Spyderco Forums

SpyderEdgeForever wrote: ↑

Mon Feb 02, 2026 1:46 pm

Mastiff, PaloArt, David, Wartstein and sal, and all:
One thing I would love to see Spyderco do is expand tgeir Ethnic Division and work with Czech, Austrian, Spanish, etc Knife people to create entire catalogues of Enduras and other models, with VG10 steel, but with their regional spin on each model.

Wartstein wrote: ↑

Mon Feb 02, 2026 10:16 pm

SpyderEdgeForever wrote: ↑

Mon Feb 02, 2026 1:46 pm

Mastiff, PaloArt, David, Wartstein and sal, and all:
One thing I would love to see Spyderco do is expand tgeir Ethnic Division and work with Czech, Austrian, Spanish, etc Knife people to create entire catalogues of Enduras and other models, with VG10 steel, but with their regional spin on each model.

Hey SEF,
I´d not complain if Spyderco gave my most favorite folder of all brands and all times an Austrian (my homecountry) edition... whatever that might look like and VG10 would be just fine as a steel choice

(For two typical Austrian knives in general see here viewtopic.php?p=1293139#p1293139 and here viewtopic.php?p=1410790#p1410790)

Wartstein wrote: ↑

Sun Feb 01, 2026 10:12 pm

James Y wrote: ↑

Sun Feb 01, 2026 10:08 pm

...
IIRC, VG-10 was originally for knives used for horticultural purposes.

Jim

Thanks, Jim!
Something like that is what I recall too.

N. Brian Huegel wrote: ↑

Tue Feb 03, 2026 9:55 am

Don't forget ATS-55.

nb

RugerNurse wrote: ↑

Wed Feb 04, 2026 12:32 pm

Speaking of VG10 I saw this beauty in a local gun store. Reminds me of Vivi’s quest for one

Deadboxhero wrote: ↑

Mon Feb 02, 2026 9:54 am

@sal

Could you take us back to when VG-10 was coming out and how it compared in your opinion to ATS-34/154-CM?

sal wrote: ↑

Wed Feb 04, 2026 6:32 pm

Deadboxhero wrote: ↑

Mon Feb 02, 2026 9:54 am

@sal

Could you take us back to when VG-10 was coming out and how it compared in your opinion to ATS-34/154-CM?

Here you go Shawn...


Talkin' Story,

The VG-10 story is kinda like the 154Cm / ATS-34 story. "Back in the day", maybe 1998, we were using Gingami 1 (G-2) in most of our knives made in Japan. ATS-34 was our "Higher line" blade steel. I was getting more and more involved in blade steels, edge geometries, and was seeking better performance. ATS-34 was quite expensive and harder to process. We were using Crucible's CPM-440V in out Golden factory.

I was a member of the US Knifemakers Guild and the ABS. Learning a great deal.

Hitachi had come up with a new steel, ATS-55, and offered it to us as an exclusive. Testing went OK, so we signed on, and we were using the steel in most of our Seki made knives. Then another maker told us of a new steel developed by Takefu for Grafting in horticulture. They called it VG-10. Again, testing went OK, so we added VG-10 to our stable of steels. We introduced VG-10 in a fixed blade, the Moran, and began using it for many of our Seki models.

Over the next few years, testing and ELU response was watched carefully and we eventually gave up ATS-55 and continued using VG-10 to this day.

We continued to work with Crucible adding steels and Crucible decided that Blade steels was a potential market and began working knife shows, which worked well for them.

Then Carpenter Steel asked us if we would help them develop blade steels and bring them into the Knife Market. We have a decent testing lab, CATRA, etc., so we worked with them for the next few years. That's how the line of CTS steels came into the knife market. Once they had a working line of Blade steels, their head metallurgist asked me, what can we (Carpenter) do for Spyderco for our efforts.

I told them that there was a Japanese steel made by Hitachi, called Gingami 1, that we were using in Japan and importing to the US to use in our Golden factory. There was no USA equivalent, so I asked them if they could make a powdered version and tweak it for blade steel performance. The result was CTS-BD1N. turned out to be a really good all around steel. I had hoped for an exclusive, but that wasn't going to happen.

A while later, I was speaking with Bob Shabala at Niagara and wondered in Crucible would make a special steel and give it to Spyderco as an exclusive? Bob didn't think it was likely, but as it turned out, Crucible agreed. I was working with Crucible's metallurgist, Mr. Bob Skibitski (I call him Bobski), who is a gifted Metallurgist. I told him that there was a Japanese ingot steel made by Takefu, called VG-10, which is a really good all around steel, for which there is no American equivalent. The president of Takefu told me that he believed that Cobalt added to the alloy helped to enhance the results. I asked him if he could make an equivalent Cobalt based steel, powder it and tweak it for blade steel performance. After a few runs, he/we came up with SPY-27. We had already discussed the exclusive angle and that's how we ended up with the alloy.

Hope that helps.

sal
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

A goal in life is to be consistent like the sun and transparent like the air. That's how trust is built... and trust is the true bottom line".

Mage7 wrote: ↑

Wed Feb 04, 2026 9:06 am

I don't know why people feel the need to defend steels from criticism. It would be like someone going to s race track and insisting your 70s era muscle car is still just as good as the 21st century sports car or super car. Meanwhile neither one is very practical for getting groceries.

