What are your top 5 favorite steels?

[Dnwrghtsr]

I’m in SW Ohio the only non humid time of year is fall.
S90v
204p
Lc200n
S110v
Maxamet

[Naperville]

Knives under 5 inches I'd be more concerned with edge holding so I would choose:
S90V
20CV / 204P / M390
S110V
Maxamet

And knives over 5 inches with blades up to 2ft length I would choose:
3V
Magnacut

[Donut]

I carry S110V very often. It does good.
CTS-BD30P
CTS-XHP (Is XHP still popular? It cuts very good.)
CPM-M4
Whatever it is I have in my pocket.

[Drebs]

This is an old thread, but since I didn’t see my top three steals repped to much going to jump in … I’m pretty utilitarian in their real world uses

S90v - stainless great Cutting with 600 grit edge very aggressive meat cutter and pull cutting
Cruwear - tough great for tough task
Magnacut - stainless great balance of all the other properties
Rex 45- incredible edge stability, harder to sharpen bit more forgiving if there’s any mistake made for chips on the edge

[Flash]

There’s many steels I’ve not had chance to use, but so far here’s 7 I have used and like:

80CRV2 by Varusteleka - I own and use a few - tough and surprisingly stable at lower angles. Perfect hard use fixed blade steel.
Spy27 - Appears to be quite balanced but what I particularly like is it feels like its one of those steels that wants to be sharp. Very easy to get a fine edge back.
K390 - I have limited time with this steel but has made quite an impression. Brilliant edge retention and stability and yet not too difficult to get sharp again.
14C28N - tough, stable and takes a nice fine edge. Edge retention is decent. Excels at low geometries.
CPMS30V - Perfectly Good all rounder. Spyderco does it exceptionally well.
CTS-XHP - don’t particularly like how stainless it isn’t but it is stable, strong and easy to sharpen.
Mora carbon - When you factor in how stable it is at the low angles it’s supplied in, it’s quite amazing stuff for the money.

[papermoon88]

Rex121 maxamet 15v 10v k390. Steels do make aggressive edge are my favorite. Not living close to ocean, stainlessness is not a big deal.

[elena86]

I really like LC200N due to the ease of sharpening, but.....Edge Stability.

Curious, because I always heard LC200N was tough. Does the edge roll or chip easily? I haven’t abused mine to have any opinion yet.

All this talk of K390 makes me want to try some also

It's pretty tough in my experience, but I have seen it roll / chip slightly on things I've done with H1 with no damage.

Anyways, my top 5 in no particular order:

- H1

- A2

- S7

- LC200N

- Aogami Super


H1 for obvious reasons. Rust proof, extremely tough, amazing sharpening response, etc. To me it's hands down the superest of super steels

A2 is to me what cru-wear is to people reading this. Great balance of toughness, edge holding, and fairly corrosion resistant for this class of steel. Also cheap. I have no idea why A2 has performed better than cruwear for me but it has. I think this is a very overlooked steel and I'd love to see what Spyderco could do with it, running it in the 61-62rc range on a small to medium fixed blade with micarta scales.

S7 is the toughest steel I've ever used. It sucks at pretty much everything else, but it "goes to 11" in the category it's supposed to. It's fun for a chopper or axe.

LC200N is like a (to me) slightly worse H1 that can be full flat ground from the factory. Probably my second favorite overall steel, I just like H1 a little better. Good sharpening response, good toughness, corrosion proof for me, and slightly better edge holding than H1 in PE at least.

Aogami Super. I've only used it in kitchen knives with extremely thin geometry and at ~65 rc, but it impresses the **** out of me. Amazing edge retention, great sharpening response, decent corrosion resistance for a non-stainless, not difficult to re-bevel for the edge holding offered, and tough enough to handle professional kitchen use with zero damage so far. One day I'll buy a spyderco in clad super blue to try out.

Runners up are M4 and S30V. Two very balanced steels I enjoy using.

