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S30V is a stainless knife steel that still makes a lot of sense for everyday carry. It offers useful resistance to abrasive wear without leaning as far toward long edge life as S90V. If you like the knife around it, S30V is a sound choice for opening packages, slicing cord and the ordinary cutting jobs that come up through the day.
What Is CPM S30V?
CPM S30V is a powder metallurgy stainless steel developed at Crucible with input from knifemakers. The design brought vanadium carbides into a grade intended for knives, giving it wear resistance alongside useful toughness and corrosion resistance. S35VN and S45VN are related steels, but they are separate grades with their own compositions and ratings.
Performance Ratings
For the science, we turn to Dr. Larrin Thomas of Knife Steel Nerds, who has kindly allowed us to share his ratings here.
| Property | CPM S30V |
|---|---|
| Abrasive edge retention | |
| Toughness | |
| Corrosion resistance |
Heat treatment, hardness and geometry affect actual knives.
Explore CPM S30V’s Tradeoffs
Choose a steel above to highlight its position and see all three exact ratings below. The full map fits your screen.
Stainless
CPM S30V
- Abrasive edge retention
- 6
- Toughness
- 4
- Corrosion resistance
- 7.5
All 48 rated materials. Numbers group steels at identical coordinates; colors describe stainless classification, not corrosion scores. Neither direction means a universally better knife.
CPM S30V’s ratings are shown above. Enable JavaScript to select another steel, or browse the full ratings table.
Edge Retention and Everyday Cutting
S30V scores 6 for abrasive edge retention in Thomas's ratings. That puts it above 14C28N's 3 and below S90V's 9. Repeated cutting through abrasive material is where that difference is most relevant. For occasional light cutting, the blade's thickness and grind may be more noticeable than the interval between sharpening sessions.
What About Chipping?
Its toughness rating of 4 is a useful reminder that wear resistance and resistance to damage are different things. S30V is well suited to controlled cutting, but twisting a thin edge in a cut can still damage it. If edge chips are your main concern, a tougher steel and a suitable edge angle deserve more attention than another step up in wear resistance.
Sharpening and Rust Care
Diamond or cubic boron nitride (CBN) abrasives are useful choices for sharpening S30V's hard carbides. Match the existing bevel for a routine touch-up, and use a coarser grit when an edge needs repair. A few light passes for maintenance are a smaller job than reworking a badly worn bevel.
S30V is stainless, with a corrosion-resistance rating of 7.5, but it still benefits from being rinsed and dried after food prep or wet use. For frequent saltwater exposure, consider a steel and a complete knife designed for that environment.
Is S30V Still Worth Buying?
Yes, provided the knife suits you. A comfortable handle, effective blade geometry and a maker you trust are stronger reasons to buy than a newer steel name by itself. If your current S30V knife cuts well and is easy to maintain, there is no need to replace it simply because other steels exist. For the wider range of options, see our knife steel guide.
Compare MagnaCut vs S30V in the comparison tool to see their ratings side by side.
Composition
Our steel composition guide explains what the elements do and how to read these values.
CPM S30V: Reported composition from Larrin Thomas’s July 2026 table, mass %; not a producer specification or batch analysis. This source lists 0.2% nitrogen for S30V; Niagara’s datasheet does not list nitrogen. Knife Steel Nerds: stainless steel composition table (July 2026).
| Element | CPM S30V |
|---|---|
| Carbon (C) | 1.45% |
| Chromium (Cr) | 14% |
| Molybdenum (Mo) | 2% |
| Vanadium (V) | 4% |
| Nitrogen (N) | 0.2% |
