Common Use Case: To create a profile of well balanced high-quality attributes, Sharpening Difficulty: Rather difficult 3/10 Toughness: Very good 7/10. Toughness: Very good 7/10. 420HC from Buck Knives is generally of higher quality than 420 or 420HC. A last little tidbit here is that creating excellent resistance to corrosion will oftentimes sacrifice a bit in the category of edge retention. 420 steel is pretty basic steel with hardly any corrosion resistance on its own. One of the Marine Approved top recommendations for a knife encompassing CPM-20CV steel is the Cold Steel Recon 1 found here. Toughness: Medium 5/10. Edge Retention: Decent 4/10 How the steel is treated and what manufacturing process it undergoes will have a huge impact on corrosion resistance. Bohler N690 is widely known as VG-10 on steroids, simply having extremely similar performance and characteristics but encompassing slightly better edge retention and being a tad bit more difficult to sharpen when need be. In Marine Approved fashion, we suggest opting for higher quality as AUS-6 is typically found on low-end budget knives that maybe you’d buy as a first-time knife gift for a youngster or something in that nature. If you’d like to study up on the Rockwell hardness scales intricacies and nuances, check out the AG Russell article on it found here. Review: A2 isn’t very common for something like an EDC pocket knife but it is common for when you need something insanely tough and durable to drag with you through combat. Ceramic blades are pretty much impossible to sharpen yourself but typically come with ultra razor sharp edges that hold for a decent period of time. If you’ve ever owned a knife before then I’m sure you’ve seen that little stamp on your blade with a string of letters and numbers. Blades consisting of this steel usually don’t last very long in terms of overall longevity but they can endure massive amounts of abuse without snapping or shattering. Lower edge retention doesn’t mean the blade is bad for your specific use case as it may excel in things you really need, like resistance to saltwater as you use the knife on a fishing rig, just expect to sharpen more often! Common Use Case: This used to be a top contender but now is used as a general use mid-tier material, Sharpening Difficulty: Fairly easy 7/10 Corrosion Resistance: Maximum performance 10/10 Review: H1 steel is derived from the Japanese Myodo Metals and is the Yang to the D2’s Yin. Well, it is more expensive and it is better in some areas but there are glaring tradeoffs that cannot be ignored. Of course, you get what you pay for and the top tier steel materials that you will pay an arm and a leg for will often excel in all categories over their cheaper counterparts. CPM 20CV is the more corrosion resistant version of the high tier CPM family. Most Common Ingredients Used to Create Steel Blades. It’s pretty difficult to tell how well a blade is treated until it’s well worn and compared to that of other similar steel compositions, so there’s no true method in determining whether a knife has been treated well or lackluster. Well, different manufacturers have different methods of how they treat their steel before and after it takes life as a blade. These are some of the easiest blades to sharpen, though, so like I said, they’re good as a starter blade material. Titanium: Despite titanium being insanely strong and super lightweight, you won’t find too many knives consisting of the material. The extra advantage of using stainless steel is the inclusion of chromium and other alloying elements that boost corrosion resistance. One of the Marine Approved top recommendations for a knife encompassing CPM-M4 steel is the Benchmade Contigo 810 found here. Knives with moving parts, that is any type of hinge, folder, utility, or multi-tool, should be oiled to ensure the moving parts are easy to move and that the metal on metal contact isn’t causing excessive wear and tear. One of the Marine Approved top recommendations for a knife encompassing Damascus steel is the Benchmade Foray 698-181 Gold Class found here. That time period has now come and gone and 440C has been reduced to a med-grade steel composition that is still widely used by a lot of US knife companies to create general-use well-rounded blades. The best edge retention would render your knife useless in anything other than cutting soft materials as even the slightest flex could send part of your blade flying! Corrosion Resistance: Low 2/10 420HC does have decent resistance to corrosion but if you have a few bucks more to spend, you can get equally as resistant steels that are also better at holding an edge and are generally more reliable. 14C28N is arguably one of the top budget options for medium well-rounded performing blades. Well, let’s break them down individually. The heat treatment techniques used by the manufacturer as well as the design of the blade itself play a huge role in the ultimate outcome of knife performance! Steel type: American 1080 / Japanese SK-5, Common Use Case: Mid-priced extra hard blades, Sharpening Difficulty: Very hard 2/10 The real problem with surgical steel stamps is that there is little to no formal accountability for the results and attributes of surgical steel. One of the Marine Approved top recommendations for a knife encompassing LC200N is the Spyderco Spydiechef found here. The only thing holding them back is the fact that using a ton of carbon offsets the chromium and brings the level of corrosion resistance down to a normal level. The bulletproof glass actually flexes inwards a slight bit to help dissipate the energy of the bullet’s impact and thus makes the glass much stronger against shattering. Edge retention seems to be all the rage when talking about a blade. Corporal Wabo is a former Infantry Squad Leader with 3rd Bn 4th Marines that specialized in Mortars. One of the Marine Approved top recommendations for a knife encompassing this material is the Buck Knives Ranger 112 found here.