Sal posted this same thread on the Spyderco forum and here was my response.
Awesome Sal. I am humbled and grateful at your response to my comment. The HAP40 run seems to have been a successful seller and more importantly a positive test. It seems as though everybody likes the performance of it, myself included. Whatever is chosen I would like to see it in a frn Delica and a frn Stretch myself as those are my preferred models from the Japanese lineup. Hopefully we can get a full run like we had with Super Blue or HAP40. This is assuming that the Calys are still out of the question. I would also be pleased if this thread resulted in the continuation of the blue G10 sprints that were talked about and put on hold. I am no metallurgist nor do I know the cost factors involved or what steels the maker is able to work with so here are just a bunch of random ideas.
These are all steels I have seen in kitchen knives but I haven't used any of them:
SKD11 is basically D2.
The original plan for the blue G10 sprints was SG2 so that would still be cool.
If SG2 is a no go what about SRS-15. They don't seem to be too different.
Cowry-x seems to just be ZDP189 from a different maker but may be worth a look see.
Cowry-Y could also be worth a look.
White #1 should be a good seller with the success of Super Blue.
These are steels from the Hitachi website that look promising:
HAP10 and HAP5R both look good for tougher options.
HAP50 seems to be a step up from HAP40 but maybe not different enough.
HAP72 seems to be the heavy hitter. If the cost is doable then this seems like it should be a very high wear steel. 2-2.3% Carbon, 10% tungsten and 5% Vanadium plus the other goodies.
XVC11 is basically M4 and it seems as though M4 is a great seller and a solid performer. I say bring on the XVC11 Delica. I don't currently see this on their website though? If it is available I would guess that people would swoop them up once they find out how similar it is to M4.
XVC5 looks good if the goal is a really highly wear resistant steel but it does look to have much less carbon and molybdenum than HAP72. Maybe it is more affordable? I don't think it is powdered and HAP72 is.
They also have a steel called SLD Magic which they claim it is very wear resistant, easy to machine and easy to heat treat due to very low dimensional change. It looks like their marketing really wants to hype this new steel up. They say it is better than SKD11 in almost every way, except probably cost.
http://www.hitachi-metals.co.jp/e/products/auto/ml/pdf/sld_b.pdf
I would love to hear others feelings on any of these steels as well as any steels that people are curious about that I didn't mention. Threads like these are the best!
i would like to see more dlc pm2's (s110v and sprints)
