Spyderco Forums

Deadboxhero wrote: ↑

Fri Aug 23, 2019 12:11 pm

Well that sounds very exciting when you put it that way but I like to speculate that back in the late 1990's when they made it they decided on having a better balance of attributes for industrial wear and cutting needs not fancy pocket knives directly.

So they weren't seeing back than what makes you so excited to see in a knife today.

Genotoxic wrote: ↑

Fri Aug 23, 2019 9:59 am

Deadboxhero wrote: ↑

Fri Aug 23, 2019 7:58 am

JonLeBlanc wrote: ↑

Fri Aug 23, 2019 7:35 am

That's right it was an early one, and somebody please correct me if I'm wrong but isn't it a PM version of one of the 400-series steels? Like 460 or 420, something... Idk

Not at all.

They just used 440 17%cr and 420 14%cr amounts as starting points and added the carbon vanadium needed to blast em out with super hard Carbides that they would shrink with PM.

440v/s60v and 420v/s90v

Larrin crushed all the crucible steel history, it was facinating to talk to him about it. Turns out they had several other verisons I was not aware of until he told me about them such as 420vn and s145v that they decided not to develop.

Was S145V created and deemed too extreme after the first round of testing or was it just a steel formulated on paper that never came to reality?

Ah that makes sense, I forget sometimes the major steel manufacturers aren't tailoring steels to knives 99.9% of the time. We just end up applying different steels to knives in a sort of trial and error way since we dont have specific steels made for the application.

Thanks for the reply Phil! Really great to hear your opinion.

Also thanks to everyone else leaving a message on here... I'm definitely learning lots. I didnt expect this thread to gain as much traction

Love s90v. For my use it's just as corrosion resistant as as M390 (Larrin's data confirm this), but easier to sharpen on ~600-800 wetstones (burr?). Also, I've had Spyderco's s110v and m390 chip, but s90v not yet. I do suspect Spyderco runs s90v a little softer than m390 (60 vs 62 HRC?).

Pelagic wrote: ↑

Fri Aug 23, 2019 12:05 pm

I have never found s90v chippy at 26-30 inclusive. I've also not found s110v chippy at 22-24 inclusive. I didn't own any s90v knives long enough to really push the sharpening angle. But it cut 4-5 inch thick rope saturated in silt, mud, and grit dredged up from Jacksonville and Charleston Harbors at less than 30 inclusive without chipping. And let me just say that this is absolute torture on an apex. Some lines would blunt s110v in on cut (from 300-400 grit hair whittling to borderline severe edge damage - working edge gone), so s90v certainly isn't too delicate at the apex in my experience. But it didn't hold the working edge quite as long as s110v when subject to such torturous cuts.

Good to know! If you're taking your angles that low and still not noticing major failure I should be just fine with my 32-34 deg inclusive. Even cutting fiberglass ceiling tiles the S90 still had some bite left... usually that just murders an edge even on ZDP 189 so it's pretty special in that sense.

ferider wrote: ↑

Sat Aug 24, 2019 11:16 am

Love s90v. For my use it's just as corrosion resistant as as M390 (Larrin's data confirm this), but easier to sharpen on ~600-800 wetstones (burr?). Also, I've had Spyderco's s110v and m390 chip, but s90v not yet. I do suspect Spyderco runs s90v a little softer than m390 (60 vs 62 HRC?).

How do you find edge agression off the 800 stone? I find S90V kills the M390 family of steels in how much bite the edge has at medium grits and that's an attribute I really like.

Genotoxic wrote: ↑

Sat Aug 24, 2019 11:22 am

ferider wrote: ↑

Sat Aug 24, 2019 11:16 am

Love s90v. For my use it's just as corrosion resistant as as M390 (Larrin's data confirm this), but easier to sharpen on ~600-800 wetstones (burr?). Also, I've had Spyderco's s110v and m390 chip, but s90v not yet. I do suspect Spyderco runs s90v a little softer than m390 (60 vs 62 HRC?).

