Most underappreciated steel?

[jkurtz7]

14C28N is probably my #1 favorite blade steel, and as much as I love VG-10 I still prefer 14C28N. I think it takes a finer edge than Vg-10 and holds that fine edge just a bit longer. I’m also a big fan of AEB-L.

[MFlovejp]

I have to agree with so many here and say VG-10 and S30V. Also H1, especially with the build quality and geometry of the SE Pac Salt 2's: such a solid knife that I wouldn't hesitate to beat the ever-loving tar out of. The more exotic steels are certainly fun, but for everyday use these old standby's are hard to improve on.

[Fred Sanford]

ZDP-189

I agree. It’s still my favourite steel of the high carbide volume stainlesses.

I’ve been enjoying S90V recently in the Southfork and Proficient. I’d like to try it in a thin bladed folder like the Delica. I prefer S90V to S110V, and if I recall right, it actually had higher edge retention than S110V in Larrin’s CATRA tests.

But ZDP189 takes very fine edges off a variety of abrasive types, takes a fine polish fairly easily, has high strength, and keeps those fine edges quite well. It works well with either polished, refined edges or coarser finishes. With minimal care and maintenance, it’s ‘stainless enough’ for my purposes. I’ve used ZDP189 as a working knife bladesteel for years, and don’t really have any complaints about it.

Also, the lower carbide type steels are often underrated in my opinion. If you play to the strengths of these steels by grinding them in thinner, more acute edges, and are able to keep your knives sharp with regular touchups, they offer a whole world of different performance IMO.

I don’t really think any of the three steels in the poll are underrated, really.

Very well said.

I have a ZDP Endura and it is one of my favorite knives to use/carry. Keeps an edge for a long while. To me it feels close to M4. M4 still has an advantage in my book, but ZDP isn't that far off.

[Baron Mind]

To all those saying none of the three options are underappreciated, I don't know if we're getting hung up on semantics, or are just viewing the question with a different scope.

There is definitely a large swath of the knife community who view s110v and Maxamet as unusable garbage, not worth the trouble, or somewhere in between. Past that, there are those of us who understand their merits, but take them for granted.

14c28n is in a different boat, where no one hates it, but I think the word hasn't quite gotten out that is actually leading the pack for budget steels. It's not just a decent budget option, it is near undeniably the superior budget option, and reasons for not using it are hard to come by.

You personally may properly appreciate those 3 steels, but overall the knife world does not. Imho!

[bdblue]

I don't know anything about 14Cxxx but I do like S110V. People jump through hoops to buy the latest hard to get high performance steel, but in reality S110V is very high performance WRT edgeholding and is pretty easy to get. Of the steels that I like to use- M4, Rex45 and maybe even K390, S110V may have better edgeholding than all of them.

[Bill1170]

S110V is known so much for its vanadium-fueled wear resistance that it is easy to overlook its very high stain resistance. That’s a combination not often found.

[dan31]

I voted maxamet as it really is phenomenal. Everyone who likes Spyderco as a company should try one. It is so hard to work with and yet they keep producing it.

I’m on the lookout for 52100 or AEB-L in the native 5. Great steels, just different.

[Baron Mind]

S110V is known so much for its vanadium-fueled wear resistance that it is easy to overlook its very high stain resistance. That’s a combination not often found.

Right?! Next to the nitrogen steels it is near the top of corrosion resistant stainless steels, has a working hardness in the mid 60's, and has the highest raw wear resistance of any stainless steel save s125v which is practically non existent. But because people struggled to sharpen it with their Arkansas stones, and because a few people had chipping issues with their factory edges, the steel was dragged through the mud. I have no special attachment to the steel, just making an observation. S110V is indescribably better than many people think, and Spyderco deserves major kudos for bringing it to market. Period.

[Abyss_Fish]

SG2/R2. Nuff' said.

It should be the gold standard for kitchen knives, but the industry seems to be infatuated with vg10 and bd1n (or 440c if you're German.) I've been absolutely abusing a few work knives in the stuff and they've held up amazingly, I'm yet to chip it, it holds a fine edge for longer than s30v holds any edge whatsoever (closer to 20cv really), and it's not technically stainless but I'm yet to develop any patina with really just a wipe down after use. And with all that, it's still an absolute joy to sharpen.

It's basically tailor made for kitchen knives and I'm in love with it. Put it everywhere.

[ZrowsN1s]

ZDP-189

I agree. It’s still my favourite steel of the high carbide volume stainlesses.

I’ve been enjoying S90V recently in the Southfork and Proficient. I’d like to try it in a thin bladed folder like the Delica. I prefer S90V to S110V, and if I recall right, it actually had higher edge retention than S110V in Larrin’s CATRA tests.

