Pocket Knives · Steel

Knife Steel, Rated by a Metallurgist and Carried by Me

The knife-steel ratings this site trusts come from one metallurgist: Larrin Thomas, who tested the steels himself and published the numbers. This is his chart, with one honest addition. The steels that are actually in my drawer are ringed, and each one links to the knives that carry it. Right is better edge retention, up is tougher, bluer means it shrugs off sweat and salt. No dot is best; every dot is a trade.

By Mendy· 61 steels rated· 10 in the drawer, on 22 knives

Published: Sep 10, 2026 Ratings checked against the source: Sep 10, 2026 (Knife Steel Nerds page dated Jun 16, 2025) My own edge-retention tests: none yet

The chart

All steelsStainlessHigh-alloy tool and high-speedCarbon and low-alloy Only steels in my drawer

in the drawer rusts middling shrugs off salt

On a phone only the steels in my drawer are labelled. Tap any dot for its name and numbers.

Tap a dot.

How to read it

Three properties, one dot per steel. Edge retention runs left to right: how long an edge keeps cutting before it needs the stone, from Larrin’s CATRA testing. Toughness runs bottom to top: how much abuse the edge takes before it chips rather than rolls, from his impact tests. Corrosion resistance is the colour: rust-red steels will stain from a sweaty pocket, blued-steel ones will not.

The shape of the cloud is the whole lesson. The dots run from top-left to bottom-right because the carbides that hold an edge are the same carbides that crack under impact. The steels people argue about are the ones that pull away from that line: MagnaCut sits high and right at once; the simple carbon steels at the top left are tough and rust if you look at them.

The ringed dots are mine. Ten of the grades in this drawer have a rating; they cover 22 of the 27 knives. The other 5 are listed under the table as unrated, because a number I made up would be worth less than a blank.

What is in my drawer, and where it sits

Highest edge retention first. The numbers are Larrin’s; the knife lists are mine; the sentences either come from the sources already cited on the knives hub or are read straight off the chart.

• M390/20CV/204P toughness 3.5 · edge retention 6.5 · corrosion resistance 9
  In the drawer: Demko Nano-Shark. The best edge retention and the best corrosion resistance in the drawer, paid for in toughness: 3.5, tied lowest with 154CM and D2.
• S30V toughness 4 · edge retention 6 · corrosion resistance 7.5
  In the drawer: Spyderco Lil' Native Wharncliffe, Spyderco Dragonfly 2, Spyderco Dog Tag, Gen 1. Spyderco’s long-running default. On this chart it is the most wear-resistant stainless in the drawer after 20CV, and the least tough of the Spyderco steels I own.
• S45VN toughness 4 · edge retention 5.5 · corrosion resistance 8
  In the drawer: Kizer Original 2 (S45VN). Chromium raised to 16% with 0.15% nitrogen. The S45VN data sheet lists toughness of 11.0 ft-lbs against 12.0 for S35VN and CATRA edge retention of 143% against 140%; the Knife Steel Nerds S45VN article puts its corrosion resistance closer to M390 and 20CV and calls it an incremental advance that is still an upgrade overall.
• XHP toughness 5 · edge retention 5.5 · corrosion resistance 6.5
  In the drawer: Spyderco McBee. Carpenter’s stainless. Balanced in the middle of the chart, with the lowest corrosion-resistance number of any stainless in my drawer.
• CPM-CruWear toughness 8 · edge retention 5 · corrosion resistance 5.5
  In the drawer: Spyderco Manix 2 CruWear, Spyderco Para 3 CruWear. Second-toughest steel in the drawer by Larrin’s numbers, behind 14C28N (9 to its 8), and one of the two here outside the stainless table, alongside D2. Its 5.5 corrosion rating is the best in that table, tied with 3V and Z-Tuff.
• D2 toughness 3.5 · edge retention 5 · corrosion resistance 4.5
  In the drawer: Kizer Mini Militaw (D2), WESN Microblade. About 1.5% carbon and 12% chromium, patented in 1927 and a die steel by the 1930s. Per the Knife Steel Nerds D2 article, roughly half that chromium is locked in carbides, which is why D2 is only semi-stainless; his tests found its toughness "not very impressive" and its wear resistance above 154CM and 440C but below S30V and M390. The one steel here worth wiping dry after wet work.
• S35VN toughness 5 · edge retention 5 · corrosion resistance 7.5
  In the drawer: Kizer Varatas, Kizer Pioneer, Kizer Sheepdog C01C Mini, Kansept Mini Korvid. Crucible's rework of S30V: 3% vanadium, 0.5% niobium, no nitrogen. The S35VN data sheet claims 15–20% more toughness than S30V with no loss of wear resistance; the Knife Steel Nerds S35VN article cites a CATRA study at roughly 132% against 149% for S30V and sums it up as a steel that excels nowhere and fails nowhere. Easier to sharpen than S30V.
• 154CM toughness 3.5 · edge retention 4.5 · corrosion resistance 7
  In the drawer: Kizer Banish. Crucible developed it in 1959 with the Air Force's Wright Air Development Center: 1.05% carbon, 15% chromium, 4% molybdenum. Larrin Thomas's 154CM history puts its toughness on par with 440C, its edge retention ahead because it runs harder, and credits the molybdenum for better salt-water corrosion resistance. His ratings table, at one hardness, scores 154CM and 440C the same on edge retention, 4.5 each.
• 14C28N toughness 9 · edge retention 3 · corrosion resistance 8.5
  In the drawer: Kizer Original 2 (14C28N), CIVIVI Yonder, Kizer Microbe. Alleima's data sheet: 0.62% carbon, 14% chromium, 0.11% nitrogen, recommended 55–62 HRC, easy re-sharpening; Kizer runs the Microbe at 58–59. Knife Steel Nerds' nitrogen-steels article explains the trick: carbon swapped for nitrogen keeps more chromium in solution, giving toughness near AEB-L — which he calls the toughest stainless — in exchange for low wear resistance.
• Nitro-V toughness 7.5 · edge retention 3 · corrosion resistance 7
  In the drawer: CIVIVI Clavi, Kizer Drop Bear, CIVIVI Baby Banter 2, Kizer Mini Momo. New Jersey Steel Baron's product page describes it as AEB-L enriched with nitrogen and vanadium. Knife Steel Nerds' Nitro-V testing measured toughness a little below AEB-L (about 22 versus 33 ft-lbs at 61 HRC) but far above powder steels like S35VN, expects AEB-L-class edge retention below CPM-154 and S30V, and calls the corrosion resistance probably slightly better than AEB-L.

