What is your experience with CTS-XHP?

[bchan]

Hello all, I come to the Spyderco scene late and have been lucky enough (and pleased!) recently to get hold of a sprint run Manix 2, a very nice knife. However, I know next to zero about the CTS-XHP steel from which the blade is made. What is your experience of using this steel, any pros and cons, and is it difficult to sharpen? Thanks.

[marcus1]

I'm subscribing to this thread and will post my findings once I get mine in the mail and have a chance to try it out (should be in a day or two :) :)

[Monkeywrangler]

My experience is that XHP is Unobtanium...

[jonnydingo]

I just received my Manix CTS I doubt it will be more than a safe queen but if I get another I will EDC. Two is better than one ya know. I look forward to someone giving some real world data on this.

[yablanowitz]

So far it seems to be in the D2 range for edgeholding, maybe a little easier to sharpen. It takes a good edge, probably a bit finer than S90, but it doesn't hold it as long. Mine hasn't seen a lot of use yet, but it has been riding along for the last week or so at work.

[spoonrobot]

yabs, did you give it the grinder treatment to remove the liner jimping like you did with the other M2 you had?

Got any pics of how the first one came out?

[SteelDragon]

I just received my Manix CTS I doubt it will be more than a safe queen but if I get another I will EDC. Two is better than one ya know. I look forward to someone giving some real world data on this.

Don't make it go in the safe, it's a Manix not a safe queenie :eek:

[pdptrow]

Hello, I'm new to posting on the forum and buying spyderco knives. My first Spydie was a Sage I then a stretch 2. My next purchase could be a Paramilitary 2 or a manix 2 with CTS-XHP. Does anyone know if there will be more runs with cts-xhp on the manix 2 or other spydies? I feel like I missed a great opportunity on that one.
I know there are a couple still available but asking big bucks. Should I spend the money for one or is there a possibility of more coming. So any comments on the which is the better buy would be appreciated. I do edc and use my knives camping etc.

[dsmegst]

There is another run planned for the CTS-XHP Manix 2 but the numbers are limited. Dealers were taking early orders but the demand was so high, most stopped taking orders months ago. It's going to be hard to find online dealers that have any spots that's not already spoken for. You will see one or two show up in the 2ndary market.

Sorry you missed the first run. The knife is the ultimate combination of hard use design and blade steel in a reasonable weight package.

[yablanowitz]

yabs, did you give it the grinder treatment to remove the liner jimping like you did with the other M2 you had?

Got any pics of how the first one came out?

No, I'll wait until it actually annoys me before I introduce it to the grinder.

I might have time to snap a picture of the one I ground off before dark. Basically, it's like most of my annoyance relief projects - ugly, but it resolved the problem.

[marcus1]

I got it... and as usual its razor sharp out of the box (hair test is the first thing I do now when I get a new spidie :) )
It makes very nice cuts (even better than the 154cm which I find I had to "saw" a bit to cut some twine, where this one I just press against it and it cuts!)

I'll add another update when I need to resharpen and comment on how long that took and how easy the SM works on this steel.

LOVE IT so far :)

[JNewell]

Unless it's changed recently, the resale (secondary market) prices for this knife were not too bad, especially compared to the blue S30V and the CF S90V. The group view was that prices were being kept more reasonable because of the larger run and the fact that the second run had not shipped yet.

Hello, I'm new to posting on the forum and buying spyderco knives. My first Spydie was a Sage I then a stretch 2. My next purchase could be a Paramilitary 2 or a manix 2 with CTS-XHP. Does anyone know if there will be more runs with cts-xhp on the manix 2 or other spydies? I feel like I missed a great opportunity on that one.
I know there are a couple still available but asking big bucks. Should I spend the money for one or is there a possibility of more coming. So any comments on the which is the better buy would be appreciated. I do edc and use my knives camping etc.

[LorenzoL]

Great stuff, I would say very close to CPM-D2 but with the added benefit of being stainless. I still prefer S90V, S110V or M4.

[dorfinator]

My foliage green Manix 2 is in my daily EDC rotation along with my Blue one (say it ain't so!) but it is, along with the blue stretch. (I carry the CF Sage and Caly3 G-10 for when I'm dressing up.)

I've touched up the CTS-XHP and it sharpens much easier than the ZDP. I love the Manix for everyday carry as I know I have some heft in my hand and just feels very capable.

Looking forward to all the mods that may happen down the road with the Manix. Love to see Orange and Camo G-10 scales. (I haven't taken either of my two Pink ones out of their boxes yet as my better half will have a cow as my addiction to the Spydie bug has taken hold and haven't found a cure yet!)

