Good call! The way I see it, edge retention is not a concern on a defensive knife because it is only going to see one or two strikes before its job is done and it can be sharpened again (same is true for "fighting" knives). What matters is the ability to take a razor edge easily and to resist shocks and forces by bending, not breaking. Gin-1 was a great steel for the Civilian, and I hope ATS-55 has some of the same properties. I don't know strength performance on 440V, but if it's anything like non-particle steels in that hardness range, it sounds like it places edge retention over flexibility and resisitance to chipping.
I suffered a mishap with my Civilian once; I dropped it during some of my very first opening drills, and it landed on the blade spine closed. An unfortunate feature of the design is that this causes the point to ram into the metal spacer when the blade "over-closes." It looked pretty bad, all twisted up for most of the hooked section. Luckily, due to the flexibility of the steel, I was able to straighten it and lose only about 1/16" of tip, which was then beautifully reground by Spyderco so you really cannot tell. I'm convinced from seeing similar damage to Benchmades that if the knife were in ATS-34 it would now be a chisel-pointed Civilian.
Thrilled to hear about the new clips. That kraton clip was never very good on the draw, but was a step in the right direction in terms of comfort! It made me sad to see a totally plain clip on the G-10 models. Just one more reason I may need a G-10 Police model, I guess...
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-Corduroy
(Why else would a bear want a pocket?)