Not on the chart: CIVIVI Vision FG (Damascus); CIVIVI Mini Asticus (10Cr15CoMoV); Demko AD20.5 (AUS-10A); Spyderco Dog Tag, Gen 4 (CTS-BD1); CIVIVI Quick Snip (6Cr13). Larrin has not rated those grades, and in the Vision FG’s case CIVIVI publishes no core alloy for the Damascus, so they get no bars anywhere on this site rather than a guess.

Every rating, as a table

The same numbers as the chart, for anyone who would rather read than hover, and for search engines, which cannot hover. Rows in the drawer are tinted.

Not on the chart, so not scored here: CIVIVI Vision FG (Damascus); CIVIVI Mini Asticus (10Cr15CoMoV); Demko AD20.5 (AUS-10A); Spyderco Dog Tag, Gen 4 (CTS-BD1); CIVIVI Quick Snip (6Cr13). Knife Steel Nerds has not rated these grades, or in the Vision FG's case the maker publishes no core alloy, and a guess would be worth less than a blank.

What the numbers cannot tell you

• They assume a competent heat treatment. Larrin rates each steel at roughly 59–62 HRC with no major heat-treating mistakes. A maker that runs a steel soft, or botches the quench, gets a knife that performs below its dot. The grade on the blade is a ceiling, not a promise.
• Hardness moves the dot. Push the same steel harder and it holds an edge longer and chips sooner; run it softer and the reverse. Two knives in the same steel from two makers are not the same knife.
• Geometry is not on the chart at all. A thin edge in a modest steel out-cuts a thick edge in a super steel, and how the blade is ground matters as much to daily cutting as what it is ground from.
• I have not measured any of this myself. No sharpening tallies, no cardboard counts. This page tells you where each steel in the drawer sits on the most complete public ratings I know of, which are Larrin’s; the reviews tell you how the knives have actually behaved.

Common questions

Which steel in the drawer is the best?

There is no best, only a direction. 20CV on the Nano-Shark holds an edge longest and resists rust best, and is tied with 154CM and D2 as the easiest to chip. 14C28N on the Microbe, Yonder and Original 2 is the toughest steel in the drawer (9 to CruWear’s 8), stainless, and, with Nitro-V, gives up the most edge retention for it. CruWear on the two Spydercos is nearly as tough, holds an edge longer (5 to 14C28N’s 3), and will stain. Pick by what you cut and how often you are willing to touch up an edge.

Is MagnaCut on the chart?

Yes: toughness 7, edge retention 5, corrosion resistance 9.5. It is the dot furthest from the trade-off line among the stainless steels, which is why it is talked about so much. Nothing in my drawer carries it yet.

Why is D2 in the tool-steel table when knife makers call it semi-stainless?

Larrin lists it with the tool steels, and rates its corrosion resistance 4.5 against 6.5 or better for every stainless in my drawer. The hub’s D2 entry has the chemistry, sourced to his D2 article; the short version is that roughly half of the chromium that would fight rust is tied up in carbides instead.

Where do the ratings come from?

Larrin Thomas’s article Knife Steels Rated by a Metallurgist: Toughness, Edge Retention, and Corrosion Resistance on Knife Steel Nerds, first published in 2021 and updated through 2025-06. I copied the three tables cell by cell and checked them against the page on 2026-09-10. If his numbers change, these change.