Steels you won't buy...and why

[Ez556]

I wouldn’t say NEVER, but I’m very much not interested in Maxamet. I don’t need anything that wear resistant and I have no interest in living with the trade offs of lacking corrosion resistance, lacking ease of sharpening and lacking toughness. It’s just too specialized for me. S110V is at least very corrosion resistant, and I like blue, so if I wanted something that wear resistant I’d go there first.

[DansGearAddiction]

Just curious, what steel would you prefer on a Chaparral? I love CTS-XHP (although edge retention and stainless are my most important properties of a steel; toughness is least), but would also love to see more steel choices on the Chaparral.

That’s a good question. Also want to clarify that I’m not trying to “yuck anyone’s yum.” If XHP performs well for you I’m not here to change your mind.

I’m only one sharpening in on my Mule but from what I’ve experience with MagnaCut I think it would make an excellent successor to XHP. I’ll have to double-check about ease of sharpening but it has better corrosion resistance and toughness than XHP and can achieve the same hardness.

What do you think? Is there something you’d rather see in the Chaparral format?

No need to worry, I didn't feel like you were trying to put anyone down. To me, CTS-XHP makes a lot of sense on the Chaparral since it's billed as a gentlemans' folder -- I think the properties of XHP make it a good fit for that use case.

I'd like to see it just in more steels solely for the reason that I think it's also such a great utilitarian knife that more steel choices could put it in front of more people.

With that being said, Magnacut would absolutely make a neat option for it.

[Bolster]

With that being said, Magnacut would absolutely make a neat option for it [Chap].

Is your thinking that a relatively high-toughness steel like MC would be good for such a thin blade? Generally I look for the very high edge retention steels on a gent's folder (given relatively light slicing use) but maybe I'm overlooking a good reason for a tougher steel to be used on the Chap?

With MC rather than XHP, you'd have roughly the same Catra (540 vs 550?). Toughness would about double, from 8 to 17 ft lbs. And of course MC would be remarkably stainless, where XHP is only moderately so, though on my gent's knives I've not had much trouble with corrosion.

[DansGearAddiction]

With that being said, Magnacut would absolutely make a neat option for it [Chap].

Is your thinking that a relatively high-toughness steel like MC would be good for such a thin blade? Generally I look for the very high edge retention steels on a gent's folder (given relatively light slicing use) but maybe I'm overlooking a good reason for a tougher steel to be used on the Chap?

With MC rather than XHP, you'd have roughly the same Catra (540 vs 550?). Toughness would about double, from 8 to 17 ft lbs. And of course MC would be remarkably stainless, where XHP is only moderately so, though on my gent's knives I've not had much trouble with corrosion.

I think stain resistance would be the main reason for me. I agree with you in that I don't see the Chaparral benefiting from increased toughness.

Edit: I was thinking about this some more, and was thinking it would actually make a good candidate for testing different steels on a very thin, super-slicey edge too.