VG-10 vs S30V.

A Takefu recipe and a Crucible powder route

The maker lines explain most of the VG-10 and S30V comparison before any rating does. VG-10 comes from Takefu Special Steel in Japan, is iconic in Japanese kitchen knives, and is also used in Western folders. S30V comes from Crucible Industries in the USA, was co-developed with Chris Reeve Knives, and became the original mainstream CPM steel, the one other premium stainless grades still get compared against. Both are called premium because each set the reference point in its own tradition, not because they share a design.

The process line is the second difference. The S30V record names powder metallurgy; the VG-10 record names no such route, and neither record says what the process changes in a finished blade. S30V carries about 4% vanadium and 2% molybdenum. VG-10 carries about 0.2% vanadium and adds about 1.5% cobalt. Those are two different recipes aimed at the same goal. The VG-10 entry tells the Takefu story in full, and the CPM S30V entry covers the Crucible side.

Same edge rating, different reasons behind it

Both the VG-10 and S30V records rate edge retention very good, so a buyer should not expect one of these to outlast the other by a wide margin on paper. What differs is where the edge life comes from, and that changes how each one feels on a stone.

S30V's record credits its wear resistance to a high vanadium carbide content. Wear resistance is a two-way property: what keeps the edge working in the cut also slows the abrasive on a stone, so a steel built this way is likely to take longer to bring back once it is fully dull. VG-10 carries a small fraction of that vanadium, runs at a published 60 to 62 HRC, and its record ties its standing to kitchen cutlery, where it is called a long-standing benchmark. Neither record gives a sharpening rating, so read this as the mechanism behind the ratings, not a measured result. With either steel, a touch up while the edge still cuts is a shorter job than a full reset.

Chips and spots: the two ratings that separate them

The VG-10 and S30V records part company on toughness and corrosion, and in both cases the direction favors VG-10. VG-10 is rated good for toughness, and its record adds that the steel can turn a little brittle when run near the top of its hardness range, measured against the tougher modern stainless grades. S30V is rated moderate, with the warning that it can be chippy if ground too thin or over-hardened. Both records warn about chipping, and S30V's warning is the stronger one. On a thin slicing edge that gets twisted out of a cut, that difference is the one you will notice.

Corrosion runs the same way. VG-10 is rated very good and S30V good. Neither is rust proof, and a blade folded away wet will eventually mark whatever it is made of, but a knife that lives around water, food or a sweaty pocket gives VG-10 the easier time. What S30V offers in return is the powder route, the heavy vanadium load described above and, on this site, a shelf that is almost entirely made in the USA. A buyer who keeps the knife dry and cuts rather than pries gives up little by choosing it.

Eleven Böker Plus listings, thirteen mostly Gerber

The VG-10 and S30V shelves here come from different corners of the catalog. VG-10 runs 11 listings across 8 models, every one of them Böker Plus, with prices from $98.96 and a median of $134.96. None of the 11 is marked made in the USA. One listing from that group is the Böker Plus Kwaiken Air Mini Titanium at $143.06.

S30V runs 13 listings across 7 models: Gerber has 12 and Buck has 1, prices run from $72.99 to $253.38, and the median is $149.73. Twelve of the 13 are marked made in the USA. The Buck is the Buck 110 Hunter Sport Lockback, the one S30V listing on this site from outside Gerber. The medians sit close together, so on this site the choice between these steels is rarely a budget decision. It is a decision about tradition, brand and how the knife will be used.

Two neighboring questions have their own pages. S30V against its sibling S35VN has its own head to head in S30V vs S35VN, and the question of what VG-10 adds over a budget steel is taken up in 8Cr13MoV vs VG-10. Every alloy on the site is indexed at the Steel Lab hub.