But ZDP189 takes very fine edges off a variety of abrasive types, takes a fine polish fairly easily, has high strength, and keeps those fine edges quite well. It works well with either polished, refined edges or coarser finishes. With minimal care and maintenance, it’s ‘stainless enough’ for my purposes. I’ve used ZDP189 as a working knife bladesteel for years, and don’t really have any complaints about it.

Also, the lower carbide type steels are often underrated in my opinion. If you play to the strengths of these steels by grinding them in thinner, more acute edges, and are able to keep your knives sharp with regular touchups, they offer a whole world of different performance IMO.

I don’t really think any of the three steels in the poll are underrated, really.

Im a big fan of S90V, which I think is underrated as well.

[spoonrobot]

My personal fav: H1

Most steels are underrated here and there a few points, H1 is generally underrated by an entire class.

[Notsurewhy]

SG2/R2. Nuff' said.

It should be the gold standard for kitchen knives, but the industry seems to be infatuated with vg10 and bd1n (or 440c if you're German.) I've been absolutely abusing a few work knives in the stuff and they've held up amazingly, I'm yet to chip it, it holds a fine edge for longer than s30v holds any edge whatsoever (closer to 20cv really), and it's not technically stainless but I'm yet to develop any patina with really just a wipe down after use. And with all that, it's still an absolute joy to sharpen.

It's basically tailor made for kitchen knives and I'm in love with it. Put it everywhere.

I have an sg2 kitchen knife and it's great. It's clad, I'm guessing to avoid corrosion, but I've never seen any patina/discoloration near the edge and I use it to cut all manner of acidic food. Holds an edge for noticably longer than vg10 and doesn't seem any harder to sharpen.

[James Y]

I’m going to be unoriginal and agree with those who mentioned VG-10 and S30V.

I’ll also add S35VN.

Jim

[Rp5]

SG2/R2. Nuff' said.

It should be the gold standard for kitchen knives, but the industry seems to be infatuated with vg10 and bd1n (or 440c if you're German.) I've been absolutely abusing a few work knives in the stuff and they've held up amazingly, I'm yet to chip it, it holds a fine edge for longer than s30v holds any edge whatsoever (closer to 20cv really), and it's not technically stainless but I'm yet to develop any patina with really just a wipe down after use. And with all that, it's still an absolute joy to sharpen.

It's basically tailor made for kitchen knives and I'm in love with it. Put it everywhere.

I have an sg2 kitchen knife and it's great. It's clad, I'm guessing to avoid corrosion, but I've never seen any patina/discoloration near the edge and I use it to cut all manner of acidic food. Holds an edge for noticably longer than vg10 and doesn't seem any harder to sharpen.

I just bought SG2 Chef/Pairing/Santoku knives a couple weeks ago that have been great so far... happy to see these comments that the steel holds up.

[ugaarguy]

I voted maxamet as it really is phenomenal. Everyone who likes Spyderco as a company should try one. It is so hard to work with and yet they keep producing it.

I’m on the lookout for 52100 or AEB-L in the native 5. Great steels, just different.

Having bought the MGE distributor teal S90V N5 LW when it came out, I'm now looking to add both S110V and Maxamet N5 LWs to my collection. And I want to add the fluted CF S90V N5 that stayed in the 2021 catalog, if another run of those is indeed made. I also bought one the brown FRN AEB-L Urban sprints how ever long ago that was. I'd certainly like to try AEB-L in a Native 5 LW.

[JD Spydo]

I voted for S110V. Because my PARA2 with that steel is my most favorite PARA2 thus far in the game. But I actually think that the most underappreciated blade steel that Spyderco uses a lot is VG-10. Especially in SE the VG-10 blades do really well and they aren't all that bad in PE either. It's one of the few blade steels that I rate just as well in PE as I do in SE.

But overall I put my favorite blade steels into two different categories>> I rate steel for SE models completely different than I rate the Supersteels that are mostly made in PE. And there are a lot of great blade steels for PE blades that just won't work very well in full SE>> ZDP-189 comes to mind in that scenario.

Overall I've found VG-10 to be more than decent in both edge types ( PE & SE). And there aren't many blade steels I like in both edge types unfortunately.

[Senfkarte]

Out of the three in voting: I don't know, never have used 14c28n, so I can't talk about it.

In general: S30V or S35VN. I listed both because they are so similar, that in real live the only difference I could notice is the name. That said, I fell like the S30V might be a little more underappreciated in general when talking about steels. Just my opinion.