Author: Larrin
CruForgeV – The Unfortunate Events that Killed a Forging Knife Steel
New Steel and New Patreon Supporters
On Patreon we now have a full set of experiments on the new knife steel I designed for Crucible and Niagara Specialty Metals. The results are extremely promising. Those results are only available on Patreon until it is time to do the formal announcement. Thanks to Chester Dussault, Bob Burland, Matt Masuda, Scott Decker, Philip Dempsey, David Heleander, ConvencienceShout, Chris Pregent, Egan, Morgan Noonan, Michal Galovič, Kumar Muthusamy, Eric Divine, Simon Moeskjær Balle, and Ben Horridge for becoming Knife Steel Nerds Patreon supporters!
Matrix Steels – YXR7, CPM-1V, Caldie, and More
Thanks to Scott Larimore, Ryan Davis, David Mullin, Andrew Lutomirski, Nathan Thurman, Brome McCreary, Anthony Smallwood, Leitgeist, and Mike Walton for becoming Knife Steel Nerds Patreon supporters! On Patreon we now have four updates about an upcoming new knife steel with very promising results.
What Causes Razor Blades To Dull
Thanks to Mike Strickland, Joe Dickens, Carson Reid Davis, Kenneth, Jordan Danz, Wade Smith, Jeremy Kline, and Ryan Guldbrandsen for becoming Knife Steel Nerds Patreon supporters! I have posted initial results of experiments testing my new powder metallurgy knife steel. So come join Patreon if you want to see how the steel is doing before everyone else.
2020 in Review: Knife Steel Edition
2020 had a lot going on, of course. But a lot of good came in the area of knife steel. Let’s go through some of the highlights.
New Steels
The big announcement in terms of new steels was the Spyderco-exclusive CPM SPY27. This steel was announced in January of this year, and I offered early analysis based on the released composition here: CPM SPY27 Analysis. That wasn’t the end of my SPY27 coverage, however, as I was able to get a bar from Spyderco and Niagara Specialty Metals and perform a range of experiments on it, including hardness, corrosion resistance, toughness, and microstructure evaluation. Read the results of my experiments here: SPY27 Testing.
Steel Properties that Knifemakers Care about and Users Don’t
Thanks to Markus Stark, Nils, and Brent Stubblefield for becoming Knife Steel Nerds Patreon supporters. And Kyle Daily for increasing his contribution amount.
Knifemakers vs Users and What they Care About in Steel
Vanadis 8 – Better than CPM-10V
Thanks to Will and Justin Mann for becoming Knife Steel Nerds Patreon supporters!
My book Knife Engineering is available for Christmas and Hanukkah presents.
History of Vanadis 8
The history of Vanadis 8 goes back a lot further than just the steel itself, really we have to know the history of 10V to know all of the background that is relevant. You can read about CPM-10V in this article. CPM-10V is important because Vanadis 8 is intended as a replacement for CPM-10V, or at least for similar applications. CPM-10V was developed by Crucible in the late 70s, as the first powder metallurgy steel to utilize a microstructure made up of only vanadium carbide, as opposed to chromium and molybdenum/tungsten carbides. This gave 10V a combination of good toughness along with very high wear resistance from the ~10% vanadium and therefore ~17% vanadium carbide.
CPM-S110V Steel – History and Properties
Thanks to Aaron @ Gough Custom, Aaron McVay, Mark Scott, Jeffrey St. Claire, Grant Seim III, and saiiiiiii1 for becoming Knife Steel Nerds Patreon supporters!
I’m eventually going to stop plugging my book Knife Engineering in every new article, but that day is not today. Go buy one for yourself, and everyone you know, as a Christmas present.
Lost Knife Steels – Questek Ferrium M60S
Thanks to Lukas Bell, John Miles, Miika Jussila, Johan van Zanten, Dirk Pinkerton, Robert S, and Joseph Albert Padia for becoming Knife Steel Nerds Patreon supporters!
This article has a moderate amount of background metallurgy information in it. I explain briefly the necessary background information and provide links to earlier articles with more complete explanations. However, to get a full picture of steel metallurgy and heat treating, the easiest way is to read my book Knife Engineering.
M398 Steel Testing – Edge Retention, Toughness, and More
Thanks to Joel Sunderland for becoming a Knife Steel Nerds Patreon supporter! And thanks to pog for increasing their support.
The steel ratings table from my new book Knife Engineering has now been added as a Patreon-exclusive with M398 added to the table.
What is the Future of Stainless Knife Steel Design?
Thanks to Aram Compeau, Gordon Olafson, and John Walton for becoming Knife Steel Nerds Patreon supporters! I have an update on Patreon about the “rare earth” elements in AR-RPM9 steel.
I completed a minor revision to my new book Knife Engineering to correct a few typos. Some readers outside the USA also asked for more conversions from Fahrenheit than were present originally, so I incorporated both Celsius and Fahrenheit everywhere in the book in the text and tables, though some images and charts still have only one temperature scale or the other. I wouldn’t say that the changes in the revision are big enough to buy a new one if you have it already, this is not a new edition, but if you haven’t purchased one yet this is as good a time as any.