White River Knives Knucklehead ll S35VN Survival Neck EDC Trekking Biking Knife

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This is my preferred US Maker of Stainless knives and they use my preferred steel S35VN (see below).  I try to find the makers that use quality craftsmanship and materials at great prices and White River definitely qualifies.  Your  knife buying dollar is well spent on their products.

A tough, lightweight every day carry knife. Strong enough for most tasks, but discreet and easy to conceal. Unlike the chisel grind on the original Knucklehead, the Knucklehead II features a more conventional double bevel ground, hand sharpened, leather honed blade. Stone washed, textured finish steel. Easy to grip skeleton handle design complete with bottle opener. Wear it on your neck, boot, or belt.

White River Guarantee: If you are not 100% satisfied with this knife, send it back for free repair or replacement.

CPM S30V is considered a premium grade knife steel. It is so expensive that it strongly affects the price of the knife, and is largely used in higher-end production and custom knives. Buck Knives calls it "the absolute best blade steel available".[5] Joe Talmadge claims it might be the ultimate high-end all-around stainless steel, due to high performance coupled with easier machinability and sharpenability than the other steels in this class.[6]

In 2009, Crucible Steel introduced an update to CPM-S30V to meet the needs of renowned knife maker Chris Reeve that they called CPM-S35VN. The addition of 0.5% Niobium, and reductions in both Carbonfrom (1.45% to 1.40%) and Vanadium (from 4% to 3%) produced an alloy with 25% increase in measured Charpy V-notch toughness over S30V (Crucible claims 15-20% improvement). Working chefs and outdoor survivalists laud the improved toughness of S35VN, which greatly reduces the micro-bevel chipping that tends to plague S30V in rough use. In these kinds of applications the obvious benefit of quick honing of an S35VN blade with a strop or steel stick in lieu of needing to remove metal and reform the edge puts S35VN at an advantage over S30V. In light use, edge-holding and stainless properties between S35VN versus S30V are thought to be roughly the same, and performance will often be affected nearly as much by the applied heat treatment, blade design, and the edge geometry as the differences in metal chemistry.[citation needed]

Around this same time period, Carpenter CTS-XHP and Uddeholm Elmax became more widely available for cutlery usage. These powdered steels use a different process than Crucible, but they are also high-end stainless steels (with high-chromium and high-vanadium levels similar to S30V and S35VN) intended to compete with CPM-S30V and CPM-S35VN.