A question for the folks who actually know something about knives

I have a Benchmade barrage that I absolutely love everything about except for one thing - it won't hold an edge. When I bought it I thought I wanted the toughest blade that I could get. Something that could take a lot of abuse. So I went with the 154CM steel. Well, it turns out the VAST majority of the time I'm using this thing to cut open boxes. Not exactly hacking my way out of a downed helicopter.

So, they offer two other types of steel with this particular model - M390 and CPM-S30V. Which would retain an edge the best?

Thanks in advance.

http://knifeinformer.com/discovering-the-best-knife-steel/

Id opt for a box cutter that you can replace blades rather than mess up a high end pocket knife. They have one that you pull the blade out and retract and the next blade locks in and you extend it.

Interesting read. Thanks.

EDBC Every day box cutter

Why spend money on a nice blade just to cut boxes open,

https://www.lowes.com/pd/Kobalt-11-Blade-Utility-Knife/50289429

I'm starting to sense a theme.


Thanks for the advice.

Ok , I'll throw the * Other * theme out there :

The obsession to the extreme over " Edge Holding is asking the wrong question. Thing back to the First Day of Engineering School .

Define a problem
Determine each component.
Determine how each component interacts.
Combine into solving the problem defined in step 1

The real parameter isn't " what steel has most edge holding ? "

The real parameter is " When I whip out my trusty knife , I want it to be Plenty Damn Sharp , and do what I need/ want it to do ."

The super duper Steels as a class are very difficult to sharpen . Both to initially establish your desired edge geometry , and to maintain once established.

Presuming you ever did succeed in initially establishing , it was such a b$!tch , you put off touching up as long as possible, and it's just that much harder to resharpen.

For all around use , I like reasonably durable , but easy to sharpen. Not too onerous to establish to my druthers of geometry , and only a few seconds to maintain . At work, I have a pocket sharpening device in my pocket , and otherwise they are handy to have in car . When in doubt , give it a few strokes ( sexual inuendo not intended ).

! Old School, Old Fart Alert ! I'd be perfectly happy to spend the rest of my life with just 1095 .

I agree with most here. Buy a utility knife for boxes. Keep your "hard to sharpen" knife, learn how to sharpen and maintain that knife, keep it in your pocket and pray the day never comes when you'll need that knife.

Cold Steel,Voyager tanto with at least half of the blade edge serrated.

You will never need another work knife...unless you lose it. Then, you'll cry for about a week.

My Benchmade Griptillian also has 154 steel. It has been my "go to" backpacking knife for about a year. I just got a Spyderco PM2 in S30V which I'll try out when the weather gets a little warmer. My EDC knife has been either a Spyderco Delica4 or Dragonfly stainless... both in VG10.

My experience in sharpening 154 steel is that it's largely a pain in the @$$ if you're using a whet stone. VG10 is a bit easier on a stone. My wife got me a Sharpmaker system for Christmas and now.... sharpening is simple. I don't know why I waited so long.

All that said... I bought a Stanley folding utility knife for cardboard. That and about $10 worth of replacement blades and I don't cry if I chip a blade on a staple I missed.

BM Grip 154 edc'er here. Love that knife. Not familiar with the M390 steel and have one knife in S30. 154 does what I need, and could/ have made do with 440c. I used to use the oil and stones, ceramic sticks, etc. now I sharpen everything with the Works sharp system.

With the serrations, this blade will cut anything and forever. I had mine for a dozen years before my brother stole it from me.

I have expensive blades , but to be perfectly honest my work knives are 10.00 to no more then 20.00 each .

I have 5 blades I put out on my dresser and rotate then every couple days , and then when one goes dull I grab another . Then when I have 2 left I sharpen the others and start the process over . I have found this works the best for me and I never have a dull knife .
I carry my good knives on weekends or when i'm off work .

Just a point of reference. I have a Benchmade Osbourne Emissary (partial serration) in S30V. It holds the edge fairly well, but it sharpens easily with a few strokes on a sharpening rod. If it is bad, I will use the coarse rod, followed by a very fine rod. I tried to keep this out of the "out of context thread"

Another Benchmade Mini-Grip 154cm EDCer here.

I use it daily for everything including boxes. I have a 2-sided strop (thick leather glued to an oak board - green polishing compound on one side) to touch up the blade when needed - which is about once every 2-3 weeks.

Other than that, I sharpen it on an Edge Pro knockoff when the blade is chipped or dulled beyond the point of just using a strop - maybe twice a year.

its your money but I wouldnt spend good money on a good knife to use it as a box cutter. Just my opinion. When they have box cutters for that.

