phenomenal premium steels in an itty bitty living space

[ladybug93]

disclaimer: i understand perfectly that there are people that have to carry smaller knives for legal reasons and that there are other people that just prefer smaller knives and that those people probably want to try different steels too. i'm not trying to take anything away from those people. this post is not about that.

now that that's out of the way, is there any reason to buy a smaller knife with a premium steel?

what prompted this question for me is the growing number of premium dragonfly models. there are df2s in s30v, k390, 20cv, cruwear, etc. now and i'm wondering if it makes sense to buy such a small model with these steels if you typically prefer and are allowed to carry larger blades.

it just seems like you can't really enjoy the full benefit of these steels with only just over an inch to work with. i'm looking forward to hearing everyone's thoughts. i'd love to be wrong. thanks.

[Airlsee]

I found this post really relevant because I just went through this with the Lil' Native. I picked it up in S90V because I think high wear resistance and high corrosion resistance in a small blade is super beneficial.

When I see tiny blades in super tough steels it makes less sense to me, but I would love to see everyone's responses. I know that someone had stated that they used the Rex 45 Lil' Native for stripping wire and that the toughness was beneficial for that...I doubt that most people are stripping wire on a regular basis with their tiny EDC's, but who knows?

Edit to add: I do have the Ladybug in Hap40 & K390 but that is really just for fun...I wouldn't be able to distinguish between VG10 and a super steel in my Ladybug's.

[Fireman]

There is a case to say that high hardness steels are better in smaller knives and tougher steels in larger knives.

[p_atrick]

If my VG10 P4 starts to dull a bit I can always move my cutting to a different portion of the blade. Harder to do with an Urban. But if you have the K390 Urban, that's no longer a problem.

[Josh1973]

Well I would say yes to smaller knives having better steel. I own both larger and smaller knives. And even though I can legally carry a large folder. I sometimes enjoy carrying a small gentleman folder knife downtown. I own a few Fallkniven LTC's that are a purposely built smaller knives meant to be legal in most parts of the world. And easier to not freak out Anti knife folk. And the steel is 3G laminated. Which is way better than the steel Victorinox uses on their SAK'S.
It is nice to not have to sharpen the knife after every single small use.
Smaller knives deserve modern good steels also.

[Evil D]

It just maximizes that particular design, the same way it does in a larger folder. Some steels make less sense than others though, there's a lot less practical use of a super tough steel in a Ladybug where the steel will drastically out perform the strength potential of the design itself, but edge retention is valuable in any size knife.

[MFlovejp]

High wear resistance is beneficial in a tiny blade you'll use often for light tasks. But high toughness steels? Am I meant to baton oaken logs with my Cruwear Dragonfly? That's where I draw the line.

[Vaugith]

Airlsee-
I'm not sure if you were talking about me but I did mention rex45 being good for wire stripping when a comparison between rex45 and S90V was asked for. But my rex45 is in the form of a shaman. I wouldnt want the lil native for that task. Also, it's rex45s hardness, not toughness, that makes a good performer there. Larrin recently showed in his testing that rex45 actually has surprisingly low toughness.

Regarding the post topic-
I think toughness oriented specialty steels may have their benefits unappreciated in small formats but certainly not steels with supreme corrosion resistance such as LC200N or steels with great wear resistance such as S90V or K390. Sometimes it's hot out and I don't want to carry a full size knife in basketball shorts. Or sometimes I am forced to travel to those horrible places with restrictive laws and need a smaller sized folder. When carrying those, I'm certainly not going to ask hard use tasks of them. However extra edge retention to postpone sharpening is appriciated!

[aaronkb]

Convenience and ease of carry. Especially for women, because the fashion overlords have somehow decided they all want tiny pockets or no pockets.

[Naperville]

I prefer the highest TCC and hardness I can get whatever the length of the blade. If I have to use a small blade, I want it to CUT, just like a razor blade for at least 100 cuts through every kind of material.

[SG89]

90% fun, 10% utility. Just like an El Camino lol

[Airlsee]

Airlsee-
I'm not sure if you were talking about me but I did mention rex45 being good for wire stripping when a comparison between rex45 and S90V was asked for. But my rex45 is in the form of a shaman. I wouldnt want the lil native for that task. Also, it's rex45s hardness, not toughness, that makes a good performer there. Larrin recently showed in his testing that rex45 actually has surprisingly low toughness.

