what do you guys use for pocket knives?

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jedy617 said:
Definitely some g10 or micarta. Honestly for the money there are going to be folders that are way way more enticing at $400...this is definitely one for fans of yu kurosaki
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Yup, that's high dollar for a pocketknife. About 20% more would get you the Chris Reeve Inkosi in Magnacut, which would be in the running for the perfect pocketknife. $400 would get you wonderful Spydercos with the best exotic steels like Maxamet or (coming soon!) Rex121 or BBB's superb 15V, with change left over.

Find me someone who says "you know, SG2 is a really good choice of steel for a pocketknife."

* I gather that BBB did not invent 15V; he just worked out a perfect heat treat for it
 
Rangen said:
Yup, that's high dollar for a pocketknife. About 20% more would get you the Chris Reeve Inkosi in Magnacut, which would be in the running for the perfect pocketknife. $400 would get you wonderful Spydercos with the best exotic steels like Maxamet or (coming soon!) Rex121 or BBB's superb 15V, with change left over.

Find me someone who says "you know, SG2 is a really good choice of steel for a pocketknife."

* I gather that BBB did not invent 15V; he just worked out a perfect heat treat for it
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I do think SG2 is quite fine for a pocket knife...but at like 200 bucks or less. And then you will be getting something probably a bit better suited for edc. It's very rare to find makers who can do a good chef knife and folders
 
jedy617 said:
I do think SG2 is quite fine for a pocket knife...but at like 200 bucks or less. And then you will be getting something probably a bit better suited for edc. It's very rare to find makers who can do a good chef knife and folders
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The price is a bit of a sticker shock to me. I thought it'd be 200-250 range. At 400 I currently would chase after Winterblade Co Factor but I couldn't even bring myself to spend that much on a folder.

Separately for food prep in a pinch I found Spydiechef and Vision R to be quite nice at this job. They have great ergo that doesn't force your knuckle into the board. However both suffer from unnecessary thick blade stock. Wish somebody make a food oriented folder with 0.090" stock and flat grind.
 
NotAddictedYet said:
The price is a bit of a sticker shock to me. I thought it'd be 200-250 range. At 400 I currently would chase after Winterblade Co Factor but I couldn't even bring myself to spend that much on a folder.

Separately for food prep in a pinch I found Spydiechef and Vision R to be quite nice at this job. They have great ergo that doesn't force your knuckle into the board. However both suffer from unnecessary thick blade stock. Wish somebody make a food oriented folder with 0.090" stock and flat grind.
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As a fidgeter, no regerts

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NotAddictedYet said:
The price is a bit of a sticker shock to me. I thought it'd be 200-250 range. At 400 I currently would chase after Winterblade Co Factor but I couldn't even bring myself to spend that much on a folder.

Separately for food prep in a pinch I found Spydiechef and Vision R to be quite nice at this job. They have great ergo that doesn't force your knuckle into the board. However both suffer from unnecessary thick blade stock. Wish somebody make a food oriented folder with 0.090" stock and flat grind.
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I had a factor. Fun knife but got a little old for me. Those are nice picks. A chapparal could serve you well being super thin, although not really a knife made for food prep.
 
jedy617 said:
I had a factor. Fun knife but got a little old for me. Those are nice picks. A chapparal could serve you well being super thin, although not really a knife made for food prep.
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Actually have one in sun and moon, great little knife. I think I have outgrown my Spyderco phase though, especially with the Spyderco finger choil. Sharpening choil is much more my thing.
 
William Hunt said:
Just m390 lol. That’s one of my favorites. For those interested in the Kurosaki, I think Carbon Knife Co. had some.
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Corradobrit1 said:
Yeah, if it's good enough for the likes of Shirogorov and Bartoz Herman I'm on board. $450 is what I paid for this LNIB 2021 Sting M390 with his special polished stonewash finish.

View attachment 296111
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Not all M390 is created equal though. A few years back there was quite an uproar over soft M390 coming out of Italy in some very popular brands. So while "M390" was front and center in all the marketing, the treatment of the steel left a lot to be desired. To my knowledge (and I don't really keep up on that stuff any more) they still run it at or below 60.
 
$400 for a folder puts you pretty squarely into the premium category and there are quite a few superior options readily available today. Like HHC mentioned, the average HT on m390 is pretty bad due to the fact it's as brittle as zdp and there were people complaining about chipping from just cutting cardboard so manufacturers dialed back the hardness. It's better suited for cutlery than edc, but even then I'd take zdp over it.
 
HumbleHomeCook said:
Not all M390 is created equal though. A few years back there was quite an uproar over soft M390 coming out of Italy in some very popular brands. So while "M390" was front and center in all the marketing, the treatment of the steel left a lot to be desired. To my knowledge (and I don't really keep up on that stuff any more) they still run it at or below 60.
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Herman quotes HRC61 for his M390. This is my Sting #100
https://polishcustomknives.com/folding-knife-sting-100-m390-herman.html
 
Mhm most production m390 is pretty mediocre stuff unfortunately. It can definitely be pretty great stuff if done well though.

