M390 Steel Knife Blade Blanks
M390 is Böhler’s benchmark premium powder stainless and the steel most often named when people talk about edge retention. Very high chromium and vanadium content, consolidated by powder metallurgy into a fine and even carbide structure.
We run M390 at 60 to 61 HRC, with a cryogenic step during heat treatment to convert retained austenite.
M390 at a glance
| Maker |
Böhler (Voestalpine) |
| Type |
Powder metallurgy stainless |
| Chemistry (average %) |
C 1.90, Si 0.70, Mn 0.30, Cr 20.00, Mo 1.00, V 4.00, W 0.60 |
| Our hardness |
60-61 HRC |
Strengths: Very high wear resistance with very good corrosion resistance.
Trade-off: Needs diamond or ceramic abrasives to sharpen.
What it is for
A knife that has to keep cutting. Long days of work, abrasive materials, or simply a blade you would rather not maintain often. In wear testing M390 outlasts almost anything at comparable hardness, and corrosion resistance is very good alongside it.
Be honest with yourself about sharpening before choosing it. The vanadium carbides in M390 are harder than the abrasive in a standard waterstone, so an ordinary stone polishes the softer matrix and leaves the carbides standing. Diamond or high quality ceramic is not optional, and it takes patience. In return you will reach for the stone far less often.
How these blanks are made
After laser cutting, each profile is hand ground in our own workshop, then sent to Voestalpine for vacuum heat treatment with the cryogenic stage; the mill that made the steel does the hardening, in industrial furnaces with documented cycles. Ground through 40, 120 and 240 grit before heat treatment, shipped sharpened unless the order note asks otherwise, free laser engraving included.
See how M390 compares with our other powder steels in powder metallurgy steels explained.
M390 steel: properties, hardness and how it compares
M390 steel is a Böhler powder metallurgy stainless with very high chromium and vanadium, which gives it the longest edge life of any steel we sell while staying highly corrosion resistant. We harden our M390 blanks to 60-61 HRC at Voestalpine, with a cryogenic step.
Compared with Elmax, M390 holds an edge longer but is harder to sharpen. Compared with Vanax, it gives up some corrosion resistance for more wear resistance.
| Steel | Our hardness | Edge retention | Corrosion resistance | Sharpening | Best for |
|---|
| M390 | 60-61 HRC | Highest | Very good | Diamond or ceramic | Longest edge life |
| Elmax | 60-61 HRC | Very high | Good | Diamond or good ceramic | Hunting, EDC, kitchen |
| Vanax | 60 HRC | Excellent | Best in our range | Diamond or good ceramic | Salt water, wet work |
Related categories
Related reading: what HRC really means, choosing steel for a kitchen knife, and why we send blades back to the steel mill.