an alternative budget steel. I'd take it over a 8cr/BD1 level steel though.

I'm not sure where you got it's an improvement to S30v. Sal said it was supposed to be a US made VG10.
 
Larrin Larrin I read through all of your stuff on SPY27 and like Ed most of it is over my head, atm my edc knife of choice is 1095 which is about as simple as it gets. You have a good understanding of it all and I'm guessing plenty of use experience as well, which would you choose for a basic EDC blade and why?
 
Rusty Shackelford said:
Larrin Larrin I read through all of your stuff on SPY27 and like Ed most of it is over my head, atm my edc knife of choice is 1095 which is about as simple as it gets. You have a good understanding of it all and I'm guessing plenty of use experience as well, which would you choose for a basic EDC blade and why?
Click to expand...
They are both good. I would probably pick SPY27 because I prefer toughness to the small edge retention advantage S30V has, and the exclusivity of SPY27 makes it somewhat more interesting.
 
I have the SPY27 Native 5. I like mine a lot. Haven’t all out sharpened it yet but sliced through cardboard with very nice retention. Plus the dark blue FRN looks nice.
 
There is a person on YouTube notyouraverageedc. She just did a month with spy 27 Native 5 and said she much prefers it to s30v/s35vn. In summary she found it held an edge just as long but was much easier and farther to sharpen.
 
So I ended up not choosing either one as a blade steel for my new spyderco, I bought the Chaparral which only comes in CTS-XHP but it seems to be a steel that everyone is happy with so I'm glad there actually weren't other choices to choose from haha. I really appreciate all the help and input, I learned a lot about S30V, SPY27, and XHP this week with all my research and have a great head start on my inevitable next knife when the time comes haha.
 
R RugerNurse Will do, these are my 2 EDC knives for the past 5-6 years and they both feel good in the hand with a similar size handle length to the Chaparral from what I can tell. I am on my 2nd or 3rd Sheffield because I tend to lose knives with no pocket clip. Unfortunately Sheffield no longer produces that model, they are now sold under the Hyper Tough brand and the fit and finish and overall feel is just cheaper now, at like $5-6 each I wish I had stockpiled them when I had the chance.


https://imgur.com/UtTkfvi
 
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Here is an interesting comparison between SPY27, S30V, and BD1N. If you aren't familiar, Outpost76 is one of the better testers out there. He generally sharpens knives to 15dps with the same progression on a KME, cuts the same type of cardboard with a 1" section of blade, resharpens and repeats for statistical repeatability when possible. He also talks about sharpening, stropping, etc.

 
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