The development of MagnaMax marks another major milestone in modern knife steel history, continuing the influence of metallurgist Dr. Larrin Thomas on the cutlery world. Thomas, who gained widespread recognition for creating CPM MagnaCut, introduced MagnaMax in 2025 as part of his ongoing research into optimizing stainless steels for real-world knife use. Whereas MagnaCut revolutionized the balance of toughness, corrosion resistance, and wear resistance, MagnaMax was conceived to push further in edge retention and wear properties while maintaining a high level of practical toughness and stainless performance.

MagnaMax was developed as a direct evolution of MagnaCut. When MagnaCut appeared, it proved that stainless steel could achieve an unprecedented balance of toughness, corrosion resistance, and wear resistance. Its success quickly made it a benchmark alloy across both custom and production knives.

MagnaCut established itself by achieving toughness levels on par with non-stainless tool steels like CPM-4V, all while remaining highly corrosion resistant and offering solid wear resistance. MagnaMax shifts that balance. By increasing carbide volume and optimizing carbide type, it delivers significantly greater wear resistance and longer edge life than MagnaCut.

The trade-off is predictable: MagnaMax does not quite match MagnaCut’s toughness. It is not intended for the most punishing impact tasks or heavy prying, but it remains more than capable within the typical range of folding knives and general-use fixed blades. Sharpening takes a bit more effort compared to MagnaCut, but this is expected in steels with higher wear resistance. In return, users gain noticeably extended edge holding when cutting abrasive materials.

Placing MagnaMax within the broader landscape of cutlery steels highlights its significance. Steels such as CPM-S90V, Bohler M390, and 20CV have long been the standard for stainless wear resistance. MagnaMax competes directly in this space, but does so with design principles that emphasize refined carbide structure and balanced usability. In practice, it offers edge retention on par with or above those steels, while maintaining corrosion resistance and toughness at useful levels.

Compared to Maxamet, which remains an outlier in terms of sheer wear resistance, MagnaMax is far more stainless and considerably tougher, making it suitable for a much wider range of knives. Against older staples like S30V and S35VN, MagnaMax surpasses them both in every meaningful category, edge retention, toughness, and corrosion resistance, demonstrating how far powder metallurgy has advanced since the early 2000s.

MagnaMax continues the line of thinking that made MagnaCut so influential. Where MagnaCut overturned the assumption that stainless steels had to sacrifice toughness, MagnaMax proves that the same design philosophy can produce a variant tailored to a different priority: maximum edge life. Together, they form a complementary pair within the “Magna family”; one built for all-around use, the other for long-lasting cutting performance.

Although MagnaMax’s history is just beginning, its introduction already underscores an important truth: thoughtful alloy design, guided by metallurgical expertise and supported by close cooperation between steelmakers and knife companies, is still pushing the performance of knife steels forward. MagnaMax stands as the latest example of how modern metallurgy continues to redefine what knife users can expect from a blade steel.