For me, s90v is a better all around choice, better edge retention and marginally better toughness which is nice. Usually harder to find at the lower end of the price range though
 
HumbleHomeCook said:
Not all M390 is created equal though. A few years back there was quite an uproar over soft M390 coming out of Italy in some very popular brands. So while "M390" was front and center in all the marketing, the treatment of the steel left a lot to be desired. To my knowledge (and I don't really keep up on that stuff any more) they still run it at or below 60.
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jedy617 said:
Mhm most production m390 is pretty mediocre stuff unfortunately. It can definitely be pretty great stuff if done well though.

For me, s90v is a better all around choice, better edge retention and marginally better toughness which is nice. Usually harder to find at the lower end of the price range though
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This is exactly why I keep on harping that we should be careful when qualifying steels based on the knives we’ve used. It is counter intuitive since we experience steels through knives, but steel qualities in a way exist apart from the knives they are used in. This can especially be a problem and a disservice when talking about customs. With production knives you could say that company X did steel Y not to your liking at some period of time and for some models. With customs each knife can be very different even when same steel is used, look at recent discussion of Shi.han knives someone using his older knives might have a very different experience from using his current knives. Same for popularity of white 2/1095 class of steels, arguably one of the worst of the popular classes of steels for knives, the only claim of fame it has is that it is easy to work with on both maker and consumer sides. Yet many great knives are made in these steels, but it is not due to inherent, unique attributes of these steels that benefit the consumer. So when people ask for recommendations about steels, we need to be careful to separate the steel attributes from our experience with specific knives.

For example, I've had experience with bad s30v and good s35vn, I've had experience with bad m390 and good m390 and also bad s90v in Benchmade knives and excellent s90v in Spyderco knives. Non of these experiences qualify these steels as bad or good. S30v and s35vn are still the same class of steels and when done well the end user will have a very hard time telling them apart and same could be said about any steels that fall in he same class. Of course there are differences that can be figured out and determined with careful laboratory testing, but the end user is unlikely to be able to tell the difference within the same class.
 
Barmoley said:
Yes, sure. Really not the point I am trying to make, but I agree with your assessment of Benchmade.
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I get your point, just not sure there is a point rehashing an argument. I think we are in agreement that a large portion of a steels performance will come down to the maker and heat treat anyway, and you can make a theoretically decent steel quite mediocre.

I'm just of the opinion that with a certain number of steels out there today, there is just not much of a reason to use them for any reason because better alternatives exist in almost all aspects. On that list for me are s35, D2 (non cpm) 154cm, and vg10/n690 primarily. Not that some of those can't be made into a satisfactory knife, I just don't think there is much merit these days to use most of them when better alternatives exist. This is within reason of course. No problem with having D2 on a $30 ontario rat.
 
Their Winterblade Factor has a Magnacut option.

I gave my spyderco M390 to the Tongan guy who finished my rock wall. He had been using it to cut open bags of cement, sand, & gravel.

I admit didn't have all the diamond stones or experience sharpening supersteels. I could get M390 sharp. It was a chore.

Bought the JKI 6K Diamond stone had the 1K for years.

Was able to get my K390 spyderco sharper than OOTB.

When bought small chef knife with Magnacut got it so sharp went through papertowel clean slice.

Since both of us use the chef knife I've been putting it through things like taking seeds out of avocado. Cutting frozen banana, cantaloupe, strawberries, mango. I wouldn't do that with my thin edge carbons. It still slices tomatoes. Stainless, tuff, superior edge retention. Able to take a shaving sharp edge.
 
Keithpaints said:
Their Winterblade Factor has a Magnacut option.

I gave my spyderco M390 to the Tongan guy who finished my rock wall. He had been using it to cut open bags of cement, sand, & gravel.

I admit didn't have all the diamond stones or experience sharpening supersteels. I could get M390 sharp. It was a chore.

Bought the JKI 6K Diamond stone had the 1K for years.

Was able to get my K390 spyderco sharper than OOTB.

When bought small chef knife with Magnacut got it so sharp went through papertowel clean slice.

Since both of us use the chef knife I've been putting it through things like taking seeds out of avocado. Cutting frozen banana, cantaloupe, strawberries, mango. I wouldn't do that with my thin edge carbons. It still slices tomatoes. Stainless, tuff, superior edge retention. Able to take a shaving sharp edge.
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There was only a limited run of 50 magnacuts. Hard to get magnacut in china. I had one of them. Kinda miss it, but not losing sleep over it
 
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I got this one in 2012. It’s been my winter edc since. Too bad they discontinued the contego. Nice slab of m4 with g-10 scales for $160. I have beat on this knife and it still has no blade play, and it is still centered. The Adamas is the only Benchmade I’ve seen lately that is built this well and it seems like too much to spend on a production folder.
 
I have a number of EDC’s that I carry that I call city knives - Shiro, Oz, Holt. All great actions, millings, attention to detail, etc but when on the job outside, especially in bad weather, it’s the Quiet Carry Drift that I usually take. The Vanax blade is very corrosion resistant and when I drop it, the orange G10 scales show up in even poor light.
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