Got one to the crumbly Maxamet blades and sent it back to Spyderco, March 2021. Spyderco is Rockwell hardness testing the blade and going to get back to me, customer service is great. In the meantime K390 on a PM2 has worked outstanding. Thanks for the video.
To me the stretch 2 straight spine k390 is the best blade at the moment. The pm2 and pm3 great blades just to thick IMO to be ranked with the best slicers. And the stretch straight spine has more belly. Just the frn scales aren’t great but I’m gonna replace them with G10 or micarta.
They are tapered down to an extremely fine edge. They certainly aren't too thick have you seen the tip? Ive been getting along fine with nothing but a 4mm thick scandi knife for years and never had an issue with thickness for slicing or anything with it. The pm2 is plenty thin enough behind the edge
I’m not a fan of Maxamet. It chips while cutting zip ties. I found the sam problem with S110V. I prefer LC200N, S30V, S35VN, S45VN, CV20, and a few other steels to Maxamet.
Zip ties will damage any edge, no matter the steel. Use the right tool for the job. Cable cutters (my favorite is from Knipex) cut zip ties effortlessly. If the only tool on you is a knife to cut zip ties, I understand.
Cultrotech knife in rex 121 beat out Spyderco maxamet by over double the amount of cuts, 500 cuts per cm for maxamet vs 1245 cuts per cm for rex 121. Then again with their heat treat s125v, s110v, s90v, m398, m390 and elmax all beat out Spydercos maxamet and n690 and damasteel beat out everything except s110 and maxamet. Heat treat, blade grind, blade finish, edge geometry, edge finish all play a huge part(in most cases even bigger part than what the steel is) in edge retention and toughness.
No HT may improve edge holding twice nor thin grind comparing to already very good HT and machining from Spyderco in controlled and scientific test (say CATRA). All this hype 'bout Cultrotech is about hype about cutting rope abilities which is much more grind bound than steel. How often do you cut rope ? I may say having extra thin blades have very little benefit, like F1 car on street. Such thin finish will break on just whittling wood, this is why Spyderco ground their blades to 0.4-0.7mm BTE. Ground it thinner and you'll end up with waved edge or crack. I have experience with both types of failures and completely ok with 0.5-0.9mm BTE right now. It's all about usage. This is why ZT ground their blades below maximum and thick - theyre fool proof and still cuts well enough.
@@vsharun I have a Krein Elmax Para 2 regrind to 0.005. I've widdled wood and chopped through 1 to 1.5 inch branches(took almost 5 minutes since its a 4 oz folder). There wasn't any damage to the edge at all. I have many knives that are under 0.010 and even more that are 0.015 and none had damage because they're "too thin". I have a custom chopper in Nitro-v with the sweet spot at 0.015 and tip and choil area under 0.010. I've batoned, chopped and split wood with it and it held up amazing, just slow wear. Would I use my para 2 to pry with? No, but I usually don't pry with knives anyway. But when I need to cut up cardboard I would much rather use it or other thinner ground knives than the stock Spydercos, ZTs or Benchmades I have.
@@vsharun Its not just about grind. There have been Benchmade regrinds tested on rope and they performed barely better than their stock version. There are plenty of tests(not just on rope, on cardboard too) where a custom heat treat performs twice as much as production knives if not better. Knives out of Nitrobe 77 at 64hrc doubling m390/2020cv class from production companies and s390 doing almost 3 times. It's not just about hardness, its about microstructure you get from a custom heat treat. Reduction in retained austenite, improved grain structure and carbide dispersion. Then some makers use wet grinding to minimize heat build up and damaging the temper. Knives sharpened by hand instead of mashed up against a grinder since you have hundreds you need to do that day. All that makes a difference in performance.
@@D00MTR33 Please take a look at CATRA results. Difference bw 440C and Maxamet may surprise you. And CATRA is about science. Not hand operated rope cutting. According to Outpost 76 findings production M390 blades are quite a gamble with only Spyderco/Golden is stable top performer. And overall blades are 20-60% performance of Spydies. Its about HT and machining. As for S390, in custom HT it performs 25% better than production Maxamet. Or 4V Spydies cooked. I personally prefer GB1 since 2012 iirc. Its about great design and flawless execution.
@@D00MTR33 There's no such thing like indestructible blade. The only purpose for extra thin is controlled force cutting. Most of woodwork with foil thin grind will end up in broken tool. Sorry, no magic here. Btw I have elmax custom puuko and irl it performs better than 3v one ironically, like 3V CS Master Hunter.
It has the best edge retention of any normal production steel. Rex 45 is only slightly better but extremely rare to see in a knife and is only available in certain sprint runs
I genuinely wonder how many guys that say maxamet chips, have actually used maxamet. Because to me, it is the greatest production steel ever designed and I’ve put it thru hell with great results.
@@jesseryan4053 I've used every production steel there is. I take great pride in my sharpening abilities and my Steeles. Maxamet isn't a steel I want in a every day use carry blade.
Done exploring a pm2.. so let's 'explore' a knife that's the exact same just a little shorter lol
Chasing trends like any good knife hype beast.
Got one to the crumbly Maxamet blades and sent it back to Spyderco, March 2021. Spyderco is Rockwell hardness testing the blade and going to get back to me, customer service is great. In the meantime K390 on a PM2 has worked outstanding. Thanks for the video.
Where do you get your diamond solution for sharpening? thanks brother
You broke my heart Fredo. PM2 or nothing.
What about the new spy27? Gotta catch em all!! PM2
Yeah. Personally, I do Military or Para 3.
What are these blue scales?
Which batches of PM2’s in maxamet were crumbly?
The first run or two was a nightmare for us sharpeners. They corrected it but first run maxamet was really a pain in the ass.
shaman is my favorite spyderco followed by the manix 2 / XL. go shaman next!
