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reswright
3850
Apr 20, 2019
it's a matter of what steel is best for you. take a look at your last pocket knife.. What do you notice the most? Is the steel corroded? The best 'super steel' for you might be LC200N. Is the edge chipped or bent? The best 'super steel' for you might be CPM M4. Did you have a hard time keeping it sharp when you used it a lot? Are you patient? The best 'super steel' for you might be S90v, unless there were no chips on your edge at all, in which case it might be S110v. Sharpening these takes patience though. Are you struggling to pick out any major problems? S30V or S35VN, CTS-XHP or Elmax will probably take care of you just fine, unless you have a burning need to demonstrate your buying power in order to get something a little bit better. In which case you can get something in M390 or 20CV or CTS204P. Fun fact -- most of the people with a decided preference for one of these steels over the other, cannot tell them apart without the help of scientific tools, but the last three are prolly the most well rounded 'super steel available today. There are many many other choices and if you Google knife steel guides you'll find a lot of useful info. New steels are coming to market all the time -- like, I've heard that Maxamet may be even better for long term edge retention than S110v, which is currently my favorite steel for folders even though some folks hate it - it takes an insane edge and keeps it forever, but hard workhorse use will eventually ruin that edge, which is why my favorite steel for fixed edge hard use knives is CPM 3V instead. And if you become a knife person, half the fun of buying new knives is the chance to occasionally try new steels and find new things that work for you. Some folks even collect all the steels they can find like Pokemon. Last thing? Like has been said by others, heat treat, grind angle and blade thickness all play a huge role in how well your steel works for you, The right treatment can't make lousy steel into M390 but the wrong treatment can make M390 into lousy steel. this is the part where choosing a reliable manufacturer makes a big difference. A lot of companies will happily charge you a premium for super steel, but comparatively few will know how to get the best out of it, and will do that for you. The rest figure if you don't know any better, they'd just as soon save the money they'd have to pay to do it right.
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