Question about steels

[mpclb]

Specifically, a question about the current popularity of several of the Benchmade offerings with the M2 "high-speed" tool steel option. Is this a "steel-of-the-month" craze, or does this steel really offer something over some of our favorite steels, i.e., CPM-440V and VG-10?



I hope it is OK to post this here - I did so since I equate Spyderco with careful, well-thought out steel selection, and figured this would be the place to find some thoughtful comments about this topic.



Thanks,



Matthew



Edited by - mpclb on 7/9/2001 12:10:32 PM

[Carlos]

ATS-34 is also a "high-speed" steel. The "high-speed" moniker just means that it can be used at high temperatures without losing its temper. That in-itself has no advantage for a folding knife.

Aside from that, M2 is an average non-stainless carbon steel. It has to be coated with black gunk to keep it from rusting under normal use. Non-stainless steels aren't a part of Spyderco's knife design profile.

[Joe Talmadge]

Spyderco does have a well-thought-out steel selection. M-2 is a great steel. It seems to be much tougher than all the stainlesses I'm familiar with, though I haven't tested it head-to-head with, say, Spyderco's VG-10. M-2 can also be made very hard and strong. The combination of strength and toughness means that a user can take an M-2 steel blade, really thin the edge out for outrageous cutting performance, and still not see problems with indenting or chipping that you would with a stainless steel. The only thing that M-2 gives up to the high-end stainless steels is rust resistance, hence Carlos remark about M-2 being coated with "black gunk" (a sentiment I share).

M-2 is neither a miracle steel nor a fad-of-the-month steel. It's one of a large number of interesting non-stainless steels that many folder collectors don't get to see up close very often. It definitely does represent the best performance steel in Benchmade's lineup.

Joe