Trying to get 1 knife of many high end steel. Make recs plz. Roughly $100 per knife

W

wacki

Joined
Sep 12, 2009
Messages
319
The goal is to get several knives of various high end steel and try them out.

Already have
  • Sog Tanto folder {AUS8}
  • Kershaw Zing-Tanto Blade Sandvik {14C28N stainless-steel}

These are the ones I'm looking at to fill out the steel collection... I'm trying to stay near $100 per knife until I find out what steels I truly like.

  • Ontario Series RD7 $88 {5160 steel}
  • Ratmandu CG $138 {52100 ball bearing steel.}
  • Fallkniven F1 (just cuz it s official issue) $119.62 {VG10}

Any other recs?

Please keep it close to $100 per blade. Will go $150 if needed though.
 
Spyderco PM2 S30V. Spyderco has a ton of cool folders, but if I started with a PM2, Id have a lot smaller collection. It really is that good. Unless you are a lefty, but some lefties like it anyway

I will also second SR101/52100 from Scrapyard and Swamprat, great stuff at good prices


You could also get a Scrapyard fixed blade in ELMAX for less than 100 when Dan has a regular release of them.
 
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I'm not much of a fixed blade guy, but here are some good folder steels.

S30V-spyderco pm2 $100
154cm-benchmade griptilian $70-80
Vg10-spyderco delica/endura 4 $55-70
14c28n-kershaw skyline $35-50
Elmax-kershaw speedform 2 $75-90
D2-benchmade griptilian (cabelas version) $90
CPM154-kershaw blur (limited) $100
CPM-M4-spyderco Gayle Bradley $140
S35VN-spyderco native 5 $140
M390-good luck...various benchmades $150-200+
CTS-XHP-spyderco techno $190

There are others but this list comprises most popular folder steels and good, affordable examples of knives using each steel.
 
I haven't had a chance to play much yet with mine, but Elmax is really popular and for less than $100 each it was a no-brainer for me. They've made 3 models but 1 was for Blade Show only. Dan supposedly bought a lot of stock, so there will probably be a few more released. They are calling them Scrap Max 340, 375, and 460.
Several pics here:
http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=980463

Everything else I can think of with Elmax would be $200+ folders.

If you just want to try out steels, that is the spirit of the Spyderco Mule Team project. They have small runs of the same bare bones blade design in about 12 different high-end exotic steels so far and almost all of them can be found for less tham $150
 
for M390 I'd wait for the re-release of the Blue PM2 from Bento Box in the late fall. That was $180 on the first run. That is my all time favorite. There should be dark green PM2s floating around soon in CTS-204P but they are all spoken for so you'd have to try your luck on the secondary market. Its supposed to be similar to M390 but made by Carpenter in the US instead of Bohler in Europe.
 
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