Knife Steel Hardness (HRC) Comparator

Last updated 2026-08-23

"S35VN" or "MagnaCut" on a spec sheet names the alloy, not how hard the finished blade actually is — the same steel can be heat-treated softer or harder depending on the maker's own recipe. Retailer blog explainers (Misen, Dalstrong, KOTAI, F.N. Sharp, Seido, knifecarehub.com) and static charts (Jantz Supply, Blade HQ, a BladeForums community catalog thread) describe what each steel is generally good at, but none of them we found put two brands' own current numbers for the identical named steel side by side. We fetched three brands' own current pages directly instead — Benchmade's blade-steel guide, Zero Tolerance's blade-steels page, and Chris Reeve Knives' FAQ — and found real, quotable disagreement: Zero Tolerance's own page puts CPM S35VN at 60-62 HRC. Chris Reeve Knives' own FAQ puts the identical named steel, in its Impinda folder, at 59-60 HRC. A blade stamped 59 HRC in S35VN would fail Zero Tolerance's own stated floor for that steel, but sit inside Chris Reeve's own range exactly.

Not every brand publishes this number Ten steels are covered below, four of them by two brands and six by only one — because that's what we could confirm by fetching a brand's own page directly, not because the other steels aren't used elsewhere. Spyderco, a major maker that uses several of these same steels, states no HRC figure on its own site at all. A company forum thread attributed to Spyderco's founder gives a business reason for that (avoiding public "argument" over the exact number), but the forum page returned an error when we tried to fetch it directly this session, so we aren't citing that quote as confirmed — only the plain fact that Spyderco's own current pages, checked directly, state no HRC number.

Every figure, every brand, unfiltered

This table doesn't depend on what you picked above — it's every steel and brand where we found a directly-fetched, dated HRC figure on that brand's own current page.

Steel	Brand	Their own published range
CPM S35VN	Zero Tolerance	60–62 HRC
CPM S35VN	Chris Reeve Knives	59–60 HRC
CPM S45VN	Zero Tolerance	59–61 HRC
CPM S45VN	Chris Reeve Knives	60–62 HRC
CPM S30V	Benchmade	59–60 HRC
CPM S30V	Zero Tolerance	59.5–61 HRC
CPM MagnaCut	Zero Tolerance	62–64 HRC
CPM MagnaCut	Chris Reeve Knives	61–64 HRC
CPM S90V	Benchmade	59–61 HRC
CPM 3V	Zero Tolerance	59–61 HRC
CPM 20CV	Zero Tolerance	59–61 HRC
CPM M4	Zero Tolerance	60–62 HRC
CPM Cru-Wear	Zero Tolerance	62–64 HRC
CPM 4V	Chris Reeve Knives	59–60 HRC

What this does not do

It only covers a steel where at least one brand's own current page states a specific HRC figure — most named knife steels, and most brands, publish no number at all, which is why several steels here list only one brand.
It doesn't say a higher number is "better." Rockwell hardness trades off against toughness — a harder blade holds an edge longer but chips more easily — so a brand's own target range reflects that brand's own tradeoff choice, not an absolute quality ranking.
A brand states a range, not a single number, because individual blades vary within a production run even at the same target heat treatment — that's what the range is for, not a marketing hedge.
Chris Reeve Knives' own MagnaCut figure shown here spans two different sub-ranges its own page states for different models (61-62 RC on its Green Beret fixed blades, 63-64 RC on its folders) — not a single number we picked.

Runs entirely in your browser. Nothing you type is sent anywhere. If "named brands' own numbers for the identical spec, compared instead of averaged" is useful here, the knife sharpening angle comparator does the same thing for a different line on a knife's own spec sheet, and the cut-resistant glove rating comparator found the same "two rating systems don't convert the way a shopper would assume" shape in a different product entirely.