CPM-20CV vs M390.

Where the two published records agree, line by line

Set the CPM-20CV and M390 published records beside each other and the agreement is close to total. Both steels are powder metallurgy stainless. Both list about 1.9% carbon, 20% chromium, 4% vanadium and 1% molybdenum. Both are rated excellent for edge retention and excellent for corrosion, both are called good for their class on toughness, and both sit in the super premium, flagship tier. The CPM-20CV record goes further and says outright that its composition is licensed or matched from M390, and the M390 record calls the two essentially the same compositional family.

For someone choosing a knife, that settles the big question. Nothing in either record points to one of these steels outlasting the other, because the recipes and the ratings line up. The full story of each alloy, where it came from and who makes it, lives on its own entry: the CPM-20CV steel entry covers Crucible's side, and the Bohler M390 entry covers the Austrian original.

Tungsten and a hardness window: the small print

Two lines in the CPM-20CV and M390 records do not match, and both are worth reading correctly rather than making too much of. The M390 record lists about 0.6% tungsten, and the CPM-20CV record lists none. Neither record says what that small addition changes in a finished blade, and no figure in either one points to a difference in edge life, toughness or rust resistance. Treat it as a note on the chemistry sheet, not a reason to pay more for one steel than the other.

The hardness windows differ in how they are written more than in what they allow. CPM-20CV is published at 60 to 64 HRC. M390 is published at 60 to 62 HRC, with up to 64 noted. The two ranges overlap almost entirely, and both describe the steel as factories ship it, not any one knife. Knives Now does not test the heat treat of individual knives, so where a particular blade lands inside that window is the knife maker's work, and neither record ties that landing point to the tungsten line.

A shelf of ten and a shelf of one

The shelves are where CPM-20CV and M390 stop looking alike. This site carries 10 CPM-20CV listings across 7 models, and every one of the 10 is marked made in the USA. Case accounts for 5 of them, Gerber for 4 and Kershaw for 1. Prices run from $141.75 to $287.94, with the median listing at $184.95.

The M390 shelf is one knife: the Böker Plus Baba Yaga Linerlock at $152.11, and it is not a made in USA listing. That price sits below the CPM-20CV median and just above the least expensive CPM-20CV knife here, the Kershaw Link Linerlock in olive at $141.75. So the money is not the deciding line either. The two steels cost about the same to get into on this site, and the spread inside the CPM-20CV shelf comes from the knives, not the alloy.

Choosing by the knife instead of the alloy

Once the steel question is closed, the choice becomes an ordinary knife decision. Pick the blade shape, size, lock and handle you want to carry. Decide whether a made in USA knife matters to you, because on this site that line separates the two shelves cleanly. Then look at price. Any of those will change your day more than the difference between these two records.

Whichever you buy, the ownership is the same. Both records rate edge retention excellent on the strength of a high carbide volume, and the wear resistance that keeps the edge working is also what slows the sharpening job, so expect fewer sessions that each take longer. Toughness is the shared limit. The CPM-20CV record says it is not as tough as MagnaCut, and the M390 record calls it good for its class, which in a steel this hard and this wear resistant is a reason to cut with it rather than pry or strike with it. For the question of whether this family is worth the step up from a common premium steel, the CPM-20CV vs S35VN comparison is where that argument is made. The rest of the Steel Lab covers the alloys this family gets cross-shopped against.