Posting this here as well, hopefully I don't get ran off for doing stupid things with knives 
I noticed I never carried my s110v manix because i was afraid of how brittle it might be so I decided to test it, That turned into testing the 3 steels until significant damage. It was not meant to be a ranking, scientific or so forth, It was simply to establish what these steels would tolerate at common angles and what they wouldn't. Real life is is not carefully controlled so I did not attempt to do so with my test. I know you guys hate hard use tests, but maybe someone will find it interesting. I started carving/hacking some chunks out of a old 2x4, might have been pressure treated not sure. I didn't do a lot of carving, But I was rough, and often hacked at it. I wasn't testing the knives as wood working tools just seeing if they would withstand the occasional use. Next I moved onto some very thick wire, then I sliced into a pie tin. and finally I chopped into a piece of steel high tensile wire. After that I stabbed the tips into the aforementioned 2x4 and did some light prying.
The Paramilitary 2 was set at 32 degrees inclusive, the s90v forum native was set at 36 degrees inclusive, and the manix 2 had a roughly 28 degree backbevel to fix the terrible factory sharpening and then a significant microbevel at 36 degree inclusive. All were shaving sharp and sliced newspaper, although the edge finish was not identical.
All sharp
No damage to any of the blades.
First up was the block
I had no worried about the s30v holding up as I have tested it before, as expected no damage to the PM2, I then tested the s110v manix 2, which also received no damage at all. I almost didn't test the s90v native 5 because I figured the thinner PM2 or the s110v at the same angle would fail first. I was wrong.
Although very minor and hard to see the edge rolled or chipped on the s90v native. Not sure if I hit a hard spot, twisted it wrong, or if it was just not as tough, afterward I went back and took a few hard chunks with the manix 2. It remained undamaged.
Next up was this nasty stuff. I figured this would do the blade in.
I pushcut 3 pierces using the same part of the blade. I had to put my palm on the spine and push down quite a bit.
I expected the edge to be trashed, but it was still completely flawless.
native also received no damage, go figure.
The s110v manix 2 however received some very very very micro chipping. it is only visible when you zoom in, and I can't imagine it actually hurting cutting performance, but it still sustained damage.
All 3 knives were completely unimpressed by the pie tin.
This is where it becomes a true destruction test. This is galvanized 12.5 gauge high tensile 200k psi wire. I figured although potentially less consistant it would be much more realistic to simply chop down into the wire as if you slipped and hit it rather than batoning into it. The knives lost this round.
From left to right s110v manix, s90v native, s30v PM2.
The carnage, poor knives..
Figuring I already messed them up I figured I would do a tip test to see how easily the tips snapped. This was a 2x4 so quite a bit tougher than the trees ive broken tips in on the past, but I didn't stab especially hard and only used my wrist strength.
Certainlly didn't expect the tip on the PM2 to bend.
Fixed it
The native was completely unimpressed, I actually got rougher with it than the PM2.
I acidentally oversharpened and thickened the manix 2 tip, so not a fair comparison, but as you can see, this tip isn't fragile, In fact I was tempted to really get violent with it, decided to quit while I was ahead though.
Interestingly enough all 3 knives, disregarding chips will still easily shave and slice newspaper, in fact the PM2 still easily push cuts it and the manix 2 appears to have absolutely no dulling on undamaged part. I didn't carve enough, nor cut anything that should wear it. But the fact itll still cut smoothly with damage, and the undamaged bits to take little to no dulling from the pie plate was impressive.
So what did we learn? Not quite as much as I hoped. It appears s30v is indeed more resistant to damage than the other steels, at thinner angles. But there was only a few degrees difference and they all pretty much sustained similar damage from the wire. In fact contrary to what I figured would happen before testing, s110v appears stronger than s90v S110v is more wear resistant so I figured s90v would be marginally tougher. I don't know the thickness behind the edges, however as mentioned the s110v has a back bevel of around 28 degrees and a 36 inclusive micro bevel. while the s90v knife has no back bevel and just the 36 inclusive secondary bevel. However looking at the chemical composition, s110v has more elements linked to toughness and strength than s90v. I am also convinced that both steels almost as as or are even more resistant to breaking than s30v. I was concerned that the s110v PM2 coming out might have major issues with the tip breaking, but if it was significant I would have broken or damaged the manix and native tips despite being thicker.
I would say in practical use any good steel, be it s30v, s90v etc, will perform acceptably. Yes s30v might hold up better at a thinner angle. and yes s110v might have much better wear resistance. But if you need wear resistance, a staple won't destroy s110v, If you need something tougher and easier to sharpen, s30v will still keep an edge a long time.
