Spyderco Forums

Which of these with production Geometry and HT is best in your opinion for you and why?

No wrong answers, no giving anyone a hard time about their opinion. Speak freely

Share, give your 2¢ about how you feel between these choices.

No other steels or options, just these as they are with what you can get from Spyderco.

Share your personal heart felt opinions

-Shawn, BBB

Hey Shawn. This should be an interesting thread.

OK. For me I'll take CPM Cruwear then K390, Rex 45 with Maxamet last. Pure abrasive resistance isn't my most desired attribute but I do rate it on my scale of personal needs above corrosion resistance which is last.

Cruwear may have the lowest ceiling but it has the highest floor. It scores well in everything and really has no real weaknesses. I like sharpening it and I do not need a lot of skill to make it cut really well. It's a simple steel care wise and can get along with pretty much any reasonable geometry I care to use.

On the other hand all of the above steels are very, very high performers. I would find no argument with anybody who prefers any of the above. I have them all and plan on keeping it that way .

There is a lot of overlap performance wise and I could just as easily choose from the 4 by what platform I'd think suited my needs best that day.

The Mastiff wrote: ↑

Thu Jan 09, 2020 7:42 pm

Hey Shawn. This should be an interesting thread.

OK. For me I'll take CPM Cruwear then K390, Rex 45 with Maxamet last. Pure abrasive resistance isn't my most desired attribute but I do rate it on my scale of personal needs above corrosion resistance which is last.

Cruwear may have the lowest ceiling but it has the highest floor. It scores well in everything and really has no real weaknesses. I like sharpening it and I do not need a lot of skill to make it cut really well. It's a simple steel care wise and can get along with pretty much any reasonable geometry I care to use.

On the other hand all of the above steels are very, very high performers. I would find no argument with anybody who prefers any of the above. I have them all and plan on keeping it that way .

There is a lot of overlap performance wise and I could just as easily choose from the 4 by what platform I'd think suited my needs best that day.

Good to know Joe, thank you for sharing.

Cruwear for me. Same reason as the OP stated. I appreciate the higher carbide steels and have not had a chance to put them to hard use.

CPM REX 45 for me.

Based on my experience, it offers greater edge strength than Cru-Wear and Maxamet, and for me it is a bit easier to sharpen than K390.

Tough choice because I own and love all 4 of the steels listed. Maxamet is amazing stuff; I've cut through copper wires with it no problem. Cru-Wear may not have the wear resistance of the others, but it sharpens like a dream and is practically stainless by all accounts. (Who ever actually needs to cut 5,000 linear feet of cardboard in one sitting anyway? :rolleyes: ) K390 is special. Hard steel with a generous amount of vanadium carbide, not too difficult to sharpen, and can handle low edges quite well.

We are so spoiled.

If I had to pick one.... Rex 45.

But really it's Rex 45 and K390 would be about equal to me with MAXAMET next then Cruwear.

I tested all of them so that's my order for what it's worth.

REX 45 and K390 are most stable than the other 2 from what I saw.

Keep em coming, keep em coming.
Pour out your souls

Thanks Dan, Thanks Conner, Thanks Jim

I dig Cruwear, but it's the only of the four I've tried. I have two blades made from it, Shaman and Native.

I am really interested in K390, and ready for that Stretch.

I don't need amazing abrasion resistance. I appreciate Cruwear's sharpening response and how strong it is, while being pretty corrosion resistant. It is compelling to me for being well-balanced, strong and super easy to sharpen.

I am curious about K390, curious to try my hand at sharpening it.

I would try REX45 or Maxamet, but not seeking either out. Slightly more interested in REX I think.

Yea, those are my 4 favorite steels, lol.

I chose k390 for it's balance, but favoring wear resistance. I'd take rex45 with a thinner edge geometry.

A new model in Maxamet would still be very exciting though.

Edit: I changed my vote to Maxamet. I felt like an ingrate lol. It really is amazing that Spyderco makes knives out of this steel, and until I actually chip the edge in use, the extra toughness of k390 isnt as valuable to me as the increased strength, wear resistance, and edge aggression of Maxamet. Still love k390... and REX45 and CruWear, lol. Awesome to see them expanding their REX45 offerings in the latest reveal.

My 90 knives stay very sharp. I don't open many boxes and when I do I use a butter knife or a utility knife.

I buy and carry knives for self defense, and no other reason. Hence my knives do not really get used at all. The only time that I drew a knife in self defense, just drawing and displaying the knife on my right hip was enough to stop the beat down I was receiving and allow me to walk away.

If they remade the Street Beat or Military(hopefully in a back lock) in Maxamet, I'd be all in! Because of Maxamet's performance in cutting soft targets I am always on the lookout for more Spydercos in Maxamet.

For me, K390 is great. It's got more edge strength than I need in a folder, stays sharp longer than I need, and sharpens easily. K390 just exceeds all my needs, but it's one of the most enjoyable steels I own.

Rex45 is neck and neck with K390 for me. Rex45 wont stay sharp as long, but it does 2 things to make up for it. First, the sharpening is just beautiful. Rex is my favorite steel to sharpen, because it takes ridiculous edges and edge angles, with ease. Second, the patina it takes, compared to K390, is more unique and enjoyable to watch develop.

