Strider S35VN?

I have several CRKs & Striders. I have put them head to head as scientifically as possible and notice little to no difference. Honestly I really wanted the Striders to come out ahead since they are what I've been buying most lately. Again it's really hard for me to believe that folks are finding significant differences. They are equal in difficulty of getting a good edge back on my sharpmaker. But my Sebenzas get a honkin burr that is difficult to remove when I'm goin for a perfect edge. I have seen at least a dozen pics of broken Strider blades and zero pics of broken Sebs. If there is one thing that could be asked of S305VN it is a little more toughness. CRK gives you that with a slightly softer HT & IMO the trade off is likely worth it.

I rock my SnG way more than any of my Sebs mainly because I dig the sure handed design, fun manipulation & no F'ing around warranty.
 
S35vn is my favorite steel across the board. Easy to sharpen, tough, fantastic edge retention, very fine grained, and overall just all the properties you could possibly want.
 
Bugout Bill said:
How many people actually use their Sebenza's hard enough to break the blade?
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Well if they do, they don't post many pics! It's a fine line between capability & reserve. I own both and do subject my SnG to hard use that I hesitate to try with the Sebenza. It's not necessarily because of the knife, but also because of the warranty. With one company I am not likely going to have to explain myself even if I was pushing it. Still, there is no denying that the CRK knives are pretty darn nice and a real joy to own & use. I am not going to put my SnG in my church slacks!
 
All my CRK's have come at 57-58. I get them hardened to 60. S35VN at 60 is tits, my favorite edc steel by far. At 60 it is easier to sharpen than 57 since you aren't battling the burr.
 
SMI said:
All my CRK's have come at 57-58. I get them hardened to 60. S35VN at 60 is tits, my favorite edc steel by far. At 60 it is easier to sharpen than 57 since you aren't battling the burr.
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Where do you get that done? I was looking at buying a 25 and having that done to better suit my EDC preferences
 
I can only speak to the knives that I have with S35VN that I truly "USE" and one of those knives happens to be a ZT 0550 Gen II with S35VN and it's one of my all time favorite knives. For me and my needs, the 0550 Gen II is pretty much the perfect user EDC and I've had zero problems with the blade steel. It hold its edge very well and touches up pretty easily...I try to never allow my knives to become dull, I'll touch them up a bit before that happens.

I use/carry the ZT 0550 Gen II about every other day and I truly USE it for whatever I have that needs to be cut (cardboard boxes, plastic, rope, etc) I use it just as I would a knife that could be considered a "beater" except I happen to LOVE this knife and it has preformed flawlessly for me.

Of course your mileage may vary but I wouldn't be at all concerned about buying and using a Strider that has S35VN blade steel. As someone else mentioned, Strider's CPM-154 has worked perfectly for me as well...I have an SMF with CPM-154 and once again I've had zero problems with it even though I truly USE that knife as well.

Its a GREAT time to be a knife lover/user, production knife companies like KAI/ZT and others are producing knives that are damn near custom knife quality for pretty reasonable prices and using the latest state of the art blade steel while doing so.

Best of luck, buy your Strider and use it with confidence...you'll be more than happy with it.
Take care.
 
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When it comes to heat treat, the manufactures just can't satisfy everyone. Take CRK for example. A lot of people are happy with the heat treat of their s35v, and a lot of people would like to see a higher Rockwell. However, there is no magic bullet here. Increase edge retention and something else has to give. If edge retention was all that counted, we would all be carrying ceramic blades. Back to the topic. I have Striders with both cpm154 and s35v and notice no difference between the 2. Here is a quote from Duane himself as posted on the Plaza site concerning the various steels strider uses.

"8/26/12 I had a long talk with Duane on steel today. As many Striders are now coming in CPM154v I wanted some clarification. As Duane said S35v, S30v and CPM154v are all a similar steels and they can be worked to enhance, edge holding, wear or toughness. As Striders are for hard use, Strider heat treats to enhance the toughness of their knives. Duane said "if you were to use all three knives together, you would find no difference". If it was done on the standard test they use for cutting they would all be about the same. Now remember while Strider enhances the toughness in these steels another company can hence the edge holding or wear but that is normally done when used as a ball bearing. So in some case you would say that knife "A" does not hold an edge as well as "B", but it broke much easier. Enhance the different abilities in the steel brought out by different heat treating. So in Strider there is no difference in the 3 steels. If Strider does any S35v with a atmosphere of 6 there will be different abilities but that is not something that is normally done and only a few heat treat facilities in the country can do it. You will also pay dearly for it. Duane said he is always willing to talk steel so if you see him at a show have fun! he knows a lot!"
 
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