Category: History – Articles – Books
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CPM-15V and the Lost CPM-20V – How Much Vanadium Can you Add?
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History of CPM-15V
CPM-15V is essentially a higher vanadium extension of CPM-10V developed by Crucible steel in the late 1970s. I wrote about the history of CPM-10V in this article so I won’t copy-paste all of that here. Prior to powder metallurgy technology it was known that adding higher vanadium would lead to greater wear resistance due to the very high hardness of vanadium carbide. However, once the vanadium content exceeded 4-5% the carbides would be large enough that the steel would fail in forging, and toughness would also be reduced. So the highest wear resistance steel for many years was T15 high speed steel with ~5% vanadium. With CPM-10V they saw what the limit was for vanadium additions and found that once they reached about 11% vanadium the carbide size would be increased because the vanadium carbides would form in the liquid steel before the steel could be gas atomized into powder. Read about the powder metallurgy process in this article. The more vanadium that is added the higher the temperature where the vanadium carbides form. When the formation temperature is higher than the temperature of the liquid steel then they form prior to atomization giving the large carbides in the 11% vanadium PM steel below (labeled CPM 11V):
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!
Vanadis 8 – Better than CPM-10V
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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.
Lost Knife Steels – Questek Ferrium M60S
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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.
S90V and S125V Knife Steel – History, Properties, and How to Heat Treat
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CPM-S60V – The Forgotten Super Steel
My new book Knife Engineering continues to receive excellent reviews from amateur knifemakers, experienced knifemakers, and knife enthusiasts. Click here for more information about the book and links to buy. If you have purchased a copy, please go leave a review on Amazon.
CPM 10V Steel – History, Properties, and How to Heat Treat
My new book, Knife Engineering: Steel, Heat Treating, and Geometry was released last week. The reviews have been coming in and the feedback is very positive so far. Go get one! And make sure you leave a review on Amazon. Also, Australian readers are now telling me it is possible to buy the book now from Amazon USA. So if you had issues ordering in the past give it another try. But do not order from Amazon Australia, see my article to learn why.
New Book! Knife Engineering: Steel, Heat Treating, and Geometry
Update 4/14/2024: Gameco is sold out but Amazon Australia has it now.
Update 3/29/2022: I added that SD Knives and Supplies is the place to buy in South Africa
Update 3/31/2021: I added that Gameco is the place to buy in Australia.
Who is the Greatest Knife Steel Metallurgist of All Time?
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Metallurgists
I have enjoyed writing many articles about the history of different knife steels over the past couple years of this website. It has been very challenging to track down the history of different steels to see where they came from and how. I decided to write an article about some of the greats who have made contributions to knife steel and knife tests. Many of these metallurgists didn’t know they were developing steels that would be used in knives. Some were developing tool steels or high speed steels. However, their steels have since been used in knives or their steel designs influenced other steels which have been used in knives. To keep this article manageable in size I have focused on those that developed steel or tests of knives. In other words, those that studied different aspects of steel are not included. Some notable people that were omitted for this reason include:
M390 Steel – History and Properties (and 20CV and 204P)
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History of M390 Development
Andre Grobler posted the link to your blog on FB. Will check it out