What is the most wear-resistant steel for pocket knives

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evert67

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Oct 22, 2011
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We nowadays have a number of "super steels", whatever that exactly may be. What do you think is the most wear-resistant knife that is also resilient enough? I am waiting for a Para 3 Maxamet, but I don’t know whether that would be the best choice.
 
There are many that are way up there.

S90V, S110V, Maxamet, 10V, K390 and some others are all super high carbide steels.

There are always steels like M390 and M4 that are lower in carbide volume and still perform well.

I do not know what you mean by resilient. That is pretty subjective. What uses do you have in mind?

I have two knives in Maxamet and I like it. It is not stainless but it has been durable enough for my uses and has extreme wear resistance. I have boned an elk out with S110V and it held up fine. I have cleaned many fish and some small game with S90V and it has also held up fine.

In general I actually don't love those very high carbide steels and prefer steels that can be sharpened in the field much easier. Steels like XHP, Cruwear and S30V treat me well. I also like M4 a lot. I am pretty good with a pocket stone and like touching up on one.
 
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I think people worry too much about it. I have an old 440C Buck 110 that is 39 years old and has been sharpened more times than I can remember. I spent two minutes on my paper wheels and it is shaving hair again. It holds an edge forever and takes hard use.
 
D2 steel has good edge retention, CPM154 offers even better one. At the high end S90V is what I have and the edge last forever. I own a number of Manly knives with D2, CPM154 and S90V steels. All are razor sharp and holding the edge for a long time. I've seen some crazy tests with D2 Manly knives and the edge retention seem to be quite good, Manly does a nice job with the heat treat on their steels.
Check the knife informer article for steel blades, it has some good info and comparison charts. http://knifeinformer.com/discovering-the-best-knife-steel/
 
Another table summarizing data from knifeinformer article http://knifeinformer.com/discovering-the-best-knife-steel/
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However one note needs to be made, that CPM154 and 154CM are quite different. CPM154 CPM 154 is stainless powder steel and it has more homogeneous distribution of the alloying elements. And it has extremely fine sharp edge and hardness of 62HRC.
 
The most wear resistant is Maxamet.

M4 is a great combo of wear resistance and toughness. I have several in M4 and they are among my favorites. Heat treat comes into play too as do other variables such as blade grind and intended use to name just a few.

There is no perfect steel and never will be. Enjoy the journey!
 
The key to your question is “resilient.” Paramilitary comes in S110V (and dapper blue/purple G10) and that's incredibly wear resistant. Dunno about “resilient.”

I remember when getting a Buck Rush in an “upgraded” 154CM was a big deal and would give me a much longer edge for a weekend camping than the stock 420HC. Maybe I'm spoiled, but S30V is still a supersteel to me. The fact it's widely available does not diminish in any way the capabilities.
 
evert67 said:
the most wear-resistant knife that is also resilient
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In knife steels there is a tradeoff between toughness and wear resistance. Increase one property and you decrease the other. You have to pick the property that is most important to you and choose accordingly. Some of our supersteels increase the tradeoff point a little bit.
 
bdmicarta said:
In knife steels there is a tradeoff between toughness and wear resistance. Increase one property and you decrease the other. You have to pick the property that is most important to you and choose accordingly. Some of our supersteels increase the tradeoff point a little bit.
Click to expand...

While generally true it is not so simple. There are steels that are both harder and tougher than another steel. At the same time there are thingz you can do in heat treatment that will make the steel harder and tougher at the same time. Likewise you could botch it up and make the steel weaker and softer.

It isn't as simple as strength vs toughness.
 
I have been VERY impressed with Maxamet and K390. The high carbide Carbon steels are more user friendly than high carbide stainless.
The most high carbide stainless I like to go up to is CPM S90V
My all time favorite steel for smaller knives is CPM 20CV(M390, CTS- 204p) Amazing all around steel, and surprisingly tough. Never had a problem with chipping, cracks, or breaks. Plus very stainless, great edge holding, easy to sharpen, and gets very sharp.
 
My personal favorite is M390. Takes a nice edge, and holds up good edge for normal use. I've heard good things of M4
 
What I look for in a blade steel is edge retention and ease of sharping to screaming sharp edge. Many thanks to Sal Glesser for making available all these high tech and exotic blade steels . I haven't experinced many of these newer ones being discussed here , this is an interesting thread for sure . :D :thumbsup:
 
Probably Maxamet, k390, and S110v are the most wear resistant steels available right now in mass produced knives. You should probably head on over to the Spyderco forums, you will probably find what Sal has been up to very interesting.

I personally love CPM Cruwear, it has some of the same properties as cpm3v but I find it easier to sharpen.

Also, for around $70 you can get a Spyderco urban in k390. I think that is probably the best bang for buck in getting into a super steel. It's an amazing time to be a knife enthusiast.
 
I’ve done a little research and it appears that S110V is a bit more ductile/resilient/tough than Maxamet. And the first time I saw Maxamet described it was described as rather “chippy”. Since S110V seems nearly as wear-resistant (is it?) as Maxamet, wouldn’t it be a better idea to use S110V? The Paramilitary 2 happens to be available in both steels.
 
aztaco said:
I think people worry too much about it. I have an old 440C Buck 110 that is 39 years old and has been sharpened more times than I can remember. I spent two minutes on my paper wheels and it is shaving hair again. It holds an edge forever and takes hard use.
Click to expand...

I think that is the exact opposite of what the OP asked.
 
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