Thanks to the Knife Steel Nerds Patreon supporters for an awesome 2018!
Introduction
Zvi, who goes by Gator97 on many forums, developed the website Zknives.com which contains many articles on various topics including many on knives and sharpening. He also has a steel composition database which is the largest ever made collecting essentially any steel ever used in knives. As far as I know it is the largest database of steel compositions of any type. The database is available on his website and as Android and iOS apps. Because of that very useful contribution to knife steel nerds, I asked Zvi if he would be willing to be interviewed and he graciously agreed.
Interview
Can you tell us a little about yourself?
I was born in the Republic of Georgia, former USSR. Moved to the San Francisco bay area in the late 90s working the job I love – software development.
How did you become interested in knives?
As far as I can remember I was always interested in knives. I frequently visited a hunting store, though the choice was meager. A whole two different types of folders and that was it. The rest I could observe in museums. My uncle gave me a handmade fixed blade that he made. He saw the way I was looking at the knife, and that was really something for me. About a 6-inch blade, stainless steel, though who knows which stainless steel. Later on, I’d say late 90s, I became interested in steels and knife performance aspects. What made one knife better than the other. And from there it went: steel types, heat treatment, geometry, and so on.
What kinds of articles can we find on your website?
Aside from other hobbies, knife-related content is mainly three categories:
1) Knife reviews
2) Reports on experiments I’ve conducted
3) Info/guide-type articles such as the knife steel FAQ, kitchen knife choosing guide, and various glossaries.
Is the steel database the most popular part of your website?
By hit count it most definitely is. Although, Japanese kitchen knives generate a lot more questions and discussions.
Why make a steel database?
At some point I realized that I was spending a lot of time trying to identify unknown steels. X is the same (or pretty much the same) as Y and so on. Initially, I just wanted to have a quick way to cross reference alloys, starting with a simple spreadsheet, but I figured other folks were in the same boat, and figured that would be a good way to contribute to the knife community. That’s the original database that was born on zknives.com.
Were there programming or development difficulties in creating the steel database? Unique tools that had to be created?
When I first made the steel database, I had no idea there were so many standards and steels, I guesstimated 200-300 names tops, and that decision still plagues the current web version of the database, making it slow on initial load. I’ll definitely address that in 2019.
The main difficulty with the steel database is constantly learning and keeping up to date with three very different platforms (web, Android, iOS). Very few programmers in the world try all three at the same time and I understand why. Aside from the programming aspects; collecting, validating, and cross-referencing steel data is a real chore. Steel makers and dealers take quite a few liberties listing alloys as equivalents of other alloys, pages disappear, and there is no consistent source for data.
What steel information is missing out there?
There are a few proprietary steels for which composition is unknown. I’d love to get that data. Better understanding of various heat treatment protocols on alloy properties. Some alloying element effects are still missing from the database. Although, in general, more precise alloy cross-referencing is really nice to have.
What is next for the steel database?
A lot is planned. Immediate goals are to release a new version of the Android app to match search improvements in the recent iOS release, and address a few other issues. After that, a major change is coming which I’ve spent 2+ years working on, mostly collecting the data – max hardness values for all the alloys in the database. I have the data, though it does need validation, but I still must code changes to all three – web, Android, and iOS.
Any chance of adding steel datasheets to the database?
I can’t simply attach proprietary PDFs and links to my app. Liability issues, copyright, etc. Not to mention vastly increased space requirements and file management issues.
If I have help from the people who have the data and understand heat treatment protocols better than I – most definitely YES. If I am alone, then zero chance. A few years back I’ve tried to get knifemakers interested in a similar endeavor. Figure out a common format to describe heat treatment and contribute heat treat data, but it went nowhere… I physically have no time or capacity to devote time to learning all that metallurgy and data hunt on top of what I already do.
My ideal solution is, somehow, we come up with a data model that can describe the heat treatment protocol for a given alloy, which means it can be broken down into individual steps, so I can put that as records in the database. Then when viewing the specific alloy, you get to see the protocol: step 1 do this, step 2 do that, etc. I still have a lot of questions about how to implement this logistically. What would work for the people interested in heat treatment data, what data is required, and if people are willing to contribute their time. Without having a clear path forward I can’t commit to anything. Plus depending on how contributions go I might have to develop specialized tools to allow people to submit/edit data vs emailing me and entering it manually.
What knife and steel questions are you still trying to answer?
Well, I’ve stopped chasing the “best steel there is” answer. These days I am interested in what steel is the best for a given knife type and application. Plus, as a person who invested a very significant amount of time learning proper sharpening, one extra question is always, “Will this do better with a polished or a coarse edge?” And I would like to more seriously research cryo effects on blades and trying to wrap my mind around carbide volume and edge geometry relationships.
Thanks for the interview, Zvi!
Zvi, I’ll take this as a opportunity for a formal introduction .I am ,like Larrin a metallurgist , technically retired , but still very much learning about metallurgy.
The confusion of many standards has always been with us but every time one standard problem is corrected another rears it’s ugly head ! In the early days each company had it’s own standards and much time spent checking all the standards .
lists like yours have been very helpful. Thanks for joining us and learning more about metallurgy !
Thanks Mete.
There’s a lot to learn, clearly 🙂