Best Blade Steels For $100 Or Less 

A 2x6x.160 piece of s35vn is around 50 bucks before shipping... so a 3 to 3.5 inch blade knife at 100 bucks with s35vn is actually an amazing price when you factor in the raw blank cost of just the steel. Now of course that's from a steel baron and I'm sure the knife companies are paying much less than that but the fact of the matter is that powder steels cost like hell for just the blade blade Cost.. factor in water jet to cut the blades out, abrasive wear to grind the blades, finishing time and just the blade cost alone starts make it seem as tho a company selling a powder steel knife at 100 dollars at the retailer can't be making but like 15 bucks on a knife.. figure they are making it for 45-50, wholesaling at 65-70 and the retailer slapping their 25-30 on it.. knife companies ain't making as much as you think they are...especially usa knife companies.

Every girl’s crazy about a sharp edge man.

That comment deserves more likes.

Lol

...quote unquote.

hey man, bladehq and bladeops are two other really reputable sellers. you won’t find fakes there. just check em out bc a lot of these sellers have exclusive options and models

Or just give me great geometry about everything and it'll be a hell of a knife.

Very good steel.

I would cry if I lost my *Link

I got it too. Great little knife.

My list is pretty much the same.

That swordfish is a great knife at $90

Loving my swordfish so far. No hard use yet. But came out of the box shaving sharp and a single adjustment after a few weeks. Feels great.

❤

Yup. Have it. Love it. Only a couple teensy tiny nitpicks, but for the materials, phenomenal action, and just overall quality at the price point… unbeatable. The Link might be better economically, because it’s larger, but the Bareknuckle carries similarly to a 940.

I got the link last year in M390 for $80.

I just bought the link for $52.00 at my local store close out with 20cv!

CPM doesn't mean American made as I had to learn myself. Crucible Industries LLC licensed it's cpm process to Robert Zapp in 2012. Some steels on AKS are labeled CPM and is made by Zapp. They don't tell you this.

I use and abuse mine a lot. Its not the 100% toughest/hardest 2pcv ever but man this thing cuts like a champ and i just strop on leather belt and it just works

@@unknown-ql1fk it works compared to? This is my issue. I don't have experience with every alloy but I at least know on paper. As I've found - the majority of knife people don't understand shit about the science behind it. A big issue that allows me to exist for people like that. Which yep - works.

@@unknown-ql1fk In no way am I saying 20CV is bad. But. There's better alloys out there in almost every category or at least isn't going to translate into a real world noticable difference. Then again we both know that you won't know the difference between a PM or ingot steel and we're not even getting into the hsla or high alloy differences...

@@RU-vid_Scientisthe was saying the KNIFE is american made

It’s so underrated. Great knife

I have the Link too, but the spring was snapping open crazy hard so I took it out and heat treated it with a little torch to be a little weaker and now it's just about perfect (don't go past purple). I smoothed out the flipper tab as mine had a really sharp edge and it actually abraded my thumb the 1st time I used it. I tried it without the spring, but it doesn't have a detent to hold the blade in when closed so it has to have the spring. Luckily it has a. .085 heavy spring that's unlikely to break. Those O60 springs on some assist knives break every time. My Bear Ops Swipe would be useless except it does have a detent.

@@MountainFisher yeah I smoothed down the flipper tab as well but mine never snapped open super hard so maybe the heat treat on the spring was off on yours.

@@mikoyanig5512 Probably so, I bought a Kershaw Turismo where the spring was perfect out of the box. That Bear Ops Swipe was hard snapping too, but it broke about a month after I got it. I measured the spring and it was too thin, only .052 thick.

@@MountainFisher yeah I haven’t heard to many nice things about bear ops knives.

Just got my Code 4 tanto delivered today! Really loving the knife so far. It’s going to be one heck of a workhorse I think!

Vg10 is a great steel, I also love 154cm, and 14c28n, Happy cutting , old chap.😊🇬🇧🇳🇿

Rant?? Nah bro, you're speaking science, and that, is awesome to those of us who understand it. HD frame repair certified myself was taught about the fish plate method due to the increase of patch surface area. In fact, most failures don't occur at the plate when done the correct way, the frame around said patch fail. Sorry, nerded out

Yes. What he said ^🤣

It's a decent alloy. I personally like it. There's better ones frankly. Not an opinion, facts lol.