Quality stuff
Definitely hit your mark
the Military 2 is coming out this year. It will have a compression lock and 4 position options for the clip...
like a larger PM2 who'd have thunk it?
I feel like ppl that don't like maxamet have had bad luck or just had problems sharpening.
To me the stretch 2 straight spine k390 is the best blade at the moment. The pm2 and pm3 great blades just to thick IMO to be ranked with the best slicers. And the stretch straight spine has more belly. Just the frn scales aren’t great but I’m gonna replace them with G10 or micarta.
The K390 Stretch is a beast.
They are tapered down to an extremely fine edge. They certainly aren't too thick have you seen the tip? Ive been getting along fine with nothing but a 4mm thick scandi knife for years and never had an issue with thickness for slicing or anything with it. The pm2 is plenty thin enough behind the edge
Why don’t you collect bro? Even refuse to? Btw that max blue is beautiful where did you get the scales? Nice vid dude got a subscriber
Ok didn’t watch long enough about the scales
15V! 💥
Maxamet is still the goat in my eyes
I’m not a fan of Maxamet. It chips while cutting zip ties. I found the sam problem with S110V. I prefer LC200N, S30V, S35VN, S45VN, CV20, and a few other steels to Maxamet.
Zip ties will damage any edge, no matter the steel.
Use the right tool for the job. Cable cutters (my favorite is from Knipex) cut zip ties effortlessly. If the only tool on you is a knife to cut zip ties, I understand.
Lefty have little else
Cultrotech knife in rex 121 beat out Spyderco maxamet by over double the amount of cuts, 500 cuts per cm for maxamet vs 1245 cuts per cm for rex 121. Then again with their heat treat s125v, s110v, s90v, m398, m390 and elmax all beat out Spydercos maxamet and n690 and damasteel beat out everything except s110 and maxamet.
Heat treat, blade grind, blade finish, edge geometry, edge finish all play a huge part(in most cases even bigger part than what the steel is) in edge retention and toughness.
No HT may improve edge holding twice nor thin grind comparing to already very good HT and machining from Spyderco in controlled and scientific test (say CATRA).
All this hype 'bout Cultrotech is about hype about cutting rope abilities which is much more grind bound than steel. How often do you cut rope ? I may say having extra thin blades have very little benefit, like F1 car on street.
Such thin finish will break on just whittling wood, this is why Spyderco ground their blades to 0.4-0.7mm BTE. Ground it thinner and you'll end up with waved edge or crack. I have experience with both types of failures and completely ok with 0.5-0.9mm BTE right now. It's all about usage.
This is why ZT ground their blades below maximum and thick - theyre fool proof and still cuts well enough.
@@vsharun I have a Krein Elmax Para 2 regrind to 0.005. I've widdled wood and chopped through 1 to 1.5 inch branches(took almost 5 minutes since its a 4 oz folder). There wasn't any damage to the edge at all. I have many knives that are under 0.010 and even more that are 0.015 and none had damage because they're "too thin". I have a custom chopper in Nitro-v with the sweet spot at 0.015 and tip and choil area under 0.010. I've batoned, chopped and split wood with it and it held up amazing, just slow wear. Would I use my para 2 to pry with? No, but I usually don't pry with knives anyway. But when I need to cut up cardboard I would much rather use it or other thinner ground knives than the stock Spydercos, ZTs or Benchmades I have.
@@vsharun Its not just about grind. There have been Benchmade regrinds tested on rope and they performed barely better than their stock version. There are plenty of tests(not just on rope, on cardboard too) where a custom heat treat performs twice as much as production knives if not better. Knives out of Nitrobe 77 at 64hrc doubling m390/2020cv class from production companies and s390 doing almost 3 times. It's not just about hardness, its about microstructure you get from a custom heat treat. Reduction in retained austenite, improved grain structure and carbide dispersion. Then some makers use wet grinding to minimize heat build up and damaging the temper. Knives sharpened by hand instead of mashed up against a grinder since you have hundreds you need to do that day.
All that makes a difference in performance.
@@D00MTR33 Please take a look at CATRA results. Difference bw 440C and Maxamet may surprise you. And CATRA is about science. Not hand operated rope cutting.
According to Outpost 76 findings production M390 blades are quite a gamble with only Spyderco/Golden is stable top performer. And overall blades are 20-60% performance of Spydies.
Its about HT and machining.
As for S390, in custom HT it performs 25% better than production Maxamet. Or 4V Spydies cooked.
I personally prefer GB1 since 2012 iirc. Its about great design and flawless execution.
@@D00MTR33 There's no such thing like indestructible blade. The only purpose for extra thin is controlled force cutting. Most of woodwork with foil thin grind will end up in broken tool. Sorry, no magic here.
Btw I have elmax custom puuko and irl it performs better than 3v one ironically, like 3V CS Master Hunter.
Magnacut🤭
Disregard my childish username, I would love to see some harduse/bushcraft testing of the shaman
K390 has much more edge retention
Personally i think m390 blows it away over all
In walks 15v
15v woops it
K390 > Maxamet
Maxamet is NOT the ‘best of the best’..... it’s not even the best at edge retention. It’s not even close to the toughest.
It has the best edge retention of any normal production steel. Rex 45 is only slightly better but extremely rare to see in a knife and is only available in certain sprint runs
@sam j 💯
S90v is the best steel period. Maxamet chips. S90v you obviously have no experience with.
I genuinely wonder how many guys that say maxamet chips, have actually used maxamet. Because to me, it is the greatest production steel ever designed and I’ve put it thru hell with great results.
@jesse Ryan 💯
@@jesseryan4053 I've used every production steel there is. I take great pride in my sharpening abilities and my Steeles. Maxamet isn't a steel I want in a every day use carry blade.