[nozh2002]

My manila rope cutting test shows this steel being best edge holding steel among production knives so far, performs almost same as Dozier and take 2nd place. See results here:

http://playground.sun.com/~vasya/Manila ... sults.html

CPM S90V is not really good edge holder, possible because of high carbide volumes (same as CPM 10V), it may be wear resistant but does not holds edge better then ZDP189, 1095 and other steels.

Can you imagine blade made out of grinding wheel - this is what CPM S90V is, on my opinion. Knife community gave Crucible too much credit for CPM 440V - which was pretty good, but then Crucible stop producing it and came with CPM S30V - "special steel for knives" which shows pretty average performance (16th place in my tests).

Then ZDP189 came and Crucible was not able to offer anything even close to it. CPM 154, CPM D2, CPM M4, CPM S110V etc. etc. - I remember those "super steel coming" crys very well. All were well promoted but did not perform as good as ZDP189.

Finally we "found" good old 440XH - micromelted by Carpenter and called CTS-XHP. Stainless (unlike CPM M4, which is best what Crucible offered so far) and made in US! Probably costs much less then any CPM steel as well.

I think soon we will have only this steel on all top grade knives.

Thanks, Vassili

[Metric]

My manila rope cutting test shows this steel being best edge holding steel among production knives so far, performs almost same as Dozier and take 2nd place. See results here:

http://playground.sun.com/~vasya/Manila ... sults.html

CPM S90V is not really good edge holder, possible because of high carbide volumes (same as CPM 10V), it may be wear resistant but does not holds edge better then ZDP189, 1095 and other steels.

Can you imagine blade made out of grinding wheel - this is what CPM S90V is, on my opinion. Knife community gave Crucible too much credit for CPM 440V - which was pretty good, but then Crucible stop producing it and came with CPM S30V - "special steel for knives" which shows pretty average performance (16th place in my tests).

Then ZDP189 came and Crucible was not able to offer anything even close to it. CPM 154, CPM D2, CPM M4, CPM S110V etc. etc. - I remember those "super steel coming" crys very well. All were well promoted but did not perform as good as ZDP189.

Finally we "found" good old 440XH - micromelted by Carpenter and called CTS-XHP. Stainless (unlike CPM M4, which is best what Crucible offered so far) and made in US! Probably costs much less then any CPM steel as well.

I think soon we will have only this steel on all top grade knives.

Thanks, Vassili

I am glad you posted this, Vassili -- I was about to look for the link to your tests in previous threads.

A few conclusions I draw from your tests:

1) CTS-XHP is great stuff!

2) Quality of heat treatment is enormously important and varies much more than you might expect, enough to put D2 at the very top and also dead last!

3) Trust Spyderco, don't trust Benchmade. :D (Buck 420HC > Benchmade M2 :eek: )

I would love to see VG10 tested as well!

[defenestrate]

My experience is that XHP is Unobtanium...

My experience is the same which is why I have a preorder in for the second batch of M2 XHP models coming out this summer. Can't wait@!

[LorenzoL]

I am glad you posted this, Vassili -- I was about to look for the link to your tests in previous threads.

A few conclusions I draw from your tests:

1) CTS-XHP is great stuff!

2) Quality of heat treatment is enormously important and varies much more than you might expect, enough to put D2 at the very top and also dead last!

3) Trust Spyderco, don't trust Benchmade. :D (Buck 420HC > Benchmade M2 :eek: )

I would love to see VG10 tested as well!

The statement in bold totally discredits anything Vassili posts. Anyone who owns a Buck and an M2 BM knows that this is BS.

[Metric]

The statement in bold totally discredits anything Vassili posts. Anyone who owns a Buck and an M2 BM knows that this is BS.

I would love to see him defend this, since it is a very counter-intuitive finding, but I don't rule it out at all. From time to time I have had a knife made of lesser-grade steel that, for some reason, just seemed to cut and cut and cut. And I also have had experience with a couple Benchmades with blades that just seemed to totally under-perform expectations based on steel hype (however, I also experienced a couple good ones as well).

I am not going to discount real attempts at standardized, quantifiable tests, simply because the results seem surprising.

[nozh2002]

Well, I tried before to compare commonly accepted theories with results of tests, but I am not doing it now. In Scientific Methodology (I checked it in wikipedia) this is not job of tester to make results to match theory but vise versa.

Test results may be wrong, but to find it out you need to compare them to different test results. So until I see different test results there is no base for discussion really.

Thanks, Vassili.