Is it 154CM or is it CPM154? 154CM is a decent stainless steel, better than 440C but on par with Buck's heat treat on 420HC. CPM154 is the Cruicible Powdered Metal version of 154CM that is a much better steel.

The Bohler M390 steel is so tough it's just stupid. I saw a guy freeze an M390 knife in the center of a 5 gallon bucket of water, then had a second blade chilled to 0 degrees F and used that one to chisel the other one out of the ice. When he freed the one from the ice he used that one with a 3 pound maul to break bricks in two. Hopefully you don't do that to your knives, but M390 will take whatever you throw at it for EDC.

S30V is a bad steel IMHO. Every S30V blade I have chips a lot and it's hard to sharpen. It's so bad that Crucible created S35VN to correct the shortcomings of S30V.

I am one of those people , that if I carry an ( expensive to me ) knife , it will go missing within a week . My knife that ( stays in one catagory of clothing ) is cheap Chinese I bought well used at tractor show 5yrs ago , with unspecified "stainless" . But with my Sharp 'n Easy in leg pocket , it is always more than up to everything I use it for .

I agree with the box cutter recommendation. When I got into expensive knives I dove head first into Spyderco. I was quickly let down by edge retention on the Delica 4 and the PM2 when using them for everything at work. Boxes and rope kill the edges. The Delica 4 will not hold a non chipped edge for more than a week or so.

I bought a couple of Kershaw knives cheap and they do the same thing the Spyderco knives did and are much easier to maintain. I keep the Delica 4 in my pocket with a perfect edge in case I need to use it and need a really sharp blade. Otherwise i use a kershaw that is kept in my tool bag.

Have a lot of good folders in various steels, they all have good and bad aspects even if you don't consider price. First and most important is edge geometry, a thick knife with a fat relief bevel is more resistant to damage, at the expense of cutting performance, so 2 identical knives could "feel" different. There is some skill in determining the ideal bevel angles and grit/polish based on your intended use, and the attributes of the steel. Also worth mentioning a knife isn't a prybar or a hammer, either task can chip, or break a nice folder, and designing one to stand up to ridiculous impact forces usually sacrifices performance in other areas. Larger knives also have different needs than smaller knives, small knives tens to have thin edges, and a sharp fine edge is more important than attributes you would want from a large folder like resistance to damage, and holding a working edge. "Dulling" can come from a few things, sometimes from the edge actually wearing through abrasion, which takes a long time, or rolling and chipping that can happen fast, where rolling can be fixed with a quick stropping, chips or dulling have to be sharpened out. Heat treatment, and how hard vs tough a company runs their steel along with other aspects of the manufacturing process also effect the "personality" of a blade. Steel comparison charts are OK as a guide, but don't show everything, this one is decent, but still doesn't show every attribute.


Out of my blades, 154CM is very tough and takes a fine polish, sharpens really easily, but is relatively soft and suceptible to rolling and dulling. Good inexpensive all around steel, Benchmade seems to do a good job on heat treatment. I like to run the bevel angle a little fat or a convex edge on my 550HG and spydercos, the edges are thin enough they still cut well, and it avoids rolling, and even if it does, it comes back with stropping.

S30V has been one of my favorites, IMO it's the gateway to super steels, and a good all-around steel in it's own right. Takes a little more work to sharpen than 154CM, and won't polish as fine or as easily, but still relatively tough, can take a fine edge, but looses it at an ordinary rate. It will dull till it just barely slices paper cleanly, then wear very slowly from that point on. I like it in larger folders where I can put a bit more force behind a cut, some say it chips readily, and some of my early thin S30V blades did, but newer ZT, BM and Spidy blades don't chip, and are FAR more resistant to rolling and wear than 154CM.

M390, CPM20CV, 204P, whatever flavor you find it in is a great steel. All around performance like the others, but a step above. On paper it is about the same or slightly less tough than S30V, but haven't had any problems, in fact seems a bit less likely to roll on thinner edges, but most seem to run theirs at a slightly higher hardness than S30V. It takes a wicked edge fairly easily(still a little more work than S30V), keeps a fine edge a lot longer than the high Vanadium steels (CPM S??V), and wears slow. Most knives that run it are pricey, but the steel in my ZTs and Spydercos offers about all you can ask for in a folder.

Damn! You guys know A LOT about knives. Thanks everyone for the advice. I ordered one of those "portable" sharpening systems. Maybe staying on top of sharpening it will help. Thanks again.