Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire ELMAX steel vs D2 or S30V

I just picked up a new FirstEdge 5150 w/ an ELMAX steel blade. It's supposed to hold a good edge and be easier to sharpen and more corrosion resistant than S30V. Does anyone have working experience with this steel?

I listen and learn from this Japanese doctor, is into Bark River knives, among others.

Elmax vs S30V is like coke vs pepsi. I prefer S30V but Elmax is good steel.

ELMAX Gunny Hunter - Bark River - Field application

Great steel, but Elmax is definitely not easy to sharpen.

Interesting technique with his stones.....I've always rotated my blades which he said not to do as it straightens out the belly.

I have never used Elmax, but I have used S30V and CPM 3V. Modern particle metallurgy steels are amazing products, not just in performance but in how the stuff is made. That said, they are a product and the steel industry is in business to sell those products so they are continually developing and marketing new steels, usually in small, incremental jumps. As was said above the comparison between Elmax and S30v is pretty much a moot point in the big scheme of things.

The Spanish invaded a good portion of North and South America with what would be considered primitive steels by today's standards. They sailed back and forth over the salty Atlantic for decades and carved their way through numerous indigenous populations raping, pillaging and cutting up animals for their daily meals without even a tinge of chromium or vanadium in their blades. We should feel so lucky to have the choices steel technology of today offers.

I'm getting one made out of Nitro V stainless, knife maker told me it was comparable to S30V, anyone have any experience with it.

Haven’t heard of it Roger. S30V is pretty hard to beat, IMO.

stx, make sure it's heat treated to 62-63 hrc.

It'll be good there.

Its stainless properties are equal to S30, but it's better run at a harder rockwell.

thanks

I have several Elmax blades from Dale Howe and multiple S30V from Ingram and May. I find them very comparable. No issues putting a wicked edge on any of them with mostly just ceramic sticks.

Yep

Reminds me of the American white man conquering the New World after the landing at Plymouth Rock. . .

Blade steel ratings off of Blade Forums. Left to right is more cost. Vertical is overall steel performance. Roughly translates to you get what you pay for. Not a whole lot available that is significantly better than ELMAX.

Blade Forums Steel Ratings

That's a good reference.

Here's another:

https://www.bladeforums.com/threads...-edge-retention-cutting-5-8-rope.793481/

I found that the better a knife holds the edge with use then harder it is to sharpen. Just my opinion.

Yep.

Entertaining how we as modern humans can stew and sweat over our hunting tools burning up 95% effort to solve 2% of a problem, deciding whether Cerakote is better than Black T for a stainless barreled action. Or whether 6.5 creedmoor is gonna have better balistics than 257 Roberts for hunting antelope when using 120 gr TTSX or...... Those pilgrims were happy to just have dry powder to load their muskets, let alone the magic of flint and steel to light the evening fire.

Mtnsnake, there is a lot of truth in what you just said. People keep looking for edge retention and ease of sharpening in the same knife and both attributes are part of the same function. Edge geometry does play a part in each function but can really make sharpening a problem if the edge geometry is not properly set up.

You can use a wooden knife to skin and cut animals. You have to keep the wood sharp as you cut and carve. Same with any metal that is easy to sharpen.