Today's Popular Knife Steels

damib said:
You are certainly right, but new steel with good heat treat will be better in some ways than let's say 1095 with good heat treat. It's matter of laziness or low experience with new steels that makes them comparable or worse than traditional steels sometimes. I think that the new steels are way more complicated in their composition sometimes so the manufacturers doesn't really know what could go wrong.
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This "betterness" of modern super steels is typically a tradeoff with ease of sharpening, edge retention, rolling, chipping and other desirable characteristics. You can call it "laziness" or "lack of familiarity" :). If your daily work calls for a knife, then you must be definitely aware of the steel and its properties and your choice. But for 95% (just making up number here, read it as "most"), a knife is a pocket carry that is summoned infrequently, and for that purpose, traditional steels do just fine.

Of course, I have nothing but admiration for modern steels and the sheer amount of innovation they bring, not just to the knife world, but everywhere steel is put to use.
 
I'm loving MagnuCut. I have four knives in it so far, a custom, a larger fixed blade, and two small fixed blades. I've almost exclusively been using it the past 4-5 months. It lives up to the hype in my experience. I've even done chopping and batoning with it and it works very well.

My other favorite is Delta 3v. Carothers does an amazing job improving this steel. I'm interested to see what he does with MagnaCut.
 
I may have missed somebody mentioning this one, but I have been really impressed by Maxamet. As far as I know, you can only get it in some Spyderco models and customs. But the edge retention is insane. You are sacrificing stainlessness and, I think, some toughness to get it. But if you want something that will cut and cut and cut, Maxamet is the best I've used. In fairness, I haven't tried Magnacut or Vanax. For good all arounders, I also like M390/20CV/204P.
 
Maybe not new new, but
CPM-CRUWEAR
ELMAX
LC200N
VANAX

All great balanced, not a bear to sharpen steels.
 
POCEH KOCEB said:
Magnacut, Vanax, maybe 3V, are not popular steels. They are new and advanced but not so popular as S30V and the rest of the used left and right steels mentioned earlier - M390/20CV, also CPM 154, D2 and 1095, I’m sure I’m missing some more popular steels - Sandvic, VG-10, the list with widely used steels is long.
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we're using different definitions for popular. youre using it for production numbers and amount of models with it. im using it as in interesting......
 
jbmonkey said:
we're using different definitions for popular. youre using it for production numbers and amount of models with it. im using it as in interesting......
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Semantics… I guess we are both right… Im looking at this as a conversation, therefore I’m not here to argue, I don’t really care what’s popular by both definitions because I know exactly what steel I like.
So if the production numbers are big, the steels must be desired (popular)… ? I think this is the more common definition, of course I could be wrong.
But on the other hand you got a point, yes, Magnacut and delta protocol 3V and some other new steels are popular by the definition of being largely interesting :cool::thumbsup:
 
choombak said:
This "betterness" of modern super steels is typically a tradeoff with ease of sharpening, edge retention, rolling, chipping and other desirable characteristics. You can call it "laziness" or "lack of familiarity" :). If your daily work calls for a knife, then you must be definitely aware of the steel and its properties and your choice. But for 95% (just making up number here, read it as "most"), a knife is a pocket carry that is summoned infrequently, and for that purpose, traditional steels do just fine.

Of course, I have nothing but admiration for modern steels and the sheer amount of innovation they bring, not just to the knife world, but everywhere steel is put to use.
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I forgot these, but I meant that experience with technologies used in manufacture traditional materials is sometimes way more advanced and way more studied than any of the technologies used in manufacture of modern materials. And I don't mean advanced as new but advanced as thoroughly understood.

Think of it this way. What would you buy if you needed rifle you can rely on? M4 or some experimental weapon that came out last week?
 
I still think that S30V is a good steel...
But I've grown more fond of S90V, S45VN, and M-390.
 
As previously stated Magnacut is the latest and said to be the greatest. I have not gotten my hands on any yet to beat around.

I am far from an expert in this so I can only speak from my own experience.

S30V was a huge step in SS for me. I was used to 440C and Aus8 or something like that. Spyderco's S30V absolutely blows those out of the water. It literally changed my life, haha!

The next step up from that was when I bought a used fixed blade in 20cv. It was so nice not to have to sharpen once or twice a week, or more depending on what I am doing. I have since bought a bunch of knives in Elmax, LC200N and I still prefer 20cv or m390 and between 20cv and m390 I prefer m390. I know people say they are "the same" but m390 seems to be a little more flexible or soft if I can use those terms to describe it.

As to non-stainless steels. 5160 is my favorite with Delta3v in close second. I like 5160 in thicker edged big blades and Delta3v for middle sized slicey blades.
 
I used to like 1095 for traditionals etc, but these days 52100 and 80crv2 are a very big improvement yet still old style carbon steel, just much cleaner & better grain refinement, overall worth it

you need to try some good ones in those (skrama & winkler use 80crv2)... and cold steel has some nice 52100 models
 
POCEH KOCEB said:
Semantics… I guess we are both right… Im looking at this as a conversation, therefore I’m not here to argue, I don’t really care what’s popular by both definitions because I know exactly what steel I like.
So if the production numbers are big, the steels must be desired (popular)… ? I think this is the more common definition, of course I could be wrong.
But on the other hand you got a point, yes, Magnacut and delta protocol 3V and some other new steels are popular by the definition of being largely interesting :cool::thumbsup:
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naw no argument...just we are coming at it two different ways. not saying my way was the right one..appears most came at it your way and that probably is the ops use of it...I just didn't take it that way and read it different is all.
 
I’ve been a fan of S35VN and recently have picked up a couple of Spartans in S45. Seems to be an okay replacement.
 
choombak said:
This "betterness" of modern super steels is typically a tradeoff with ease of sharpening, edge retention, rolling, chipping and other desirable characteristics. You can call it "laziness" or "lack of familiarity" :). If your daily work calls for a knife, then you must be definitely aware of the steel and its properties and your choice. But for 95% (just making up number here, read it as "most"), a knife is a pocket carry that is summoned infrequently, and for that purpose, traditional steels do just fine.

Of course, I have nothing but admiration for modern steels and the sheer amount of innovation they bring, not just to the knife world, but everywhere steel is put to use.
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All steels are ”compromises” of qualities be it modern or traditional and you should pick your steel based on the application. There isn’t a steel that is perfect, but this doesn’t mean that some steels are not better for knives than others. Some modern steels and processes allow for less compromises. Speaking of knife steels and as end users it is clear that some steels are better. For example, 52100 is clearly better than 1095 for any knife application. Something like cpm cruwear is better for most smaller knives than 52100, even though it is harder to sharpen, so if ease of sharpening is more important to you than the other attributes, 52100 could be better for you.

Differemt steels might be better if you look at knives from a manufacturing perspective. The main point is that some steels are better as long as you define your application and perspective precisely enough.
 
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