CPM MagnaCut has the knife world buzzing. It’s been called the next big breakthrough in knife steels, and that’s high praise! Here at Blade HQ, we think it’s worthy to be called a breakthrough, and you can bet that you’ll see MagnaCut on thousands of knives for years to come.
What is Magnacut?
CPM MagnaCut is a premium stainless blade steel. The big selling points of MagnaCut are its high toughness, high wear resistance, and high corrosion resistance. Many knife steels settle for a tradeoff, like more toughness at the expense of wear resistance, but Dr. Larrin Thomas, professional metallurgist and writer of knifesteelnerds.com, employed some clever tricks to make MagnaCut score high marks in all categories. It has the toughness of CPM-4V (a hard-use steel found on high-end fixed blades) with the stainlessness of CPM-20CV (a tried-and-true premium knife steel used primarily in folders). Thanks to its high wear resistance, it boasts excellent edge retention, but in the same vein, might be a little challenging to sharpen.
Is MagnaCut a good steel?
Yes. It is one of the best all-around knife steels out there. Thanks to some clever composition and manufacturing, it has a fine microstructure that makes sharpening more manageable than other steels of similar wear resistance. These great features make MagnaCut a great choice for small folders, big choppers, kitchen knives, and everything in between!
As in all knife selections, your choice in steel should be dictated by what your intended use is. If you plan to pry with your knife, you’ll get more toughness out of CPM 3V than MagnaCut. If you’re cutting rope all day, Maxamet will still be sharp long after MagnaCut has gone dull. If you need a knife for a nasty or tough job that will probably ruin your knife, something cheaper like Sandvik 14C28N will be the ticket. But for any all-around user knife that fits into multiple roles, MagnaCut is an awesome choice. To see how MagnaCut stacks up to other knife steels, check out our Knife Steel Guide!
Great Knives Made with MagnaCut :
