Favorite Steels

[emanuel]

I'm loving Rex 45 more and more. What an amazing fine edge it gets, it got me in love with low-carbide/high hardness steels again.

And s110v will always have a special place for me with a toothy edge. Awesome for fishing: gutting fish, good bite on the slippery fish scales, amazing edge retention, practically rust-proof etc.

[Bloke]

Im really hoping to see some Vanax folders soon! I wonder if a Native Salt sprint in Vanax is doable?? That would be incredible!

From what I understand Vanax is expensive and I think availability may be an issue also.

Luong did an exceptional job on the heat treat of the knife I have and I’d certainly welcome the same in a folder I like (Military :D) though personally I feel the steel’s true strengths would shine in a series of simple dedicated fish and game processing fixed blades that wouldn’t stain or loose the extreme sharpness the steel is capable of through corrosion from blood and/or saltwater if left unwashed and unattended after use for extended periods of time. :)

[steelcity16]

Im really hoping to see some Vanax folders soon! I wonder if a Native Salt sprint in Vanax is doable?? That would be incredible!

From what I understand Vanax is expensive and I think availability may be an issue also.

Maxamet has show that there is a market for expensive steels. I wonder how much more than Maxamet a Vanax blade would cost. Id be willing to shell out $200 for a Vanax Native Salt sprint/exclusive and I'm sure i'm not the only one. Especially if they did some cool color combo like toxic green with DLC. Those would sell like hotcakes, even at $200 a pop. Maybe there is enough supply for a small exclusive run?!? Some dealer needs to pop on this ASAP!!!

[Xplorer]

Im really hoping to see some Vanax folders soon! I wonder if a Native Salt sprint in Vanax is doable?? That would be incredible!

From what I understand Vanax is expensive and I think availability may be an issue also.

Maxamet has show that there is a market for expensive steels. I wonder how much more than Maxamet a Vanax blade would cost. Id be willing to shell out $200 for a Vanax Native Salt sprint/exclusive and I'm sure i'm not the only one. Especially if they did some cool color combo like toxic green with DLC. Those would sell like hotcakes, even at $200 a pop. Maybe there is enough supply for a small exclusive run?!? Some dealer needs to pop on this ASAP!!!

Hi guys,

to offer a little insight into some of this..Vanax is the primary steel I work with. It's the steel that has the best overall balance of all steels and has the widest range of uses throughout all types and sizes of knife designs IMO.

Yes Vanax is very expensive. It's as much or more than Maxamet and I am not aware of any steel that is more costly. When a small piece of M390 (also not cheap steel) is $25, the same size piece of Vanax is $48. Relatively speaking it's crazy expensive.
Vanax knives are also expensive to heat treat and Vanax warps more than any other steel I've worked with (which adds to the costs of processing it).
Vanax has serious availability issues. For that reason alone, I will be rather surprised (very pleasantly surprised but surprised nonetheless) if we ever see a production Vanax knife.

Obstacles aside, if you just want the best possible every-day steel (think S35VN wear resistance, extreme toughness, LC200N corrosion resistance, holds a keen edge and sharpens in seconds) you just can't find the unique balance of properties the latest Vanax offers in any other steel.

Last week I heat treating 11 Vanax blades, and shipped 1 completed Vanax knife to a fellow forum member in Romania. I'm currently waiting on Uddeholm to deliver more Vanax for upcoming projects any day now. Currently there is NONE available for sale. AKS told me they expected to receive some within 2 weeks...that was 3 and a half weeks ago.

For a custom maker the cost is no issue whatsoever. Custom knives are expensive no matter what. If the steel happens to be rare, unique and expensive...all the more reason to cherish your custom blade if you ask me :) . For production...I don't know :confused: ...there's a lot of hurdles to get over. Fingers are crossed that Sal can make it happen, because if any company can pull it off it would be Spyderco.

Best regards,
CK

[abbazaba]

Thanks for the insight. Seems like a limited run of Vanax would be pretty tempting for Sal, no? :)

[anagarika]

I like those that hold high sharpness longer than those drop to working edge forever. Currently liking XHP (from cS) for these. I have given up on S110V (Manix 2) and D2 (BM HK, strangely XHP isn’t like D2 at all) for the same reason. 8Cr as in byrd is very quickly and easily put to high sharpness which is an advantage.

Have tried Spyderco in M4, HAP40, Superblue, ZDP, V-Toku2 and VG10. All are capable of very high sharpness with various edge retention but still enjoyable.

Haven’t tried M390 that my friend said should behave in that high sharpness range. K390 in P4 seems to be there by Vivi and many others’ saying it holds high sharpness very long. Haven’t tried though due to budget constraints. Vanax seems to be like this too with added bonus of rust resistance so the apex doesn’t degrade from corrosion just by being carried near body (EDC in pocket or IWB. Bloke is really a lucky bloke for having Vanax HT-ed by Luong

At this point I just enjoy XHP, VG10 and 8Cr on daily basis.

A good point shared by some above : most important is the design (shape, geometry) and HT. Spyderco usually comes on top. Having said that, in my use, in near future I still avoid S110V and D2.

[BDein14]

Absolutely love my paramilitary 2 in S35VN. I think it holds and amazing edge especially when I mirror polish it. LC200N might be as close to perfect as you can get for an EDC blade steel because of its crazy corrosion resistance and amazing edge retention. I use to think H1 was the most amazing steel in the world because it was rust proof and I justified the bad edge retention because you can’t have everything but LC200N gives you everything. Blade HQ’s knife steel rating chart is usually what I look to to check the characteristics of the steel but I don’t care what they say LC200N is completely rust proof ( they still have it a 9/10 but H1 got a 10/10) I take it fishing,swimming and anywhere It might get wet and have never rinsed it off with anything but salt water. My native 5 salt is nearly perfect. It’s difficult to open and close one handed but that’s because the back lock is still breaking in