What is your favorite steel for fixed blades ?

MAD777 said:
It's a Bohler steel not too dissimilar to Crucible's 3V. A bit more of everything, except lacking 3V's small amount of Tungsten and no Silica.

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3v doesn't have tungsten in any composition I have looked at? Vanadis 4e looks like it should have better edge holding then 3v with more carbon and vanadium. If you wanted more toughness I'd say 3v could be better.
 
sfrigon1 said:
Anyone familiar with Vanadis 4 extra steel?
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It's really close to cpm 4V, somewhat close to M4. A little similar to 3V.

The ZT 0180 made of Vanadis 4E took a pretty legitimate beating with negligible damage batoning through cinder blocks and frying pans and license plates. I could have literally cut cinder blocks out of a wall and then used the blocks to resharpen the knife. It's good. I beat on it with a sledgehammer through some kind of 3x6 exotic African hardwood planks about 20 ft long. Batoned all the way through multiple planks like that. I did way, way more than that with that knife.

Vanadis 6 is pretty good. Similar but less tough and higher wear resistance. Vanadis 10 more so, close to 10V and K294.
 
I like M4 the most, and S110V almost as much, and I use both of them. I like the reputation of 3V but I haven't used it enough to really tell about it.

I have 10 knives in my EDC rotation-
2 are M4
1 is Cruwear
2 are S110V (and 1 is S90V, almost the same thing to me)
2 are S30V
2 are D2
 
Overall I like coated 1095, Tough enough and I'm not scared to abuse it at the price point, takes a great edge easily. I like coated sr101 but its hard to sharpen for me. I also like satin Infi, its great for chopping. Infi really absorbs impact and is very stain resistant. But for the price of an Infi blade I always feel remorse after use
 
sfrigon1 said:
Anyone familiar with Vanadis 4 extra steel?
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Bigger knife - no question, CPM 3V!!

Medium - PD1/Cru-wear

Small - M390/20CV, Stellite 6K, and K390/10V

Other great ones are 1095, infi, N690

Would really like to try a Nitrogen stainless steel! They are supposed to have great toughness.
 
I am surprised that vanadis 4 extra isn't more popular , everything I've read has been positive feedback
 
O1 with a good heat treat is amazing stuff. 3V is good too but harder to keep up in the field in my opinion. CPM 154 or S30V would be my choice for a stainless fixed blade.
 
Vanadis 4 extra is my top preference. Is like a HSS optimized for cold work. Heat treatment is more demanding than some most steels though.
 
I like my steels basic. 1095 and O1 are two of my favorites. I like 3V, but I don't think it's necessary to pay 3x as much for a blade in 3V. The more basic carbon steels work great for my uses. I tend to find that the knives that I use most are the ones that I can sharpen easily.
 
Cpm 154 is really growing on me I am amazed at how easy it is to sharpen and equally amazed at well the edge holds up👍
 
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