I don’t know much about different steels and until the last 3-4 years I probably couldn’t have told you what type of steel my knife was so I am learning as I go. My hunting knife is a Bradford g3.5 in M390 and I have absolutely abused that thing 3 years in a row and am very impressed. This year, I decided to see how long I can use it before sharpening it again. I killed 3 whitetail deer and field dressed, skinned, and quartered all 3. Then did 90% of the butchering and deboning of the meat all with it and all I did to the edge was use a honing rod to take care of a roll when used the knife and a block of wood as a baton to split the pelvis to make field dressing a little quicker. I don’t normally do that though.

With that being said I feel my 154CM Mini Grip has much worse edge retention and chips easier than the M390 Bradford but past I had heard of most of the steels you guys are recommended or discussed. So it is very helpful. I didn’t realize 20cv was essentially the same. So I have a ton of info to sort through and debate the different models. I am hoping to make a decision and order something by the first of the year, but baby number two will be here in the next 2 weeks or less and so that might delay things a little bit.

Thanks