I noticed I never carried my s110v manix because i was afraid of how brittle it might be so I decided to test it, That turned into testing the 3 steels until significant damage. It was not meant to be a ranking, scientific or so forth, It was simply to establish what these steels would tolerate at common angles and what they wouldn't. Real life is is not carefully controlled so I did not attempt to do so with my test. I know you guys hate hard use tests, but maybe someone will find it interesting. I started carving/hacking some chunks out of a old 2x4, might have been pressure treated not sure. I didn't do a lot of carving, But I was rough, and often hacked at it. I wasn't testing the knives as wood working tools just seeing if they would withstand the occasional use. Next I moved onto some very thick wire, then I sliced into a pie tin. and finally I chopped into a piece of steel high tensile wire. After that I stabbed the tips into the aforementioned 2x4 and did some light prying.
The Paramilitary 2 was set at 32 degrees inclusive, the s90v forum native was set at 36 degrees inclusive, and the manix 2 had a roughly 28 degree backbevel to fix the terrible factory sharpening and then a significant microbevel at 36 degree inclusive. All were shaving sharp and sliced newspaper, although the edge finish was not identical.
All sharp
No damage to any of the blades.
First up was the block
I had no worried about the s30v holding up as I have tested it before, as expected no damage to the PM2, I then tested the s110v manix 2, which also received no damage at all. I almost didn't test the s90v native 5 because I figured the thinner PM2 or the s110v at the same angle would fail first. I was wrong.
Although very minor and hard to see the edge rolled or chipped on the s90v native. Not sure if I hit a hard spot, twisted it wrong, or if it was just not as tough, afterward I went back and took a few hard chunks with the manix 2. It remained undamaged.
Next up was this nasty stuff. I figured this would do the blade in.
I pushcut 3 pierces using the same part of the blade. I had to put my palm on the spine and push down quite a bit.
I expected the edge to be trashed, but it was still completely flawless.
native also received no damage, go figure.
The s110v manix 2 however received some very very very micro chipping. it is only visible when you zoom in, and I can't imagine it actually hurting cutting performance, but it still sustained damage.
All 3 knives were completely unimpressed by the pie tin.
This is where it becomes a true destruction test. This is galvanized 12.5 gauge high tensile 200k psi wire. I figured although potentially less consistant it would be much more realistic to simply chop down into the wire as if you slipped and hit it rather than batoning into it. The knives lost this round.
From left to right s110v manix, s90v native, s30v PM2.
The carnage, poor knives..
Figuring I already messed them up I figured I would do a tip test to see how easily the tips snapped. This was a 2x4 so quite a bit tougher than the trees ive broken tips in on the past, but I didn't stab especially hard and only used my wrist strength.
Certainlly didn't expect the tip on the PM2 to bend.
Fixed it
The native was completely unimpressed, I actually got rougher with it than the PM2.
I acidentally oversharpened and thickened the manix 2 tip, so not a fair comparison, but as you can see, this tip isn't fragile, In fact I was tempted to really get violent with it, decided to quit while I was ahead though.
Interestingly enough all 3 knives, disregarding chips will still easily shave and slice newspaper, in fact the PM2 still easily push cuts it and the manix 2 appears to have absolutely no dulling on undamaged part. I didn't carve enough, nor cut anything that should wear it. But the fact itll still cut smoothly with damage, and the undamaged bits to take little to no dulling from the pie plate was impressive.
So what did we learn? Not quite as much as I hoped. It appears s30v is indeed more resistant to damage than the other steels, at thinner angles. But there was only a few degrees difference and they all pretty much sustained similar damage from the wire. In fact contrary to what I figured would happen before testing, s110v appears stronger than s90v S110v is more wear resistant so I figured s90v would be marginally tougher. I don't know the thickness behind the edges, however as mentioned the s110v has a back bevel of around 28 degrees and a 36 inclusive micro bevel. while the s90v knife has no back bevel and just the 36 inclusive secondary bevel. However looking at the chemical composition, s110v has more elements linked to toughness and strength than s90v. I am also convinced that both steels almost as as or are even more resistant to breaking than s30v. I was concerned that the s110v PM2 coming out might have major issues with the tip breaking, but if it was significant I would have broken or damaged the manix and native tips despite being thicker.
I would say in practical use any good steel, be it s30v, s90v etc, will perform acceptably. Yes s30v might hold up better at a thinner angle. and yes s110v might have much better wear resistance. But if you need wear resistance, a staple won't destroy s110v, If you need something tougher and easier to sharpen, s30v will still keep an edge a long time.
thanks for the results and pics, very interesting.
Like I said took about 15 minutes to fix the damage, then I polished and stropped the edge.
