Interesting! Maybe the wrong thread... But how would you describe the pro/cons of these steels for your EDC blade?
All three steels have a combination of good abrasive wear resistance and toughness that lend themselves to good edge retention and durability in use.
3V has good wear resistance, corrosion resistance and high toughness, and with the Delta heat treat protocol it has good edge stability. It lends itself to something you're going to use hard and it's going to hold an edge well and never break. If I had one steel to choose for an all-around knife I had to
rely on, Delta 3V would be my choice.
D2 has some of the best real world edge wear resistance but reduced edge stability, so it's a better candidate for someone cutting a lot of stuff like cardboard and leather. The CPM process ruins one its best attributes, which is a long wearing toothy edge from large carbides, so this is conventional D2 from Crucible. This was not a meaningful cost savings. It has good corrosion resistance and, though it is nowhere near as tough as 3V, it is tougher than most stainless steels that people are accustomed to and is more than tough enough for most people's needs. Most of the D2 knives that people have used are import material and tool-and-die heat treat. People that haven't used good D2 are in for a surprise. The best overall edge retention of any steel I've tested to date is an optimized D2, which is why I'm dusting it off. It's wonderful in a skinning knife and works well in the shop, job site, and woods.
4V is a wild card. It may stay sharper in rough use than other materials. It is the same chemistry as Vanadis 4, which is the material that supplanted CPM M4 as the world cutting champion steel. It will certainly have greater wear resistance than 3V, though probably not as good as D2 in actual use. It's expensive, it won't be very corrosion resistant, nor have a toothy edge and it may or may not develop good edge stability, <---- that is to be determined. But, we're pursuing it because we feel it may have a combination of edge stability and wear resistance that lends itself to thin high performance knives. Particularly at higher hardness. So, we think its performance potential may outweigh it's lower corrosion resistance in applications where we're trying to support a thinner geometry in rough use. I think the carbide content increases the compressive yield strength, reducing the tendency to buckle in thin sections found in an acute edge and in narrow primary grinds. It might be great in a racing knife. :thumbup:
