I love Elmax Steel - it's my personal favorite. Why is this steel not used more?

Steely_Gunz said:
I've got a Guardian Tactical in Elmax and I love it. I wish I had grabbed more knives when that was the flavor of the month. Sharpens well, cuts wonderfully.

I like Magnacut, but between Elmax and Cruwear, I'm pretty set.
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Sorry for the derail OP.

I’ve never used Elmax but I agree 100% with your Cruwear statement. I’ve just recently (past 6 months or so) picked up some knives in Cruwear. I can 100% say it’s at the absolute top of my favorite steels. I like it better than Magnacut. I am not a steel snob, I can be happy with 1095 and 420hc, but I’ve not used anything that I like more. It’s tough, holds a good edge, and the stain resistance has been excellent for me, and I live in the south and right on the coast.
 
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Sure there are more advanced steels out there now, but I'll never turn my nose up at ELMAX.

In a few more years it might even become one of those "old school but still great" steels like 440c or ATS34 "when heat treated properly".

For most people's uses, they'd never be able to discern between it and other steels in the same class. Perfectly adequate stain resistance, wear resistance, and toughness.

I've had a few over the years- just one currently. My Ban Tang hawkbill is ELMAX- above and beyond just the shape itself, I like that Ban didn't use it frequently (same as the mosaic pins). Bit of a rare bird.
There may be other knives out there just as sharp, but I'd wager an Opinel none are sharper!
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Starmarion said:
How is CruWear on corrosion resistance? This is specifically important to me in my region of the country.
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Cruwear is an 8 percent chromium tool steel like 3v. Very good semi stainless especially if the maker uses a low temper and cryo.

A step above D2.
 
Starmarion said:
How is CruWear on corrosion resistance? This is specifically important to me in my region of the country.
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b70GvTL.jpg


3 identical knives used in the same manner in the same environment. Rex 45 M4 Cruwear.

Cruwear shows the least patina.
 
Monofletch said:
soup cans
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Bored moment so I had to look it up. Soup cans are made of "tinplate" which is a mild steel electroplated with tin. Mild steels have .05 to .3 percent carbon, so yes that would make a pretty crummy knife. Which also now makes me curious if that's what super cheap knives used to be made from when I was a kid. Some of those things would be sharp, cut a piece of rope, and poof it's now dull.
 
Starmarion said:
How is CruWear on corrosion resistance? This is specifically important to me in my region of the country.
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It's about halfway between D2 and stuff like AEB-L, Nitro-V, and AUS-8 (which are stainless but on the lower end). It'll be okay for a lot of people in a reasonable variety of not particularly corrosive environments or activities. Knowing the latter is key. Personally, it wouldn't be my first choice in the summer when it's 90F with 90% humidity and sweat isn't evaporating; There, it's enough better than D2 to not be a pain but I still have to be vigilant. I'm much happier with the level of resistance I get from Elmax where I just don't have to think about it. That's also true for N690, 14C28N, S30V, and S35VN. Thinking about personal history and looking at Larrin's ratings, my magic number for "all set" seems to be 7.5.
 
Starmarion said:
How is CruWear on corrosion resistance? This is specifically important to me in my region of the country.
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I live in dry kommiefornia so in most instances corrosion resistance isn't a big issue for me. But I have carried a Cruwear Para 3 on a few six day backpacking trips when it rained for a couple hours almost every day and I didn't get a single spot of corrosion. Under the same conditions I got spotting (on Rex45) and a lot of pitting (on K390). Cruwear seems closer to stainless in my use. Not only does it have a fair amount of chromium, the 1.6% Mo probably helps, too.
 
Very nice visual, had to save your pic as a reminder.

Also don’t know how you have 3 users and none of the tips are broke off! I don’t know how many spyderco’s I always manage to break the very pointy point.

Danke42 said:
b70GvTL.jpg


3 identical knives used in the same manner in the same environment. Rex 45 M4 Cruwear.

Cruwear shows the least patina.
Click to expand...
 
adluginb said:
Very nice visual, had to save your pic as a reminder.

Also don’t know how you have 3 users and none of the tips are broke off! I don’t know how many spyderco’s I always manage to break the very pointy point.
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I broke enough SAK tips to learn first.
 
In my opinion, the reason that Elmax is unpopular is down to marketing and demand.

From the get go, any new steel will be more expensive than those already in product. Elmax is close to M390, which is already everywhere on the market. And so, the demand decreases and increases the production price, which further makes it less popular.

I think the same thing is happening to S45VN. Its performance is in between S30V and S35VN, but not exactly any better than neither (maybe on corrosion resistance, but really not a big deal). Most knives in that steel are more pricy than the other 2. Unless Crucible discontinues S30V and S35VN, I don't see S45VN reaching the same popularity.
 
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