I voted for K390, but can't really pick a clear winner. Now I understand what people mean when they say they could never love one child more than their other(s). :D :spyder:

The only two of those I own are Maxamet and Cruwear. Speaking purely on edge performance I would have to give it to Maxamet. That doesn’t necessarily mean that it would be my top choice between the two but if I sharpen them both to the same level and use them equally then the Maxamet will maintain its sharpness notably longer in most any testing or use.

There are areas where Cruwear will outperform, and some of these can affect edge performance in certain scenarios. If I sharpen Maxamet and Cruwear to the same level and leave them both sitting around my house (I live right on the beach in a humid climate) then the Maxamet will lose some of it’s bite due to corrosion at the apex while the Cruwear will remain almost wholly unaffected. The thing I don’t like about Cruwear is that although it is very corrosion resistant for a non stainless steel, when it finally does corrode it tends to spot and pit, kind of like zdp 189. I guess it is a purely aesthetic and OCD thing with me but I don’t mind the look of staining or patina but those pepper flakes of rust and pitting really bother me.

Regarding k390 and rex45, all I can say is I need to try them.

out of the 4 ive only used cruwear so i may skew the numbers - however i do use it ALOT - i use a para3 for edc and i can complete 90% of my tasks with it - the other 10% go to a fixed blade.
my daily chores will see the usual card/ zip ties etc but i also cut fish/ meat/fruit/polystyrene/ balsa wood/heavy fabric/roofing felt........ive not experienced any chipping and i find it sharpens like a dream but holds an edge well - never had corrosion issues but having read this thread id be concerned on pitting also so i will be paying attention - if k390 does all that aswell i will need to try some!

I chose Cruwear.

I don’t have experience with the others and that’s mostly because I enjoy it enough I haven’t seeked out or put to the test the other steels which are usually hard to find.

For me, Cruwear provides enough edge retention for my day to day uses and I’m very happy with its response to sharpening and the speed it strops back to high levels of sharpness.

I have some maxamet but I don’t use my pocket knife very much and since the edge retention of Cruwear meets my needs, I never got around to testing maxamet.

It's a tight race so far!

Deadboxhero wrote: ↑

Thu Jan 09, 2020 6:29 pm

Which of these with production Geometry and HT is best in your opinion for you and why?

No wrong answers, no giving anyone a hard time about their opinion. Speak freely

Share, give your 2¢ about how you feel between these choices.

No other steels or options, just these as they are with what you can get from Spyderco.

Share your personal heart felt opinions

-Shawn, BBB

what are your opinions Shawn?

My history with these steels is 3x Cruwear models, 2x K390 models, 1x Maxamet, 1x REX45.

I have never performed any type of a controlled test that would allow to me to compare the edge properties. The only constant is using thin phone book paper. My conclusions are more along the lines of 'I feel like'. Some I used to where they got pretty dull, others I would touch up frequently before they get to that point.

Of these, I have used and sharpened Cruwear the most - PM2, Native, Delica. To me, the edge retention is very similar to stainless steel like 20CV and such. The main difference is that I have not had any of my Cruwear chip.

K390 is the second one in terms of experience. It has the best edge retention (Maxamet explained below). The Police 4 came in pretty dull, but once reprofiled, it would stay sharp a good deal. The PM2 had the longest lasting factory edge of all my knives. So far, all I have done was few touch-ups to get it back to sticky.

I haven't used my REX45 Military enough to have an opinion yet. It came in sharp, but lost it's factory edge pretty quick. It has been solid after the first sharpening.

My only exposure to Maxamet has been with the original run of PM2, when there were some issues. The blade was warped (didn't notice until someone mentioned it here), good 1/8" shorter than my other PM2s, and not very sharp out of the box. And I could not keep it sharp. It took three sharpenings (not touch-ups) to finally stabilize the edge. I was literally mad at this knife, and at the end I gave it away.

K390 is my vote.

I only have CruWear. So its edges are definitely superior to the other, non-existent edges.

That said, my M4 knives have better-performing edges than the CruWear. And at the bare minimum, I’d expect Rex45 to match M4.

I have everything except k390. My choice is rex45. I probably use a knife differently than most lol. I don’t rotate out knives for edc I use one for a very long time and use it for everything. A rex45 PM2 replaced my old trusted GB1 some time ago. It has cleaned deer,fish,been on a elk hunt and numerous small game. There is no telling how many feet of bailing twine it has cut. Scrapped tractor battery terminals. Stripped wire. You get the picture. It’s just a really great all around blade. I really like how it sharpens and preforms. Having said all of that I would love to get my hands on a k390 and see how it holds up but for the time being this one is not going anywhere.

Rex 45 but I would still pick M4 over all as it’s my sweet steel. (Sharpening butchers knives for years it’s just a steel I like for edge retention and sharpening easy with a steel between throwing on a stone.)
Maxamet is another great steel but Very temperamental when sharpening. ( you can sharpen it the exact same way 5 times and get three different results )

Find all steels in the Spyderco’s stable enjoyable, I have sort of lost the steel v steel part of the knife game as I just have too many knives I use with so many steels.