What was the first knife steel you fell in love with and still use to this day?

miso2 said:
Well, it wasn't really the first, but it was the steel of the knife I bought when I fell seriously into knives.
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S30V did similar to me on my Charge TTi; and now S90V has grabbed me.
I’ll have to try M390 soon.
 
Victorinox steel, from a total utilitarian standpoint, it serves its purpose well and pretty stainless and care free.
 
I also spent three years studying mostly steel at University; BEng in materials Engineering. However I didn’t really use it much (we run a PR business) but it’s nice to dabble now and again and remember some of the old theory and practical applications.
 
BG-42 was my first crush due to my first Sebenza and a Mike Irie custom I’d picked up mid to late ‘90s. Sadly, we parted ways long ago.
S30V and S35VN seem to make up the majority of folders I like and/or would purchase. I’ve had good experiences with both from a few well known companies(CRK, Chaves, Hinderer, Strider) and have even found a few small fixed blades that I’d have no problem picking up and using.
While I don’t have many of these I find that 1095, 5160 and 3V are my go to steels for larger fixed blades. Over the years I’ve tried TOPS, Grayman, BRKT, Fehrman, Strider, Buck and BHK to name a few and have settled on a couple that really fit my needs.
 
My first impression of a "quality steel" was 1075 (XC75, on this side of the pond). Loved the way it gets and stays sharp. I still like it and prefer it to 1095. In my experience, 1075 is more resilient.
 
As a person that just carried and used the same knife every day for about two decades (ATS-34) I didn't really think about it until M4 kinda blew me away, which got me thinking about attributes and what I liked in a steel.
 
For me it would be case CV steel and buck 420 hc. I like the buck so much I have an inertia clipped on my pocket and a 301 in my pocket.
 
The first steel that I really took a shine to, about 30 yrs ago, was 5160. My last two Buck knives, a 101 and a 110, are 5160. Copper and Clad specials, they cut quite well, hold an edge, and sharpen easily enough. And I like the way 5160 colors, though 1095 takes a little better patina. Any uncoated carbon steel knife that follows me home gets a good wash before I use it cut up some steak for fajitas, to force a patina that doesn't look like I drew it on. The 5160 Bucks do cut quite handily, the job for which they were intended. And they look better with a little color.
 
I carry a small Swiss Army Knife when I'm not carrying my Spyderco Gayle Bradley, my most used edc knife. That SAK has been around for dozens of years. The oldest knife I have is a Browning Stockman, good knife but nothing compared to the Gayle Bradley. After the Browning I carried a Gerber Paul. The Paul was my introduction to mechanical one handed knives. That was around 1970.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?

v=8AV7N6iQxOghttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8AV7N6iQxOg
 
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I’m amused by the mention of victorinox steel because it was what made me believe no knife could be worth more because it and case are run so soft that they can be sharpened on any nearby rock but also need to be sharpened everyday. Their steel is anything but impressive to me it took a long time to learn about hardness and that you could have a long lasting edge.
 
PirateSeulb said:
I’m amused by the mention of victorinox steel because it was what made me believe no knife could be worth more because it and case are run so soft that they can be sharpened on any nearby rock but also need to be sharpened everyday. Their steel is anything but impressive to me it took a long time to learn about hardness and that you could have a long lasting edge.
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Their steel may not be impressive, but their knives are always predictable in quality and easy to sharpen. You must cut a lot of stuff to need to sharpen a Vic everyday. I sharpen my Vic about once a week.

As I mentioned before, I never even thought about steel type, hardness and so forth until joining BF. But I will say that I avoided Buck knives like the plague for many years. The reason I didn't like them was because they were a huge pain in the butt to sharpen. I got my first diamond bench stones after joining here. The only reason I bought a 110 was because I wanted to try one out about 20 years ago. Still not particularly a fan of that knife even though I own two.
 
Schrade's 1095, I carried a Schrade 89OT for over 30 years. I love well tempered 1095. The one after that was Buck's 440C. That really opened my eyes to what stainless could be. I could still get along quite nicely with only those two steels.
Bob
 
I don’t mean to knock SAK if it came off as such but since the thread is about steels we fell in love with I kind of expect the steel to be impressive. The everyday was an exaggeration but as a child I was carving in trees and carving sticks and just cutting on or into wood often. It would be what ever kind of trees that grow commonly around middle Tennessee which I know included and Osage Orange that was in the front yard growing up.
 
PirateSeulb said:
I’m amused by the mention of victorinox steel because it was what made me believe no knife could be worth more because it and case are run so soft that they can be sharpened on any nearby rock but also need to be sharpened everyday. Their steel is anything but impressive to me it took a long time to learn about hardness and that you could have a long lasting edge.
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At one point in my life, a Victorinox Spartan SAK was my only EDC knife for over 10 years when I lived overseas. It served my purposes well. Unless I was doing something like breaking down lots of thick cardboard boxes, which really never happened, I could go awhile without needing to resharpen the blades. And even then, resharpening took less than a minute, and honestly, sometimes only several seconds. The blade geometry of SAK blades is excellent.

I’ve read comments from some people who ‘touch up’ their super-steel knives every evening or every week, because they’re afraid of their knife starting to dull and becoming a bear to resharpen. So what’s the difference (for them) between that and touching up an “inferior” steel a little more often? I thought the point of a “super steel” is that you “rarely” need to sharpen it?

I still EDC and use two SAKs every single day now. I also carry either a Spyderco or CRK clipped to a pocket for “rougher” cutting jobs. That doesn’t make the SAKs obsolete; it’s using the right (or the best) tool for the job. I also like and regularly use steels like S35VN, VG-10, S30V, LC200N, CTS-XHP, etc., but those steels weren’t the first I “fell in love with,” because I’ve been using pocketknives since the 1970s, and SAKs for almost 40 years. There was no such thing as S110V or M390 or any of these modern popular “super” steels back then. So yes, Victorinox steel was the “first” pocketknife steel I found myself really liking. Not to mention, all the knives I use in the kitchen are Victorinox kitchen knives with the same steel.

Jim
 
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PirateSeulb said:
I don’t mean to knock SAK if it came off as such but since the thread is about steels we fell in love with I kind of expect the steel to be impressive. The everyday was an exaggeration but as a child I was carving in trees and carving sticks and just cutting on or into wood often. It would be what ever kind of trees that grow commonly around middle Tennessee which I know included and Osage Orange that was in the front yard growing up.
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"First fell in love with".... It obviously depends on your age and when you started using knives on a regular basis. Kids today may first fall in love with some super steel (if Dad gives them a "fancy" knife) or a more likely steel like VG-10 (which is available on many standard Spydie models) and then they move on if interested.

All that said, I can't honestly say that I "fell in love with" any steel. Even today, I still often buy middle range steels over the high end stuff (on good knives) unless I'm just curious to try out a particular steel. I just want to be able to sharpen the knife when it needs sharpening and do it relatively quickly.
 
The first steel I was aware of was 1095, then 154CM and D2 through random knife purchases over the years. I still have a few. One or two are daily users.

I didn’t learn what my trusty workhorse Wusthofs or SAKs were made with till I came here a few years ago.

Now I have folders in most of the new super steels. M390, Elmax, S35VN ...

This forum has afforded me a solid foundational education as my collection grows.
 
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