Where is the love for K390 steel?

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MAD777

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Aug 3, 2011
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After researching "super steels" I believe K390 to be have a fairly high degree of toughness and edge retention nearly as good as S110V, 10V, Maxamet types. At least I have read that it was designed to add toughness to high edge retention.

If true, this sounds like a good camp knife steel that could compete with 3V. Yet, it's extremely rare to find the steel and that is usually in folders. For instance, Spyderco is releasing Police 4.

I like my camp knives in 3V, but variety is the spice of life. If K390 is as tough as its touted, why can't I find K390 camp knives?


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Spyderco Military in K390 is also likely as per Sal.

I imagine it's a PITA to grind and work with at the factory. Steels like this can take a long time to become more common. Plus it needs to be imported. S110v for example has been around for years and still is uncommon today except with Spyderco.
 
Yes, Spyderco is the king of offering a variety of great steels. I'm kicking my derier for missing the Mule Team 17 in K390.

Maybe Sal will put out a Serrata in K390. That would make a great do-it-all camp knife!

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I have a couple. They're not really camp knives though unless by camp knives you mean carving some wood, cutting food, skinning animals, etc. K390 shouldn't be beat on. It's equivalent to 10V and that class of steel IS versatile but not for the "beat the hell out of it" end of the spectrum. It's more along the lines of "its a knife and it's supposed to be used for cutting stuff, not splitting, not prying, not mauling" end of the spectrum. Having said that someone COULD make it thick and soft enough to withstand that type of rough use but it'd need to be thicker than 3V would need to be and other steels would be better suited. A K390/10V military/police would be pretty good, imo. Not too thick, not too thin. And people who buy those are usually knowledgeable enough to know not to start beating the crap out of em. You make em in camp style knives next thing you know there'll be youtube videos of people hammering the knife through sheet metal and beating it through knotty hardwood and talking about how bad the knife sucks because it broke too easily.
 
MAD777 said:
Yes, Spyderco is the king of offering a variety of great steels. I'm kicking my derier for missing the Mule Team 17 in K390.

Maybe Sal will put out a Serrata in K390. That would make a great do-it-all camp knife!

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I HAD two K390 Mules :) I needed to purge my collection though and they both went :(

The Serrata's designer loves his dendritic 440C steel and typically posts on the forums that suggest that he much prefers AEBL, 440C, and Sandvik steels over the high wear, high carbide steels. A Cliff Stamp cosigner in Cliff argument threads hehe, nothing wrong with that at all but you will probably not see a K390 Serrata in this lifetime.
 
I have a VG10 Serrata :lol: Pretty pleased with it, too. That knife in a bunch of different steels would be great.

I see that there is an Urban out from Spyderco now in K390
 
MAD777 said:
Does anyone know of a fixed blade using K390?

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Just do a search on this forum
A knifemaker used it a lot but is using vanadis 10 instead at the moment.
He says they are very alike.
 
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