What is your all time favorite steel?

[zenith2]

Nitrobe 77 in my Des Horn Imvubu. My grail. Love it to this day.

[JARHEAD]

52100…. It is the steel that brought me back to Spyderco. With serrations of course!

[Coastal]

H1. It's miraculous. Easy to sharpen, tough, holds a working edge long enough, and won't rust. MagnaCut or some other Magna will probably take its place eventually.

Second place: K390.

[Mrj]

I love the diversity of choice here. This is why Spyderco is so great. They are a special company for offering such a vast variety of steels. This really helps R&D I’m sure.

[Cletus]

I love 15V. I have never had a factory edge cut so well and last as long as Sal and Shawn's CPM 15V. No rolling or chipping, ever. I live in Nevada so corrosion isn't an issue here, although I keep them waxed with Renaissance Wax. When it's time to sharpen, I have no problems using a fixed angle system with diamond stones. I now have two Military 2's in BBB 15V that are my main carry blades.

[dan31]

Aogami Superblue and H1. Thank you Japan!

[Infinite Zero]

Stainless: Magnacut

Non-stainless: K390 or BBB 15v (I only recently got 15v with the Manix Lightweight and G10 Native 5, so time will tell)

[Rezimus]

3V is my favorite overall since the extreme toughness makes it capable for anything, whether a sword or a razor. It has almost as much edge retention as MagnaCut but it's 3 times as tough,

Where are you getting the 3x as tough data point from?

[CDEP]

Cru-Wear.

Nothing else even close for #1, but I also use a lot of MagnaCut, VG-10 & SPY27, M4, and K390.

[Red Leader]

3V is my favorite overall since the extreme toughness makes it capable for anything, whether a sword or a razor. It has almost as much edge retention as MagnaCut but it's 3 times as tough,

Where are you getting the 3x as tough data point from?

From looking at the date from Knife Steel Nerds and others, Magnacut is around 15ft lbs at 63HRC, with 3V hovering around 35-40ft lbs give or take on the hardness. So while the '3x' designation might be slightly ambitious, it is in the ballpark.

I love both steels. I think 3V is under-utilized in the folding knife world. I think 3V can also be improved upon.

Some of my favs:

3V
K390
14C28N
15V

I haven't used Magnacut a lot, but I'm looking forward to using it more.

[Synov]

3V is my favorite overall since the extreme toughness makes it capable for anything, whether a sword or a razor. It has almost as much edge retention as MagnaCut but it's 3 times as tough,

Where are you getting the 3x as tough data point from?

Larrin's data. At 61.5 hardness, 3V is 3 times as tough.

[ejames13]

K390 for its unique combination of extreme edge holding + ease of sharpening.

I'm always amazed at how much I can cut with it, then just a few swipes on the Sharpmaker brings it back to hair popping.

[skeeg11]

Favorite steel of the day depends upon purpose and design.
For surf fishing serrated LC200N gets the nod. Even easier to maintain than MagnaCut.

For non fishing days, I'm good with K390, but for EDC, M4 is the winner because the design and form factor of my Mantra 2 is so exceptional. No flies on M4. So easy to maintain.

[abbazaba]

M4 was the first steel that made me feel like I really cared. I just love the way it cuts and sharpens... such a great user. Even my mail opener is M4 now lol. K390 mostly converted me, but I still find myself reaching for M4 the most.

Thankfully, Larrin's efforts have made a similar behaving steel more mass market in Magnacut, greatly increasing my options and satisfaction in knife purchases. Even CRK jumped on board! Really hoping Magnamax will do the same favor.

[barnaclesonaboat]

S90V is the favorite for sure; relatively stainless and tough, and simply stays sharper for longer compared to the bulk of my other knives. I do love tool steels and have a recent penchant for cutting with K294 (mule) and K390, not to mention the litany of 15V folders that seem to be falling from the sky, so we'll see how long S90V lasts in the top spot...

[Rezimus]

3V is my favorite overall since the extreme toughness makes it capable for anything, whether a sword or a razor. It has almost as much edge retention as MagnaCut but it's 3 times as tough,

Where are you getting the 3x as tough data point from?

Larrin's data. At 61.5 hardness, 3V is 3 times as tough.

Wow...

I had no idea it was such a large difference at that hardness. Thanks for posting that. Makes you think which would actually have better real life edge retention since 3vs edge could go significantly thinner.

3V is my favorite overall since the extreme toughness makes it capable for anything, whether a sword or a razor. It has almost as much edge retention as MagnaCut but it's 3 times as tough,

Where are you getting the 3x as tough data point from?

From looking at the date from Knife Steel Nerds and others, Magnacut is around 15ft lbs at 63HRC, with 3V hovering around 35-40ft lbs give or take on the hardness. So while the '3x' designation might be slightly ambitious, it is in the ballpark.

I love both steels. I think 3V is under-utilized in the folding knife world. I think 3V can also be improved upon.

Some of my favs:

3V
K390
14C28N
15V

I haven't used Magnacut a lot, but I'm looking forward to using it more.

This was pretty surprising to me. Would be really interested in seeing some controlled testing surrounding 3v vs other steels in edge retention/toughness going way thinner on the edge angle.

[cycleguy]

S-HAR-P

CG

[vivi]

3V is my favorite overall since the extreme toughness makes it capable for anything, whether a sword or a razor. It has almost as much edge retention as MagnaCut but it's 3 times as tough,

Where are you getting the 3x as tough data point from?

Larrin's data. At 61.5 hardness, 3V is 3 times as tough.

Wow...

I had no idea it was such a large difference at that hardness. Thanks for posting that. Makes you think which would actually have better real life edge retention since 3vs edge could go significantly thinner.

3V is my favorite overall since the extreme toughness makes it capable for anything, whether a sword or a razor. It has almost as much edge retention as MagnaCut but it's 3 times as tough,

Where are you getting the 3x as tough data point from?

From looking at the date from Knife Steel Nerds and others, Magnacut is around 15ft lbs at 63HRC, with 3V hovering around 35-40ft lbs give or take on the hardness. So while the '3x' designation might be slightly ambitious, it is in the ballpark.

I love both steels. I think 3V is under-utilized in the folding knife world. I think 3V can also be improved upon.

Some of my favs:

3V
K390
14C28N
15V

I haven't used Magnacut a lot, but I'm looking forward to using it more.

This was pretty surprising to me. Would be really interested in seeing some controlled testing surrounding 3v vs other steels in edge retention/toughness going way thinner on the edge angle.

I don't have a ton of experience with 3V but my SRK's impressed me enough to buy two pre need back ups.

three new edges using three different methods.



SRK 3V convexed. Couldn't tell you the last time I did a convex edge like this. Turned out ugly but functional - works for me.






I ran it through the sharpmaker at 15dps with the mediums to get an idea of how thin the apex was. Guessing I got it down to around 12dps because the rods cleanly hit the apex. gonna grind the microbevel off with 400 grit then 1000 grit.

has held up to chopping and batoning well. holds an edge way better than the base sk5 version and is a lot more corrosion resistant.

the steel seems better than cruwear for me in every respect besides ease of sharpening. it takes a bit more effort to grind.

[Red Leader]

I'm betting that Spyderco could even tweak the recipe on HT for 3V and come out with something that performs even better.

[standy99]

Having a Chad Kelly knife made for my 50th @Xplorer

Zwear is my vote.



But deep down, and I will always be a “M4 fanboy”