It gets expensive to buy knives just to cut them up, and metallography costs even more. Support more knife steel research by going to Patreon.com/KnifeSteelNerds You get to read articles and watch videos before anyone else, participate in the Patreon community, and even get a free mug if you sign up for the highest support level.
Thanks to Spencer Sandison for providing the Wootz steel for this new study! Thanks to Shawn Houston for performing the microscopy. And thanks to the Knife Steel Nerds Patreon supporters who allow me to do these studies through providing funds for all the experiments. All Patreon dollars go towards knife steel experiments.
Thanks to Roman Kasé for donating the K888 and Niagara Specialty Metals for donating the CPM-1V. Thanks to my Patreon supporters for funding this study, those dollars went toward metallography and CATRA blade grinding. You can support knife steel research by visiting Patreon.com/KnifeSteelNerds
The following is a collaboration project between myself and Malachi Chou-Green. He obtained the Vanadis 60, did some heat treating experiments, and also did metallography including some fancy electron microscopy. He also heat treated and machined the CATRA knife that I tested. His original experiments were published some time ago on his Patreon, so if you want to see what he is up to I recommend visiting his Patreon page and becoming a supporter.
Thank you Patreon Supporters!
Thank you to my Patreon supporters who help make these studies happen. Patreon funds were used for purchasing two ultimately useless knives, and some steel. Patreon supporter Marcus Ho even sent me some steel all the way from China which also ended up not working out. And I used Patreon funds to pay Shawn Houston (also a Patreon supporter) to do microscopy and grind two CATRA knives for me. So when I say that Patreon makes the study happen I don’t mean in an abstract sense. If you want to help fund more knife steel research please come join us on Patreon where you can get articles and videos early. Or if you sign up for the highest tier you can even get a sweet Knife Steel Nerds mug.
Thank you to all the new Knife Steel Nerds Patreon supporters! Your support allows me to do new exciting experiments on knife steel. Some exciting ones coming up in the coming months!
Video
I also have a video which covers the same information (more or less) in this article.
I drove my family all the way out to Bethlehem, PA to film a video about steel history so I hope you watch it. Read about my knife steel history book here: https://knifesteelnerds.com/2023/05/09/new-book-the-story-of-knife-steel-innovators-behind-modern-damascus-and-super-steels/
New Q&A video with questions from Patreon supporters. Go to Patreon.com/KnifeSteelNerds if you want to support knife steel research.
00:00 Ultra high toughness with ferrite/martensite steels?
05:09 Normalize 80CrV2 with stock removal?
You can help support more knife steel research like this by going to Patreon.com/KnifeSteelNerds
K390 Steel and Heat Treating Background
I already have a video and article about the history and properties of K390, which you can see here. K390 is a powder metallurgy non-stainless steel with high wear resistance due to very high vanadium, 9%. It is in a similar category to CPM-10V and Vanadis 8.
New YouTube video is a Q&A from Knife Steel Nerds Patreon supporters. The following topics were covered:
Nitro-V vs 14C28N
Carbide pullout during sharpening
What is difficult about high hardness heat treating of MagnaCut
