Recommendation? Tough AND hard EDC blade

[skyhorse]

Do pm2 s30vs chip easily? If they can't skin out a deer without breaking then I just dropped some money on a knife that's practically worthless.

You should be just fine skinning a deer with your PM2. They aren't that tough .

 

[Horsewright]

This little guy is about $20-30 out of your price range but:

AEB-L @62RC is lawnmower tough.

Built the guy a new sheath though:

At this hardness AEB-L will cut and cut and cut and take and keep a razor edge. I also make leather cutting roundknives out of it.

These knives are designed to cut leather by the hour and not have to stop and sharpen your blade. It is the one tool that is never put away. It lives on my workbench. It's not unusual for me to make 60- 70 sheaths at a time.

Went from a whole half of a cow:

To this:

To me cutting out the last few that are laid out on that rough out piece:

.

These knives are used every day, often for hours at a time, strop occasionally and its back to hair popping, leather splitting sharp. I resharpen about every 3-4 months. Before I went to making my own roundknives I was sharpening every 3 to 4 hours. Many saddle making shops will stop and sharpen knives couple three times a day. But many knives out there in AEB-L are at 57RC or so, then its just meh. At the 62-63 RC range it will handle your deer, or calf or turkey or trout or whatever.

Nothing fancy, not a super steel, it just works, every day: