S30v vs s35vn
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DRLyman
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I have always thought this page was informative.
http://knifeinformer.com/discovering-the-best-knife-steel/
http://knifeinformer.com/discovering-the-best-knife-steel/
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Prepare for some "encouragement" to ask a better question... better at what? Corrosion, edge retention, edge chipping, keeping shiny, staying sharp, cutting paper, cutting to the chase, diving deeper, swimming further, coming up dryer, cost, heat treatability, sex appeal - my guess is you'll be redirected to myriad other posts about steels with a basic question like this. You may want to clarify what you are primarily concerned about.
Lol sorry , I guess what I meant was overall better but I should know that it's not that simple. I got a native and was kinda wondering why they made it in s35. And I have a pm2 and a couple different manix2s in s30v. Then I started thinking what the difference was. They seem very similar as far as edge retention and ease of sharpening . I just want to know what people prefer and why ? For a folder
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This is very informative thanks a lot!
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S35VN is an iterative improvement over S30V, I think. The biggest difference is that there are enough of us willing to buy variants of the same knife with different materials to justify the manufacture of said variants.
So true
115Italian
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The way I heard it is s30v has better edge retention because its a little harder. But s35vn has the win with toughness. It also should be easier to sharpen. S30v may be more prone to chipping over s35vn.
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Personally I find s35vn easier to get sharpened to a nice razor edge. I find its s30v cousin wants to take abit of a toothier edge. Personally I find s35vn to have properties somewhat like 154cm and s30v had a baby. At one point I used to find s30v seemed to want to microchip. However I think that the knife companies got the heat treatment dialed in because it doesn't seem to be a problem anymore.
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Depends on the maker. IIRC, Crucible's pitch for S35VN was that it was a more "knifemaker friendly" version of S30V. If you're buying from a maker that has limited, or no, experience with S30V and is now offering both, then S35VN would probably be the better choice. Given Spyderco's years of experience using S30V, I suspect there's no reason to choose S35VN on a model available in both.
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Like Deacon said, I have always heard that s35v was designed to yield the same performance for the end user as s30v while being easier to work with for the maker.
That said, many people claim to be able to tell the difference. I cannot and consider them the same.
Why does Spyderco use both? Well, variety is the spice of life and Spyderco is good at giving us variety.
That said, many people claim to be able to tell the difference. I cannot and consider them the same.
Why does Spyderco use both? Well, variety is the spice of life and Spyderco is good at giving us variety.
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if i had the choice id go with s35vn. i just like everything about it better, primarily sharpening it and cutting with it over s30v. i dont have either from spyderco tho, the primary reason why i dont is that spyderco offers so many superior steel types that ive been getting those instead.
i like s35vn overall, but since its mass produced on so many knives i feel like its boring, so id prefer m390/204p/20cv or really anything else in s35vn's class of knife steel.
s35vn from ZT has been shown to be soft and not have great edge retention (optimized for toughness instead).
i like s35vn overall, but since its mass produced on so many knives i feel like its boring, so id prefer m390/204p/20cv or really anything else in s35vn's class of knife steel.
s35vn from ZT has been shown to be soft and not have great edge retention (optimized for toughness instead).
I've seen some mention of this in forums and other places all of which is anecdotal. I've also seen similar "conclusions" based on some youtube "tests" which are far from a scientifically controlled test. Do you have a citation to something based on empirical evidence as opposed to opinions, non-scientific tests and similar anecdotal evidence?
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^^^ This. Properly heat treated, profiled and sharpened, you will see no difference in real life. Knife makers, on the other hand, can get visually "better" finished blades out the door with less materials used, which means shorter production times and lower production costs for an equivalent-performing product. For a knife maker, that's a plus.
Thank you for this chart...it is very helpful. It seems that there isn't much difference between S30V and S35VN. In fact, Spyderco used to use S35VN in their Native 5s, but they have gone to S30V now with no reduction in price.
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As have I, and I find my ZTs in s35 to be very good with edge retention, and sharpening (reprofiling actually) to be kind of tough. Not difficult, but it just seems to take a while even with diamonds. My para 3 in s30 though didn't take long... Might be that I had less to take off on my para 3 since I think spydercos edges are ground thinner already and zt has obtuse edges stock.
Either way, I've been happy with my ZTs edge retention, and my spydercos. Zt may treat their knives a little soft, but even if they do its more than enough for me.
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Very much my experience. S30V has had major chipping issues in light to medium use.
My Spyderco Native 5 lightweight, bought a couple of years ago, has a S35VN blade. Just saw on Spyderco's website that they are now in S30V. I wonder why?