thinking about a new folder

Have you considered the benchmade 940 osbourne? Very easy to carry, good steel and has a good size without being too large.

Can't go wrong with a Kershaw Leek.

Griptilian is a great choice.

Speedo66 said:

Can't go wrong with a Kershaw Leek.

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Agreed. The Leek is thin and not too heavy, and it's US made. It's on the left. The one on the right is the Kershaw Link; its larger and heavier, also US made.

Speedo66 said:

Can't go wrong with a Kershaw Leek.

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Cannot abide a liner lock knife.

I have both a mini Grip and a Leek. The Leek has steel handles and weighs 3 OZ vs the mini Griptilian which weighs 2.8 OZ and doesn't have metal handles. I'm sure I probably wouldn't ever damage it in regular use, but I feel like the Leek blade is too delicate compared to pretty much all the other folders I have. I believe that's a personal choice as there are many people who love the Leek. I even have a tiny Benchmade 10610 and that blade is much more sturdy than the Leek.

It's a little bigger, but if you can find a used Kershaw 1550, I think that's a fantastic knife.

That is the exact knife I have in my pocket as I type this. I also have its bigger brother for those times when a bigger knife is needed. I like and often use Spyderco's as well and prefer the hole in blade opening above all others. But I really like the Benchmade lock and blade shape better. This is the best blend of both knives IMO.

The mini Griptillan is one of my two favorites for daily carry. The other is the Spyderco Delica 4. If I had to choose one over the other I don't think I could do it.

joneb said:

I am not sure about the type of steel that would be best for me, what are the differences between Bohler m390, cpm 20 cv, cpm m4, and cpm S35 vn compared to cpm S30 v?

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Bohler M390, Crucible CPM 20CV, (and Carpenter CTS 204P) are darn near identical in chemistry. They're the same steel, with a fraction of a percentage tweak in trace elements to prevent infringing on each other's patents. They're very high carbon, high chromium steels, with large amounts of tungsten and vanadium as well. The tungsten and vanadium are very strong carbide formers, so they keep a large amount of the chromium free in solution for corrosion resistance. CPM M4 is M4 tool steel made through the powder metallurgy process. It's a high alloy carbon steel. It's not very corrosion resistant, but it has huge amount of molybdenum, tungsten, and vanadium to form very hard carbides. It has extremely high wear resistance, and is very tough. CPM S35VN is just a slightly tweaked version of S30V. S35VN was developed for easier machining and sharpening than S30V. If you had both a CATRA machine, and an impact testing machine, with all else being equal (heat treat, etc), you might find S35VN to be a little tougher, and S30V to hold an edge a little longer. The M390 / 20CV / 204P triplets are more corrosion resistant than S30v/S35VN, and will hold an edge a good bit longer than S30V/S35VN (assuming identical grinds and sharpening, plus ideal heat for all of them). The M390 triplets will take a bit longer to sharpen than the S30/35 brothers. With a guided sharpening system with diamond abrasives, there's not a huge difference though.

So, what do you want in a steel? Ease of sharpening? Toughness? Edge Holding? Corrosion resistance?

I love my Mannix2, but the G10 version is s big, heavy knife. Mine is the S30v version. If I am wearing light shorts during the summer it has to stay home.

joneb said:

Thank you for your comment.
All of my pocket folders require frequent sharpening so it would nice to have better edge retention.
I am not very concerned about ease of sharpening, I do not want a blade with any recurve.
Having a steel that is not prone to chipping would be important, I prefer to use the correct tool for the task so I'm pretty kind to my knives.
I live in a dry climate so for a knife that I would have on my person I'm not very concerned with corrosion resistance, the knife in my lunch cooler is a Opinel #10 Inox because the freezy packs sweat.

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You're welcome.

What blade steels are the knives you're carrying now? S30V may be a huge step up in edge retention if the best blade steel you're using is something in the AUS-8, 8Cr13, 7Cr17, 440A range. If you're already using something with a 154CM blade, then S30V will be a less dramatic increase edge retention, but still a step up. S30V has a really nice balance of edge retention, toughness, and corrosion resistance - it was developed as a knife steel after all. If you get a good folder with an S30V blade, it may do everything you need. If you find some aspect of S30V to be lacking, then we could recommend something else that would be an even better fit.

joneb said:

I'm not sure what Victorinox and Gerber uses, I have a Kershaw chill the blade steel is 8cr13MoV and a US made Uzi folder that is a 400 something SS. I also carry a Opinel #9 carbon so I think all of my folders have middle of the road steel.

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S30V / S35VN will be a huge step up from those.

joneb said:

I think cpm s30v would be a step up for me but cpm m4, s35vn, 20cv or s110v look like better options. I do realize that a blades steel is only as good as the process by which it is was made.

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Without serious testing equipment, I strongly doubt you'd be able to tell a difference between S30V and S35VN. If you want all out edge retention, aren't worried about corrosion, and you're thinking about CPM M4, you could just jump straight into the deep end and get Maxamet - https://www.bladehq.com/?search=maxamet.