Most Underestimated Steel.

[JRinFL]

Lots of mentions of AEB-L and 14c28n which is nice to see. Quality steels that perform above their price range. Not every knife needs to have the most exclusive or "best performing in a single quality" steel. I call the latter "single column steel" where some boutique steels perform really well in a single performance category. Great for mules & sprints, not so great for day to day users, IMO.

[JRinFL]

Spy27 doesn’t get nearly the attention it deserves. ...

Spy27 is still very new and an exclusive to Spyderco. It may never get broader attention because of the exclusivity. We shall see what the future holds for it.

[Matus]

My impression is that Spy27 gets 'normal' amount of attention - it is neither being hyped, nor dismissed. Most reviewers seem to like it a little better than S30V or S35VN - so an incremental improvement. Fair enough IMO.

[JD Spydo]

It's so interesting how this thing with blade steels seems to change so rapidly over the years. I've been a Spyder-Head ever since I got my first one back in the Spring of 1995. It was a stainless, full SE Mariner model made with GIN-1. I still think GIN-1 is not bad for serrated edges. I have no love for it in plain edge however.

But during the mid to late 90s I can easily remember when ATS-34 at one time was considered a super premium blade steel. Now a days you don't even hear of it being mentioned hardly at all. And I got one model made with ATS-34 I use on occasion and it's not that bad>> Spyderco quickly went to ATS-55 which I personally liked very much and I still do use some extent.

But now you don't hear of either one of them. It is so strange how the ratings of blade steels change so fast in such a short time period. We here at Spyderville are just outright spoiled :rolleyes:

[FRNFanboy]

My impression is that Spy27 gets 'normal' amount of attention - it is neither being hyped, nor dismissed. Most reviewers seem to like it a little better than S30V or S35VN - so an incremental improvement. Fair enough IMO.

I dunno, a stainless steel that outperforms S30V and S35VN seems like it would be a big deal. The edge retention of S30V and the toughness of S35VN would be close to M4, but with much better rust resistance. But by contrast people make a huge deal out of Maxamet, which has amazing edge retention and not much else.

[TkoK83Spy]

Weird that the OP went on a posting rampage for about a month straight, then just like that...disappeared!

[Gtscotty]

My impression is that Spy27 gets 'normal' amount of attention - it is neither being hyped, nor dismissed. Most reviewers seem to like it a little better than S30V or S35VN - so an incremental improvement. Fair enough IMO.

I dunno, a stainless steel that outperforms S30V and S35VN seems like it would be a big deal. The edge retention of S30V and the toughness of S35VN would be close to M4, but with much better rust resistance. But by contrast people make a huge deal out of Maxamet, which has amazing edge retention and not much else.

That combo would be a big deal, but that's not really what SPY27 seems to offer. Per Larrin's testing it's basically a functional duplicate of S35VN as far as edge holding and toughness is concerned. S35VN is an excellent steel... that already exists, I don't think recreating the same function with a different recipe is going to look like a big deal to a lot of folks, especially when the SPY27 premium is considered.

[Karl_H]

That combo would be a big deal, but that's not really what SPY27 seems to offer. Per Larrin's testing it's basically a functional duplicate of S35VN as far as edge holding and toughness is concerned. S35VN is an excellent steel... that already exists, I don't think recreating the same function with a different recipe is going to look like a big deal to a lot of folks, especially when the SPY27 premium is considered.

I agree with this. SPY27 might be easier to heat treat to a higher hardness in high volume production, but It basically has the same properties as S35VN, when heat treated to the same hardness.

https://knifesteelnerds.com/2021/05/10/ ... 15-rex-76/

I don’t know how Spyderco was heat treating S35VN, but I am under the impression that it was heat treated to ~60 HRC, whereas it seems like like SPY27 is being heat treated to ~62 HRC.

[Karl_H]

Personally, I feel that laminated (aka clad, san mai) steels haven’t gotten as much love as they should. I don’t know of any countries (outside of Japan) that produce laminated steel for cutlery.

I am a little bit surprised that laminated steel production hasn’t taken off in the US or Europe.

Laminated HAP-40 (heat treated to 65 HRC) is the best cutlery steel that I have used, and I am surprised it isn’t used more widely.

[Matus]

I think the lack of laminated blades has a lot to do with availability of the laminated materials. Very most of the commonly used steels in pocket knives are not available as laminates - mainly because they are tool steels for industrial use.

The laminates available are mostly VG-10 and then one or two Japanese PM steels and if course some carbon steels laminated with stainless soft steel - mostly made for kitchen cutlery. Discussion how much sense the laminates make for pocket knives would be for a separate thread.

[Karl_H]

I think the lack of laminated blades has a lot to do with availability of the laminated materials. Very most of the commonly used steels in pocket knives are not available as laminates - mainly because they are tool steels for industrial use.

The laminates available are mostly VG-10 and then one or two Japanese PM steels and if course some carbon steels laminated with stainless soft steel - mostly made for kitchen cutlery. Discussion how much sense the laminates make for pocket knives would be for a separate thread.

My guess is that the American and European companies that make and sell knife steels (e.g., Crucible, Niagra, Carpenter, Bohler) just don't want to make the capital investment in the machinery required to make laminated plate, without guaranteed large volume orders from the knife manufacturers.

[Matus]

Yes, that would be my guess too.