Mage7 wrote: ↑

Wed Feb 04, 2026 9:06 am

I don't know why people feel the need to defend steels from criticism. It would be like someone going to s race track and insisting your 70s era muscle car is still just as good as the 21st century sports car or super car. Meanwhile neither one is very practical for getting groceries.

DansGearAddiction wrote: ↑

Sun Feb 01, 2026 10:30 pm

Honestly, I think it goes beyond VG-10 since there are several excellent steels that have “fallen out of vogue” over the last 5 years or so.

I also don't think it's popularity has decreased because of it's properties, it's the manufacturers dropping it becausse of a shift in consumers that demanded "the best" as a result of the Instagramification of EDC.

• D2: Oversaturated on budget knives, though there were real concerns about corrosion resistance, particularly for in coastal areas. I was happy to see 9Cr18MoV, Nitro-V, and AR-RPM9 replace this.
• LC200N: Magnacut basically killed this steel despite the fact that it is tougher than Magnacut; LC200N was rarely used by knife makers outside of Spyderco and Quietcarry, and at least once by Kizer. Custom makers like Oz Machine Company used it, but replaced it with Magnacut when that became the popular kid.
• M390/CPM-20CV/CTS-204P: Killed by Magnacut and the over-saturation of M390 in particular; I think only Spyderco, Microtech, and Zero Tolerance use this the Carpenter variant. I think Niagara even mentioned 20CV going away.
• VG-10: Same as M390 in my opinion.
• S30V: This was killed by the proliferation of super steels like M390/CPM-20CV/CTS-204P and user demands for “the best”.
• CTS-BD1N/BD1Z: Not really used by any knife companies outside of Spyderco at this point; SOG used it in the past, but it doesn’t appear to be used much. Seems to have been replaced by 9Cr18MoV.
• S45VN: A combination of the proliferation of Magnacut and the bankruptcy of Crucible killed this one. Chis Reeve Knives, who I believe helped develop this steel, isn’t even using it on the Sebenza or Umnumzaan anymore. Buck might still use it.
• S110V: I don't think anyone outside of Spyderco used this steel in a production capacity. Another Magnacut casualty likely.

Most of them follow a common theme...

Realistically, VG-10 or 154CM is really all I need. I like how simple they are to sharpen.

sal wrote: ↑

Wed Feb 04, 2026 6:32 pm

Deadboxhero wrote: ↑

Mon Feb 02, 2026 9:54 am

@sal

Could you take us back to when VG-10 was coming out and how it compared in your opinion to ATS-34/154-CM?

Here you go Shawn...


Talkin' Story,

The VG-10 story is kinda like the 154Cm / ATS-34 story. "Back in the day", maybe 1998, we were using Gingami 1 (G-2) in most of our knives made in Japan. ATS-34 was our "Higher line" blade steel. I was getting more and more involved in blade steels, edge geometries, and was seeking better performance. ATS-34 was quite expensive and harder to process. We were using Crucible's CPM-440V in out Golden factory.

I was a member of the US Knifemakers Guild and the ABS. Learning a great deal.

Hitachi had come up with a new steel, ATS-55, and offered it to us as an exclusive. Testing went OK, so we signed on, and we were using the steel in most of our Seki made knives. Then another maker told us of a new steel developed by Takefu for Grafting in horticulture. They called it VG-10. Again, testing went OK, so we added VG-10 to our stable of steels. We introduced VG-10 in a fixed blade, the Moran, and began using it for many of our Seki models.

Over the next few years, testing and ELU response was watched carefully and we eventually gave up ATS-55 and continued using VG-10 to this day.

We continued to work with Crucible adding steels and Crucible decided that Blade steels was a potential market and began working knife shows, which worked well for them.

Then Carpenter Steel asked us if we would help them develop blade steels and bring them into the Knife Market. We have a decent testing lab, CATRA, etc., so we worked with them for the next few years. That's how the line of CTS steels came into the knife market. Once they had a working line of Blade steels, their head metallurgist asked me, what can we (Carpenter) do for Spyderco for our efforts.

I told them that there was a Japanese steel made by Hitachi, called Gingami 1, that we were using in Japan and importing to the US to use in our Golden factory. There was no USA equivalent, so I asked them if they could make a powdered version and tweak it for blade steel performance. The result was CTS-BD1N. turned out to be a really good all around steel. I had hoped for an exclusive, but that wasn't going to happen.

A while later, I was speaking with Bob Shabala at Niagara and wondered in Crucible would make a special steel and give it to Spyderco as an exclusive? Bob didn't think it was likely, but as it turned out, Crucible agreed. I was working with Crucible's metallurgist, Mr. Bob Skibitski (I call him Bobski), who is a gifted Metallurgist. I told him that there was a Japanese ingot steel made by Takefu, called VG-10, which is a really good all around steel, for which there is no American equivalent. The president of Takefu told me that he believed that Cobalt added to the alloy helped to enhance the results. I asked him if he could make an equivalent Cobalt based steel, powder it and tweak it for blade steel performance. After a few runs, he/we came up with SPY-27. We had already discussed the exclusive angle and that's how we ended up with the alloy.

Hope that helps.

sal
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

A goal in life is to be consistent like the sun and transparent like the air. That's how trust is built... and trust is the true bottom line".