How do you find edge agression off the 800 stone? I find S90V kills the M390 family of steels in how much bite the edge has at medium grits and that's an attribute I really like.

Just like you. My medium grid hand-sharpening makes for great cutters for what I need the knives, kitchen, yard, whittling, etc.

800 grit is a good all around finish for s90v imo, with or without a brief stropping afterward.

It pairs really well with peel ply carbon fiber.

ZrowsN1s wrote: ↑

Thu Aug 22, 2019 7:38 pm

There are pluses minuses and trade offs to all steels. I was talking to someone not too long ago about why they preferred S90V to S110V. S110V has greater wear resistance than S90V but is not by coincidence harder to sharpen. They found S90V to be for them a better balance of wear resistance and ease of sharpening than S110V. It does best with a coarse edge, but I find it holds a polished edge nicely too. And it is fairly stainless.

In short if you're looking for something that is a small step back from the extremes of S110V, S90V is a little more of a balanced steel, while still being high performance, wear resistant, stainless high carbide steel.

This nails it exactly, I could not say it better, except that I might go farther than saying it is "fairly stainless". It seems doggone stainless.

My favorite stainless, with the CPM 20CV family a close second.

I bought a native in the turquoise lightweight handle and S 90 V. I reprofiled the blade to a smaller angle and it took me forever with diamond DMT stones. Then I went down the colors stones all the way to the most fine. Today I spent an hour carving on a hardwood stick and covered the porch with carvings and it’s still sharp. I am actually impressed. I didn’t realize how hard they could get steel.

Naperville wrote: ↑

Thu Aug 22, 2019 7:02 pm

The only thing that I know about S90V is that I'd like to see the Native Chief and Street Beat made out of it.

It took quite a while, but I have to give thanks to Sal and the team for making my wish come true.

I carry my S90V Native Chief with me everywhere I go now.

Does s90v take that nice grabbing edge like the other high carbide steels?

GarageBoy wrote: ↑

Mon May 17, 2021 9:26 am

Does s90v take that nice grabbing edge like the other high carbide steels?

In my experience, no. S90V is a strange steel for me, primarily used on a Southfork. It holds an edge forever but doesn't get the grabbing edge like k390 for me but stays with that edge for a long, long time. In the same way I don't find I can get S30V screaming sharp but it holds it for a while.

I can only speak from my own personal experience on s90v. I have sharpened s90v and s110v several dozen times over the years. I am fortunate to have had most examples Rockwell tested. My ukpk hit 62.5 whereas my pm2 hit 59 for s110v. S90v has always hit 60 or higher and that's with 5 models. S110v in my experience takes longer to apex, longer to deburr, and the front end sharpness disappears very quick. Long cutting edge length and a coarse toothy sharpened apex seems to work well for s110v. Both s90v and s110v benefit from diamond like abrasives. I've gotten carbide tear out using wrong Stones on the 110v not s90v. Unless there's another term for the pop sound I heard. S90v I think is just more versatile than it's burple bretheren. It holds front end sharpness better, cuts just as long, and I've seen more consistency with heat treat/performance. I can think of only a few models that I think s110v belongs on. S90v Is better suited for the 3 inch and under group imo. Just my opinion but I think s90v fits the demands of users better overall. Never had any issues with Rust or chipping on any of these steels. I enjoy both for different reasons, s90v just has a few more.

Since this thread has been revived I may as well throw in my two cents.

Great working steel, fine edge holding isn’t spectacular, on par with something mid-range (s30v or just barely below), but it holds a working edge for aaaaagggges. I spent some time using an s90v manix at work, it was dragged across metal tables, used to puncture the lids on pickle jars, and banged into many a staple. Through all that the working edge stayed true, no chips no rolls no dents. Nada. The only reason I ditched it was because s90v isn’t quite as corrosion resistant as other stainlesses.

If anything I’m surprised it gets used in higher end pieces, since formulas like steels in the m390 family (or even lc200n in my experience) tend to hold a fine edge longer. The current line of budget oriented frn and s90v knives are where it should be, so it can get really put to work.