I will add that the big wild card in all this is heat treat. It makes comparing steels a bit tricky, especially if you are comparing two steels used by two different makers. One might have a better process than another. I'll illustrate it in the extreme:
If I tried to heat treat a piece of 3V in my garage with an oxy/acetylene torch, an infrared heat gun and a fan, it probably wouldn't perform as well as a piece of O-1 heat treated by someone who has spent years developing their process and who is using tightly controlled and specialized equipment.
Here is a reground Para 2 that I have in Cruwear.
My only experience with cruwear is with this knife which has a much thinner edge than the manix (0.009 behind the edge vs 0.025 for the manix). I like the steel. Edge holding is way below Maximet but it sharpens up very easy, takes an aggressive edge, and is fairly corrosion resistant for a carbon steel.
Are you still carrying your Manix 2 Lightweight? I got mine after you showed me yours at a USPSA match!
I only have a few knives made from the Carpenter BD-1, but it's easy to get a nice grabby edge on that knife.
I gave that to my son after he split a bunch of wood for me. Honestly I miss that knife.
Excellent info. Thanks.Honestly, I like pretty much all modern powder steels. But there are differences that make certain steels better or worse for certain purposes.
For example, in an EDC knife, I like to have a very sharp blade with decent corrosion resistance. I like a steel that is relatively easy to sharpen so that I can keep the edge razor sharp with minimal effort. In this role, I have been happy with VG-10, S30V, S35VN, and Cruwear. M390/CPM-20CV is also a nice EDC steel but it's a little more time consuming to sharpen.
For more extreme needs like an extended camping trip, backpacking, or for cleaning massive batches of fish, I like high edge retention so I don't need to bring sharpening supplies. Corrosion resistance isn't as critical, particularly in a fixed blade. Steels that have worked well for me in this role are M390/CPM 20CV, S90v, S110V, Maxamet and most of all CPM 10V.
S110v is a great steel, but I don't know of a steel that is harder to sharpen. You'll need diamond stones or you'll come to hate it.
CruWear is a very well balanced steel. Easy to sharpen, holds a nice edge, good corrosion resistance, and is relatively tough (not that this really matters on smaller knives). I like it very much.
Maxamet just hasn't wowed me as much as I thought it would. I am still experimenting with the type of edge it likes best so my impressions may change. But between maxamet and S110V, I would pick s110V at this point, no question.