is a knife made out of CPM-S30V any good?

[JamesP82]

I tend not to base too much on one cutting application and not actually testing the knives on a hardness tester. He only went by what the manufacturer said the hardness should be.

This test also fails to take advantage of strengths and weaknesses of each steel.

All steels are made with certain strengths that set them apart from each other. The geometry of the edge is only one small part of a well designed knife.

If you notice, the 2 custom knives that had optimal heat treatment and geometry were left out completely because they drastically out cut the production knives.

If you really wanted to go all out, I'm sure there are some great custom makers around here somewhere.

Truth is, very few people ever own, use, and abuse really nice custom (nonprodution) knives. For most, benchmade is a great knife that is likely better than anything else they have owned.


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[ez bake]

All of the knives listed in Ankerson's test with a specific RC rating were (I believe) independently Rockwell tested before being used in the cutting test - those with question marks or ranges are going by Manufacturer's specs.

I wasn't debating the other strengths and weaknesses of S30V, only that at softer Rockwell ratings, it doesn't hold it's edge for as long and Benchmade tends to run their S30V blades softer than other makers. S30V vs. S30V at two different Rockwell ratings (and the near-identical edge-geometry) is pretty much apples to apples.

S30V is still a fine steel and that Benchmade is a great knife, but my point was only to state that if edge-retention is a serious concern, then there is a difference between the various heat treatments.

 

[pak-40]

What about the Kershaw Blur with the S30V blade?

 

[Rick417]

I love my Blur S30v. Nothing scientific, but it seems to keep an edge better than my Zero Tolerance 0350 with S30v.

Overall, I prefer the Blur in other aspects too. It is smoother, opens faster, and locks up tighter.

 

[heavysmoke]

It's a fine knife steel. My favorites are actually elmax and 0-1.