Ya I got mine for $52.00 at the local store on a close out!

@@edwardabrams4972 I never could understand people who buy say. A pm2 or something Spyderco in S30Vs when they know how to actually heat treat shit ESPECIALLY FROM TAIWAN. My own EDC is a sage 1 in Maxamet (Altus in black nitro-v for a classier look) and I have personally tested the Rockwell of . Quite a few US made blades and taiwanese and the numbers say that Taiwan is more consistent. Maxamet is supposed to be 68. It was I'm not joking literally on the freaking line of 68 not. A needle over or under. And ffs don't tell me that at the higher levels it's going to have less error room I obviously know how to do science. Forging is literally just a technique that adds more variables to the end product. I make sure to ascertain the rolling direction (some odd cross rolled for NSM stuff) and stainless as everyone knows has been forged many times before it reaches you. The only exception I'd say would be wootz Damascus that has a scientific purpose of forging. Can you san/go mai and pattern weld Damascus? Well yes indeed. What actual benefits does that provide in the end blade? Absolutely nothing. Strength on lamellar steel is NOT going to be tougher than a monosteel if you know what you are doing. Corrosion resistance I don't count because the carbon steel is the edge and rust does dull a blade VERY quick. Small surface specs on oxidation you can't see with the naked eye. Pitting I'd assume would be worse as I *think* the carbon is going to want to pull any moly from solution for m³c but I'm not sure if the temps are high enough to precipitate m³c carbide growth. If I had to guess I'd say it's not hot enough. Alloy dependant as always

Just got 2 lucky 2’s in! Italian made - carbon fiber & cpm-s35vn for $60.ish! I thought they sold out at knifecenter so I bought 2 from midwayusa ! After seeing Cold steel’s new line up of slip joints, they look like knock offs of other brands but the lucky ,imo - stands out as a cs original for some reason! Fits my name too! Lucky 💩 ✌️🤟🤙

I've been impressed with all of my Cold Steel knives, but never saw the lucky 2 before. Looks great.

Yep, Kershaw is pretty much unbeatable for the money. I have the Leek, Dividend, and Link using the high end steels, but the Dividend is my favorite EDC.

@@richardalexander5758 id argue QSP and crkt are just as good if not a bit better in terms of budget options. my cheaper kershaw was decent but didn’t last long and it dulled really fast

Giant mouse m390= soft as room temperature butter.

Imagine getting the Link for $52.00 at my local store with 20cv! Now that’s a bargain

i love it when they put a fixed blade or two in just for us fixed people.

RWL 34 is usually spoken of as having properties similar to CPM154. A little less vanadium but has Tungsten. Overall very similar- should be excellent on a small fixie!

Yeah, that should be fixed, I’d like to look at some of these directly.

Agree. It wasn’t this list at first.. maybe updated since? I’ll check

Bit of a goof on our part. It's been resolved.

£98 on coldsteel website at the moe.

I think a lot of people touch themselves when they say "Magnacut"...

@@ShepherdsSheepdog it's guna hafta be good to knock k390 out of my pocket!

K390 stretch 2 is amazing. I just wish it wouldn't stain so easily, a high maintenance steel that one, not in honing/sharpening as much as stopping it from corroding.

@@GoodDaySir I found that a light coat of mineral oil is the best at preventing corrosion. I use my stretch for work but have a salt 2 with lc200n for my fishing knife because of the corrosion resistance but it doesn't hold an edge like the k390. I'm hoping the magnacut will bridge the gap of these 2 steels.

@@adamjohnson7385 Yep I use howard butcher block wax on mine, mineral oil and wax mix. It does the job but even that can't prevent it fully. I love lc200n, have a spydiechef and a native in it, great steel. Waiting for more field reports on magnacut as a slicer and a tool steel (barkriver are putting some out soon), it might just be the perfect steel we'll see.

Thank you for the kind words! -DCA

I paid a little more for mine at $68, but it was still a great deal. I've been using it for my EDC for several month's now and it a fantastic knife for the price point.