a word about thickness and wondersteels....

by bj , Sunday, June 24, 2018, 19:11 (2281 days ago) @ former hater of plastic

Stiffness is measured as modulus of elasticity and is virtually the same for all steel. High carbon, low carbon, stainless, modulus of elasticity is the same for all of them. You may be talking about ductility, sometimes called toughness although most people don't understand what toughness is. The powdered metal process increases ductility somewhat but an alloy with low toughness isn't magically transformed by the PM process, just slightly improved. For instance CPM154 should be a little better than 154CM. A steel with increased toughness might just deform rather than chip.

S35VN as in the first knife you showed is intended to provide improved ductility over a more standard steel such as 154CM or S30V. It provides good knife performance while still being able to be sharpened by the owner unlike some of the more esoteric steels. CRK uses it for the same reason. Elmax as used by ZT is another stainless steel that has improved toughness. The steels that I know of that have toughness beyond these such as S3V and Cruwear are only semi-stainless.