Spyderco Forums

What’s wrong with information being parroted when it comes from a well respected, accurate source? If I’m going to buy a folder with with .14” blade stock, it’s because I’m going to beat the crap out of it. S90V is not a tough steel by any means.

https://knifesteelnerds.com/2020/09/28/ ... eat-treat/

The only thing wrong with it is it builds preconceived notions of things that may occur in situations that are unlikely to be encountered by most people.

I caved and got in below the wire.

cabfrank wrote: ↑

Thu Jun 23, 2022 8:11 pm

The only thing wrong with it is it builds preconceived notions of things that may occur in situations that are unlikely to be encountered by most people.

That’s definitely fair. I work in a warehouse and cut tons of cardboard, poly wrap, and polyester/nylon strapping on a daily basis, so my views could be skewed. I imagine with good geometry a lot of people would be hard pressed to notice the difference between 420hc and s90v under a typical use case scenario.

fixall wrote: ↑

Thu Jun 23, 2022 7:48 pm

What’s wrong with information being parroted when it comes from a well respected, accurate source? If I’m going to buy a folder with with .14” blade stock, it’s because I’m going to beat the crap out of it. S90V is not a tough steel by any means.

https://knifesteelnerds.com/2020/09/28/ ... eat-treat/

Or you can look at it this way: thick blade stock is making up for S90V's major weakness. I value edge stability over toughness, and I would guess many other knife users do as well, except they mistakenly conflate the two properties.

metaphoricalsimile wrote: ↑

Thu Jun 23, 2022 8:38 pm

fixall wrote: ↑

Thu Jun 23, 2022 7:48 pm

What’s wrong with information being parroted when it comes from a well respected, accurate source? If I’m going to buy a folder with with .14” blade stock, it’s because I’m going to beat the crap out of it. S90V is not a tough steel by any means.

https://knifesteelnerds.com/2020/09/28/ ... eat-treat/

Or you can look at it this way: thick blade stock is making up for S90V's major weakness. I value edge stability over toughness, and I would guess many other knife users do as well, except they mistakenly conflate the two properties.

Oh, I get that…. But edge geometry tops steels 100 times out of 100. I would much rather have a thin blade with a tough steel and awesome edge stability (like 4v/Cruwear/M4 for high speed or tool steels, and MagnaCut for stainless), over a thick blade with a high edge retention steel and lackluster toughness and edge stability.

Double tap.

Held strong and passed. Not a huge Shaman fan and already have the M4-Carta version. Not a huge brown burlap fan either. Or S90V for that matter. Black burlap and Cruwear may have pushed me over the edge. Wallet lives to fight another day.

Thanks for your comment, fixall. That's exactly what I meant. I think people would notice differences because they read that they should in a lot of cases, myself included.

ladybug93 wrote: ↑

Wed Jun 22, 2022 3:22 pm

$238



i love how they say it's a good price because it's close to the price of the standard production model. all that does is show how overpriced the standard model is.

I would like to offer a different point of view - Micarta is not going to be any cheaper than G10 to make / shape, S90V is not that much more expensive to buy / grind. The result is a not particularly large difference in price to the standard model.

One could turn the argument around and say - given the above, the Shaman could be upgraded from S30V to a more higher end steel for a low price increase and offer more (perceived, value in B2C business is nearly always just a perceived one) value to the customer.

The Micarta looks great.

I caved. For what it's worth, I have hard use experience with Spyderco 's S90V and it held up fine. It's not very chippy. Noticeably different than s110v.

fixall wrote: ↑

Thu Jun 23, 2022 7:48 pm

What’s wrong with information being parroted when it comes from a well respected, accurate source? If I’m going to buy a folder with with .14” blade stock, it’s because I’m going to beat the crap out of it. S90V is not a tough steel by any means.

https://knifesteelnerds.com/2020/09/28/ ... eat-treat/

Dr. Thomas also goes on to say, in another article, “ As with high alloy tool steels, the amount of vanadium can be a shortcut to predicting the general level of wear resistance and edge retention. CPM-S90V is my favorite in the high edge retention category because of its decent toughness.”

https://knifesteelnerds.com/2021/10/19/ ... esistance/

s90v has held up pretty well on the CF version. Still the prettiest handles on a shaman to date...

I've used spyderco's s90v for over a year now and it's never chipped. After accidentally hitting a metal table corner, it rolled. So it seems to have ample toughness for the heat treat to prevent chipping. However, a higher HRC tool steel would likely not have rolled in the 1st place. Corrosion resistance is adequate -- similar to s30v. Edge retention is fantastic. When reaching for a knife with extremely stainless, I go for s110v or m390. Lc200n is a great tough stainless steel but rolls too easily for my typical use. For a general use stainless, s90v is my go to. Really glad to see spyderco using more s90v -- especially since they do such a fantastic job with it. This knife is going to be a long term user for me.

Maybe a natural burlap with Cruwear?

This is a little off-topic, but does Spyderco have a regular production knife in S90V? Their website lists several knives that are no longer in production (Drunken, Paysan) and a sprint. It also mentions the fluted CF Native. Is that still in production? All this talk of S90V has me interested.

p_atrick wrote: ↑

Fri Jun 24, 2022 9:58 am

This is a little off-topic, but does Spyderco have a regular production knife in S90V? Their website lists several knives that are no longer in production (Drunken, Paysan) and a sprint. It also mentions the fluted CF Native. Is that still in production? All this talk of S90V has me interested.

The drunken is still in production. So is the fluted CF native.

capt.carl wrote: ↑

Fri Jun 24, 2022 10:48 am

The drunken is still in production. So is the fluted CF native.

Thanks. I'll keep an eye for them.

p_atrick wrote: ↑

Fri Jun 24, 2022 9:58 am

This is a little off-topic, but does Spyderco have a regular production knife in S90V? Their website lists several knives that are no longer in production (Drunken, Paysan) and a sprint. It also mentions the fluted CF Native. Is that still in production? All this talk of S90V has me interested.

They have some S90V distributer exclusives that seem to come back in stock every once in a while. BHQ isn't the only place that has them, but the S90V Para 3 LW and Native 5 are both sold there. I love my Para3LW.

Edit: from a quick google search they do seem to be Out of Stock everywhere that I can find.