What we carry in S30V / CPM S30V
S30V is an American powder metallurgy stainless from Crucible Industries, co-developed with Chris Reeve Knives, and it is the steel most other premium stainless steels still get measured against. Its roughly four percent vanadium buys strong wear resistance, so edges last a long time. The trade is only moderate toughness: ground thin or run hard, it can chip.
| Type | stainless (powder metallurgy) |
|---|---|
| Made by | Crucible Industries (USA) |
| Composition | C ~1.45%Cr ~14%V ~4%Mo ~2% |
| Hardness | 58-61 (spec'd optimum ~60-61) HRC |
| Edge retention | Very good, high vanadium carbide content gives strong wear resistance; a long-time industry benchmark 'premium' steel (co-developed with Chris Reeve Knives/Crucible). |
| Toughness | Moderate, can be chippy if ground too thin or over-hardened. |
| Corrosion resistance | Good. |
| Where it sits | Premium tier; the original mainstream CPM 'super steel' that set the standard other premium stainless steels are compared against. |
| On this site right now | 13 listings covering 7 distinct models, $72.99 to $253.38. Brands: Gerber (12), Buck (1). |
S30V came out of a collaboration between Crucible Industries and Chris Reeve Knives, and it is a powder metallurgy stainless. It is also the one that made that process ordinary on a spec sheet rather than a specialist's note. Powder steels existed before it. S30V is the one that went mainstream, and after it a powder steel was just a line on a catalog page sitting next to the blade length, on knives people bought to carry and use.
The number that does the work is vanadium, at roughly 4%. A high vanadium carbide content is what the wear resistance rests on, and abrasion is what dulls a working knife most of the time. Chromium, at roughly 14%, does the other half of the job and keeps this a stainless rather than a carbon steel that happens to hold an edge. Carbon runs high too, at roughly 1.45%.
Being first is why the word benchmark still follows this alloy around. It is the original mainstream CPM super steel, and it set the standard other premium stainless steels get measured against. For years a new premium stainless had to beat it to be taken seriously.
The weak leg is toughness, which is resistance to cracking and chipping under shock or a sideways load. It is a separate property from wear resistance, not a synonym for it. S30V is only moderate there.
It shows up in two places. The first is a very thin grind, where there is not enough steel behind the apex to support it in a demanding cut. The second is a blade taken near the top of its published hardness range, where extra hardness is bought with a little more brittleness. Combine the two and you get the micro chipping S30V gets criticized for. Neither is a fault in the alloy so much as a decision made at the grinder and in the heat treat, which is why two knives in the same steel can behave differently.
So keep S30V away from prying, twisting a stuck blade and chopping into staples, bone or grit, and leave the edge angle a touch more obtuse than you would on a tougher steel.
Crucible followed S30V with S35VN: same maker, same market segment, and the upgrade question people actually type. This page can only speak for S30V, so it will not tell you what the newer steel does. Its own page has the properties laid out, and the two spec tables side by side will answer the question faster than an argument about it will. If you use a knife hard and you have chipped an edge before, that is the page to read next. If your S30V blade has never given you trouble, there is nothing here to fix.
The other comparison is VG-10, a longer running argument because the two come from different traditions: classic Japanese premium stainless against classic American CPM premium stainless. Neither wins in the abstract. Read both and choose by what you actually cut. The rest of the Steel Lab covers the other steels on our shelves.
Thirteen live listings across seven distinct models, and twelve of the thirteen are Gerber. The other one is Buck. Twelve of the thirteen are made in the USA. That concentration is worth knowing before you shop, because shopping S30V here mostly means shopping Gerber, and the model you pick matters more than the steel does.
Prices run from $72.99 up to $253.38, with a median listing near $149.73, and that spread is a format ladder rather than a quality ladder. The Fastball Linerlock is a 1.6 oz aluminum handled folder with a 3 in Wharncliffe blade. The Buck 110 Hunter Sport takes the opposite approach: a lockback folding hunter with a 3.75 in blade and an aluminum handle, built on a pattern people have carried for generations. Same steel, completely different jobs.
Wear resistance cuts both ways. The property that keeps an edge working through a long day is the same one that resists a sharpening stone, so a blade you let go completely dull takes real time to bring back. The fix is timing rather than equipment. Strop it or touch it up while most of the edge is still there and you will rarely face a full reset.
Corrosion resistance rates as good, and good is not the same as immune. A good rating is what covers sweat, humidity and a wet afternoon of food prep. It is still not a reason to put a blade away damp after saltwater, or to leave acidic residue on it overnight.
Direct predecessor/successor comparison, same maker (Crucible), same market segment, most-asked premium-steel upgrade question.
Classic Japanese premium stainless vs classic American CPM premium stainless, long-running community debate.
Buck sells the 110 in both: 420HC on the 110 Slim Select, CPM S30V on the 110 Hunter Sport. Gerber carries both steels on its USA-made knives too.
The figures on this page are the published specification ranges for the alloy, cross-checked against manufacturer datasheets and independent metallurgical references. They describe the steel, not any one knife. Hardness in particular is a range a mill and a knifemaker work inside, and Knives Now does not test the heat treat of individual knives, so nothing here is a claim about what a specific listing measures.
Cross-checked against the sources above. Figures verified 2026-07-19.
