Four Months of Everyday Use With a MagnaMax Folder

NemoKnivesReview has posted a four-month follow-up on MagnaMax, Larrin Thomas's new steel, based on daily carry of a Spyderco Manix 2 with a MagnaMax blade on a Manix Salt handle. It is one reviewer's real-world report; the author says no lab testing was done.

Key points

• The knife: Full stainless steel liners, 136 grams on the reviewer's kitchen scale, and a price under $200. The reviewer believes hardness is around 64 HRC but has no Rockwell tester to confirm it.
• Hard use: The tip went through bean can lids with no bending, deformation or chipping. Scraping butter off a hard-coated frying pan caused no issues, and the rough side of a Scotch-Brite sponge left no trace.
• Sharpening: A plain white ceramic rod handled touch-ups. Reprofiling took considerably more work than MagnaCut, and the reviewer compares it with S90V on that point.
• Corrosion: The reviewer rates corrosion resistance as impressive so far and calls MagnaMax "zero-maintenance steel."
• What is next: The Manix 2 is the first platform to bring MagnaMax to market, a partially serrated version is coming, and the reviewer expects it to replace S30V and S45V at the Golden plant over time.

Quick take

NemoKnivesReview's view is that MagnaMax seems to combine qualities that have usually forced a compromise, and the knife has become the reviewer's go-to on days with unknown tasks. The reviewer still hedges, writing "Is it perfect? Probably not."

Read the full story at NemoKnivesReview.