"Steels" and your experience?

3

390beretta

Joined
Nov 1, 2002
Messages
137
I'm a relatively newbie to the Spyderco forum. I recently purchased a "Resilience" because I feared losing my CR, mod. 21, which I love. However, having carried, sharpened the "Resilience" for a couple weeks, I'm totally impressed! I'd like to hear your experiences with the various steels Spyderco uses. I'd also like your opinions on the quality of the knives you've bought from the various countries who manufacture Spyderco knives. The Resilience, I recently bought was made in China. While I dis-like supporting Chinese products, I can't fault the knife....seems very well put together. Thanks in advance to all! Cheers!
 
Being somewhat new to spyderco myself, I absolutely love the products coming out of Taiwan. The f&f is great and many of them seem to be using xhp or 204p, both of which seems like a big upgrade to s30v/s35vn/elmax that I've used prior.

Welcome to where you'll be emptying your wallet. :cool:
 
From my experience Spyderco is the best production knife maker at getting the most from there steels. There S30V is as good as anyones and there VG10 is my ideal edc steel.
 
I think the models of of tiawan are some of spyderco's best offerings. If you really start getting into the way different steels perform check out the mule series.
 
Spyderco is a superb knife manufacturer. Excellent quality , f&f and value. My fave Spydercos come out of Golden , CO and Tai Chung.

Although I am interested in trying higher end steels like M390 , I'm a huge fan of S30V. I've been using it for years and I can get it to take a scary sharp edge blind folded. I like it , i understand it and I prefer it.
 
390beretta said:
I'm a relatively newbie to the Spyderco forum. I recently purchased a "Resilience" because I feared losing my CR, mod. 21, which I love. However, having carried, sharpened the "Resilience" for a couple weeks, I'm totally impressed! I'd like to hear your experiences with the various steels Spyderco uses. I'd also like your opinions on the quality of the knives you've bought from the various countries who manufacture Spyderco knives. The Resilience, I recently bought was made in China. While I dis-like supporting Chinese products, I can't fault the knife....seems very well put together. Thanks in advance to all! Cheers!
Click to expand...

Don't worry much about the country of origin when it comes to quality when talking Spyderco. Spyderco dictates the level of quality to the factory and if they are not up to Spyderco's standards they'd probably find a new factory. It is true that their more entry level knives are made in china but you will find that they are of similar, if not better, quality as those of similar price but in most cases have better design and sometimes better materials.

As far as Chinese made knives in general, in most cases I avoid them. Spyderco makes the only Chinese made knives I would buy and so far I have been pleased with what I've seen.

I like the Japanese knives a lot and the Taiwanese knives are some of the best on the market.

However, I would be pretty suspicious of most other knives made in Taiwan or China.

As fare as steels go, the ones I have most experience with are:

8CR13MoV (Solid EDC steel but requires frequent sharpening but does sharpen very easily and gets very sharp)
VG-10 (Similar to 8CR in that it sharpens up nicely and easily but has significantly better edge retention and better corrosion resistance)
S30V (Holds an edge a little longer, more resistant to wear and corrosion than VG-10 but is harder to sharpen)
AUS-8 ( fairly similar IMO to 8CR)
 
Last edited:
Reasons I love Spyderco:

1. Spydie hole
2. C.Q.I. (Constant Quality Improvement)
3. Sal is cool
4. Their ever-growing and morphing line of excellent, often experimental blades.

Other companies are great, too, but a company like Benchmade has a relatively stagnant line of knives compared to Spyderco. There is ALWAYS another Spydie to buy. Lol. It's a sickness, really.

Anyway, another thing I love is that they manufacture all over the world. Golden delivers many flagship models (Millie, PM2, Manix), Japan produces some of the best affordable EDC blades in the world (Stretch, Endura, Delica) and Taiwan's quality control rivals that of custom knives. Not an exaggeration. I love how each country of origin has its own character not found anywhere else. It just adds another fun element to Spydie collecting. (even the Bugs are different!)
 
I'm very appreciative of the variety of steels that Spyderco is able to offer us. Among my favorites, in no particular order, are: ZDP-189, S30V, CTS-XHP, M390, S90V.

I tend to notice the differences between steels in primarily two categories: corrosion resistance and edge retention. Since I don't spend a lot of time chopping trees or cutting sheet metal or hacking at concrete blocks, I'm not able to comment on the differences in toughness between the steels. They seem fine to me.

Here's a review I did a while back of the Resilience:

http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php/1033263-Spyderco-Resilience
 
hopefully i'll have some pics (eventually) but i can state now that zdp 189 is far easier to work with than s30v. having little to do (not buying new spydeys) at the moment, i decided to try my hand at moding. i've always wanted a shiny, mirror-polished blade so i tried to work on my zdp endura. the blade was marred when i sharpened to 10 degrees so started with 600 grit emery, going to 1000, 1200, 1500, and then 2000. the zdp is easily sanded. the original grind lines disappeared after the 600. now i'm at 2000 and sorry to say, i did a less than stellar job. it now looks like a clouded mirror. i will move to 2500 and then polish on my treated leather.

as ti my ti millie, i thought it would be easier but i discovered s30v is the vibram among knife steels! i started with 600. it barely scraped off the transparent patina. after one afternoon it looked infernal. dark emery grit lodged into the grinding grooves and the blade looked like it's been used in a foundry. i went down to 280 grit and there was some improvement. still, i'm nowhere near to removing the old grind lines.
 
mcrow said:
8CR13MoV (Solid EDC steel but requires frequent sharpening but does sharpen very easily and gets very sharp)
VG-10 (Similar to 8CR in that it sharpens up nicely and easily but has significantly better edge retention and better corrosion resistance)
S30V (Holds an edge a little longer, more resistant to wear and corrosion than VG-10 but is harder to sharpen)
AUS-8 ( fairly similar IMO to 8CR)
Click to expand...

Just from the exp. I have with it I'd rate AUS-8 much higher than 8Cr at edge retention and much harder to sharpen than 8Cr or VG-10. When sharpening VG-10 and 8Cr I can reprofile either at only 600 grit (DMT diamond stones) but with AUS-8 600 grit barely effects it, I have to go down to my 325 grit Coarse stone to do anything more than touch up work.

I dont much care for 8Cr, infact the tenacious I just ordered last week was the first I've ordered in it for quite awhile now, but VG-10 is one of my all time favorite and AUS-8 is also an excelent working class steel.
 
I am very impressed with the Taiwanese Gayle Bradley. Excellent workmanship, and CPM M4 is a great steel.
 
I have not had a good experience with my persistence I have to sharpen it way to often in my opinion I know it is a budget knife but I don't like the steel.
 
Akcir said:
I am very impressed with the Taiwanese Gayle Bradley. Excellent workmanship, and CPM M4 is a great steel.
Click to expand...

Couldn't agree more. My GB is one of my best slicers and as far as overall quality goes I'd rate it second to none.
 
My spyderco steel experience is this:
Vg10- easy to sharpen, but doesn't seem to hold very well. It tends to roll easily under my use.
BD1- easy to sharpen, holds an edge less then VG 10
S30- good all around steel, performs well for me
S35- very similar to s30, another nice all around steel

I want to try some of the newer steels like 390 and m4 in future knives
 
I have been happy with Spyderco steels since they used G2, if I keep my knives sharp they cut well. Doesn't matter what steel it is, if it is dull, it's dull. Yes some steels hold an edge longer than others, but none hold an edge forever. :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top