Vanax steel questions?

[M.FREEZE]

Has anyone ever worked with this steel? How does it compare to other high corrosion resistant steels? How is edge holding? Is it true that it's no longer in production?

 

[J. Rosa]

I've made some blades from it. There was vanax 75 and vanax 35. What is available now is the 35 and its just called vanax. Corrosion was never an issue for me but I never set out to specifically test for that. However, I never babied the blade I was testing and even left it a little damp overnight without issues. I had Peter's max the hardness on the blades I made and that gets to 59hrc. Although they make decent knives I noticed that there is some strength missing compared to the stainless steels I'm used to like s90v. . Meaning that you will be more likely to roll an edge than chip it but it may be more noticeable if you're one that likes to grind on the thin side and sharpen well below 20 degrees per side. I took mine down to around .008 to test. Edge holding was pretty good but geometry makes a big difference. Dulled out I can still go through cardboard without much if any curling for a while. However vanax does feels a little different in the cut when cutting stuff like cardboard even when dull (seems smooth but maybe it's just me). When I read up on it some said it should be similar to s30v in regards to edge holding. Its not. Its different. It won't have that working edge. It will have a very smooth edge. At least that was my impression. But it is easier to sharpen. It's also easy to machine. I didn't have any trouble drilling or grinding. I believe it's still in production but to be sure you can contact Chuck at alpha knife supply. He would know more about that than me. I wouldn't hesitate to use it on a dive knife or a fillet knife, or even for the kitchen if that was the steel requested. It wouldn't be my first choice for an edc unless corrosion and sharpening were my main concerns but even then the cost might still keep some knife makers away. Hope that helps.

 

[M.FREEZE]

That helps a lot. The reason I was wondering about it being discontinued is because I haven't seen it on AKS in a while. Thanks

 

[S.Grosvenor]

Makes a amazing fillet, and it does move thru whatever you're cutting smoothly, kinda weird actually.