What's your experience with H1 edge retention in PE ? It's been discussed before but we are in 2023 and you probably learned alot about it. I like H1 quite alot and from my experience H1 has decent edge retention in PE , contrary to what most knife people claim.

[elena86]

My top five in 2023

AEB-L
Cruwear
SPY27
S90V
H1

Looking forward to test Magnacut

[kriezek]

Magnacut - holds a good edge while being tough and able to handle water well, looking forward to more offerings that are coming with this steel

S35VN - from a numbers perspective, prefer this to S45VN, but in actual usage, it is pretty hard to tell them apart

S90V - replaced ZDP-189 as my high edge retention steel preference even though I still use my old Stretch 1 in ZDP-189 because of the handle design. If Spyderco made a Stretch 1 in S90V, well.... LOL

S30V - too many of my knives have this steel for it not to be my list. It works well for my purposes.

AEB-L - on my wishlist because I haven't had the pleasure of using it - yet. I really would like to see it on a PM2 Sprint or Exclusive model at some point

[Keithpaints]

Magnacut-(Kershaw Leek) also chef knife that I thinned quite a bit. True stainless, excellent edge retention. Tough cut frozen fruit for smoothies take seeds out of Avocados things wouldn't do with my thin edge carbon chef
Knives. Magnacut can put shaving sharp edge.

K-390 - tough great edge retention diamond stones to sharpen finishing light strokes JKI 6K
Diamond stone.

Blue steel Carbon -Spyderco thinned it razor sharp with patina.

CPM-M4 - Para 2 spyderco use this blade for weekly hikes in Hawaii. Also cleaned fresh fish
with it. Semi stainless compared to my stainless beater much used CPM S30V. CPM-M4 is much harder 63-64. I left it in my backpack for a week uncleaned took on little surface corrosion. My fault didn't make that mistake again. Love this steel tough, again can put shaving sharp edge on it. OOTB one of sharpest spyderco I've bought. Since have used it a year hikes. Thinned behind the edge some.
It's good steel can handle thinner edge.

CPM S3OV - Full size spyderco. Used outdoors yardwork, cutting open bags of cement. Had S30V many years still going strong after 8 years. Capable stainless steel.

[Michael Janich]

Dear Keithpaints:

Welcome to the Spyderco Forum.

Stay safe,

Mike

[JoviAl]

Magnacut - it has proven itself to be tough enough, easy enough to get proper sharp, stainless enough to mistreat and generally a delight to live with.

H1/H2 - the king of SE. Gets hellaciously sharp very easily on a sharp maker.

Cruwear - suspiciously stainless for a tool steel. Brilliant.

S90V - for when you absolutely positively have to have the sharpest hair whittling push cutting edge… that’s stainless.

K390 - ‘cos it’s ace and you can put a bi*chin patina on it.

Honourable mention to good old balanced Elmax - it’s basically yesteryear’s Magnacut but still performs very well, especially in larger fixed blades.

[Windward]

In no particular order.

H1- i use it at work everyday. takes a beating like nothing else and only thing ive never rusted. Easy to resharpen in SE or PE

Vg10- not the best at anything but pretty good at everything. Affordable and makes a great work knife steel, plus easy to resharpen.

Lc200n- on general i like it slightly less than h1 but usually will take it in plain edge over se.

Cruwear- i live and work very close to the ocean and a bay. Non ss steels rust sitting in my drawer for a day.... except for cruwear. Its super tough and a nice all around steel. My favorite non ss.

S90v- if i know im going to do a lot cutting but can give up some toughness, its my go to. Such good edge retention compared to my other ss steels.


Ask me in a year but spy27 could surpass vg10 and magnacut could pass lc200n. I have knives in both, and so far really like both a lot, but just not enough time with them to really make an informed "ranking"

[Synov]

3V
CruWear
Magnacut
S90V
Maxamet

I don't see how you could need anything else.