That's interesting, I'll have to look up Larrin's test. Did it have "surprisingly low toughness" at high hardness, or just low toughness in general? I would expect it to be near the same toughness as M4 when in the 62-63hrc range, but when run at the higher 64-66hrc range that some of the Rex 45 is in, I can see how that would definitely effect things.

[Nuh Nups]

High wear resistance is beneficial in a tiny blade you'll use often for light tasks. But high toughness steels? Am I meant to baton oaken logs with my Cruwear Dragonfly? That's where I draw the line.

I thought the same thing about having such a high-toughness steel in such a little knife. I guess you could argue that in the case of cruwear, a lot of people like the way it sharpens and the keen edge it will take. While I’m tempted to get the cruwear dragonfly because I enjoy that steel so much, I don’t know how often one would need such high toughness in such a little folder.

[Nuh Nups]

90% fun, 10% utility. Just like an El Camino lol

My wife loved this comment. She has always liked El Caminos and says you two could probably be good friends. :D

[prndltech]

Not sure I’d go for cruwear or M4 in a dragonfly, but something like s90v would be great. Then you can look at accidentally smacking the tip or edge into something hard and maybe cruwear or M4 makes better sense than it did originally. K390 is always good choice in a pocket knife of any size I think... Guess it all depends on who you are and what your looking for so I say give us all the options we can get!

90% fun, 10% utility. Just like an El Camino lol

And mullets.

[JRinFL]

No one would think twice about a Dragonfly or Ladybug in AEB-L steel, right? Well, it is interesting to note AEB-L has roughly twice the toughness of Cru-wear! Cru-wear is a very well balanced steel that makes it an ideal steel for all sizes of pocket knives, but it is not super in any one area. It remains my favorite and is only likely to be unseated by Magnacut.

If AEB-L is suitable for tiny razor blades, then Cru-wear is ideal for small knives. IMO, at least.

[Vaugith]

Airlsee-
I'm not sure if you were talking about me but I did mention rex45 being good for wire stripping when a comparison between rex45 and S90V was asked for. But my rex45 is in the form of a shaman. I wouldnt want the lil native for that task. Also, it's rex45s hardness, not toughness, that makes a good performer there. Larrin recently showed in his testing that rex45 actually has surprisingly low toughness.

That's interesting, I'll have to look up Larrin's test. Did it have "surprisingly low toughness" at high hardness, or just low toughness in general? I would expect it to be near the same toughness as M4 when in the 62-63hrc range, but when run at the higher 64-66hrc range that some of the Rex 45 is in, I can see how that would definitely effect things.

On his chart of steels comparing wear resistance on one axis vs toughness on the other, REX45 showed poor toughness for it's level of wear resistance, which I believe would still hold true and translate at any given hardness.

And as I said before, I was certainly surprised. It holds up well for me in use, and I do plenty of dumb stuff.

[Wandering_About]

I love high wear resistance steels in tiny knives. It makes sense to me to have a steel that holds an edge well when you don't have much edge to work with. High toughness steels with poor edge retention in tiny knives seems like the real waste to me.

Really enjoying my Manbug in K390. It gets used a lot and it's nice to have an edge that lasts and lasts. That's probably the best example of "tiny knife with super steel" that I have. A stainless steel like S110V would be even better in a knife like that.

[SG89]

90% fun, 10% utility. Just like an El Camino lol

My wife loved this comment. She has always liked El Caminos and says you two could probably be good friends. :D

:D

[JakeXman]

Here’s how I’ve always thought of it:

•A ladybug in VG10 would cut for an arbitrary 2 weeks.

•A police in VG10 under the same circumstances would cut for much longer, maybe 4 weeks simply due to using each inch of edge less often.

If both were upgraded to K390,

•The ladybug would cut for 4 weeks.

•The police would cut for 10 or more weeks.

The fact that smaller blades inherently dull faster can help to illustrate the differences in edge retention of steels on a scale that is much more perceivable.