14C28N vs MagnaCut.

The Leek and the Blur, each built in both steels

On the Leek and the Blur, Kershaw lets the steel change while the rest of the knife largely holds still. Read the listings for the Kershaw Leek in 14C28N and the Kershaw Leek in MagnaCut, and they agree on a 3 inch stonewash blade, a 4 inch closed length, a linerlock, an aluminum handle, an extended tang, a lanyard hole and a pocket clip. The plainest difference besides the steel is the handle color: black anodized on the 14C28N Leek, a blue and black gradient on the MagnaCut Leek. Each listing gives the USA as its origin.

The Blur listings agree on their own measurements, a 3.5 inch blade and a 4.5 inch closed length, and on an anodized aluminum handle with a black Trac-Tec insert, black on one and blue on the other. Their blades differ beyond the steel. The Kershaw Blur in 14C28N carries a black Tungsten DLC coated, partially serrated blade, a combo edge, while the Kershaw Blur in MagnaCut is listed with a stonewash finish blade and no serration mentioned.

The 14C28N Leek listings here also include a Leek framelock with a bead blast, partially serrated blade and a stainless handle, and the Kershaw Random Leek, a framelock with a BlackWash reverse tanto blade and a 410 stainless handle. For MagnaCut beyond these two models, the MagnaCut knife guide walks through the rest of that shelf. For a buyer, the linerlock Leek is the closest thing to a choice made on steel alone; on the Blur, the choice also carries a coating and a serrated section.

Edge life and hardness, with no step back on toughness or rust

Edge life is the headline of the move from 14C28N to CPM MagnaCut, Crucible Industries' powder metallurgy stainless. 14C28N's record rates its edge retention moderate and gives the reason: it trades some wear resistance for toughness and sharpenability. MagnaCut is rated excellent on the same line. MagnaCut is also the harder steel on paper, published at 60 to 64 HRC against 57 to 59, and the two windows do not overlap.

What the ratings do not show is anything given back. MagnaCut's toughness is rated excellent where 14C28N's is rated very good, and the corrosion line reads the same way, excellent against very good. On paper, the harder edge of the pair is neither the more fragile one nor the one quicker to spot. On rust, MagnaCut gets there with about 10.7 percent chromium to roughly 14 percent in 14C28N, and its record credits a design that keeps chromium in solution rather than locked into carbides. The full case for how less chromium protects more is made in S35VN vs MagnaCut.

For someone choosing between a 14C28N and a MagnaCut Leek or Blur, that means the MagnaCut version should go longer between sharpenings without asking for gentler use or more careful drying than the 14C28N version would.

What the 14C28N versions keep

The case for Sandvik 14C28N on these knives rests on sharpening and cost. Its record says 14C28N was engineered for corrosion resistance and easy sharpening, and its edge line names sharpenability as part of what it gives up wear resistance to get. MagnaCut's record makes no sharpening claim in either direction, so the fair reading is a narrow one: of this pair, 14C28N is the steel whose record names easy sharpening as a goal. That suits an owner who sharpens little and often, the habit an easy-sharpening steel rewards.

Cost is the other half. The MagnaCut Leek costs more than the 14C28N Leek linerlock, and the MagnaCut Blur costs more than the 14C28N Blur, on pairs whose size, lock and handle material match. Whether a longer edge justifies paying more in general is a wider question than these knives, and the CPM MagnaCut price question has its own answer page. On the Leek and the Blur, the 14C28N version keeps the size, the lock and the handle material, and gives up MagnaCut's higher ratings for a lower cost and a record built around easy sharpening.

How far the knife lives from a sharpener

The question that settles this pair is how long your Leek or Blur goes between chances at a sharpener. A knife that rides along on trips and long workdays, out of reach of a stone for long stretches, leans on its edge rating, the line where MagnaCut is rated excellent and 14C28N moderate. A knife that lives near a sharpener and gets a few passes whenever it starts to drag leans on that line less, and there 14C28N's easy sharpening and lower cost carry more of the decision.

So the MagnaCut versions belong with the buyer whose knife is often out of reach of a stone, and the 14C28N versions with the buyer who sharpens as a habit and would rather keep the difference in cost. They are two ways to build the Leek and the Blur, for two kinds of owner.