Category: Toughness
7 thoughts on “Toughness”
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How to Heat Treat MagnaMax Steel
Wide Release Date for MagnaMax for Small Knifemakers
MagnaMax will be on sale May 1st, 2026 at 9am on Niagara Specialty Metals’ online store: https://nsm-ny.com/shop/
You can create an account beforehand so that you are ready to buy once the steel goes live. We made the following commercial to get pumped for the release:
3 Times Knifemakers Proved Metallurgists Wrong
If you would like to support knife steel research, join us at Patreon.com/KnifeSteelNerds. You can read articles and see videos early, discuss topics with fellow steel nerds, and even get a free Knife Steel Nerds mug!
Testing Erasteel MagnaCut (vs Crucible Original)
Crucible, Niagara, Erasteel, and MagnaCut
In case you haven’t been following steel news, Crucible Steel went through a bankruptcy and no longer exists. I interviewed Bob Shabala of Niagara Specialty Metals about this transition several months ago. Niagara is the company that purchased ingots from Crucible and would hot roll, anneal, and distribute them to knife companies and steel suppliers. They have also recently started a new online store to better sell directly to individual knifemakers. Niagara has managed to keep production going for a wide range of Crucible (and other) knife steels, including:
Is Straightening with a Carbide Hammer Dangerous?
Patreon
Research like this is made possible by Patreon supporters. That allowed me to purchase the carbide straightening hammers and perform the experiments below. Join at Patreon.com/KnifeSteelNerds if you would like to support further research.
Knife Broke with CPM-3V! Isn’t it a Tough Steel? (Q&A Video)
New video with Q&A! If you want to ask questions for Q&A videos come join us at Patreon.com/KnifeSteelNerds
CPM-3V – Still the Best High Toughness Steel
Still working on getting an update to everyone about the status of knife steel after Crucible’s bankruptcy and the sale of many of the assets to Erasteel. Still more i’s to dot and t’s to cross.
Matrix Steels K888 and CPM-1V
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
Testing Chinese Knife Steel 8Cr13MoV/8Cr14MoV
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.
How to Heat Treat K390
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.
Does Damascus Outperform Super Steels? Testing Different Combinations
It’s been a while since I posted a full article, so there are a bunch of new Patreon supporters. Thanks to our new supporters Jack Hilton, David Heleander, KevinP, huck, Dd, C, Brian Fencil, Rick Steele, Leon Rodak, Kendal Thomas, The Madman, Michael Kelly, Allen Thomas, Jim Pickard, Linqian Chen, Matt Masuda, Nick Dunham, Fikes Lee, Timothy Becker, jmasinter, MakaBones, Will from Maine, and Charles. Please go to Patreon.com/KnifeSteelNerds if you want to be a supporter. Damascus is very expensive and this is one of the priciest studies I have ever done for Knife Steel Nerds. I spent several months and about $10,000 to do the following study. Without reservation, I can say this is the biggest study on the performance of pattern-welded Damascus that has ever been performed. Your support means we can do more studies on knife steel that would be unrealistically expensive otherwise.
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Just out of curiosity, did you ever test ztuff with a high temper. At one time I did some testing, and found it to be much tougher if tempered at around 1000 degrees. This was compared to tempering at 400 degrees!
I haven’t tested the high temper on Z-Tuff.
I think it would score quite a bit higher on you’re charts! Maybe in the future I could heat treat a few samples and send them to you. I’m interested personally!
Why is there a huge discrepancy with 14c28n toughness results. Older charts Say it’s a 3. I’ve abused my Kershaw blur since 2013 and never had issues. You have it at a 9 I think. Which is fantastic
Is DC53 tougher than 14c28N? Google ai says that it is. But it explains that DC53 is twice as tough as D2. Which D2 is not that tough. As far as I understand, 1.4116 is tougher, and I found a chart that says it’s rated as a 2.5 out of ten. When 14C28N is a 9 out of ten.
I have not tested DC53 but it would be unlikely to be tougher than 14C28N. I wouldn’t bother asking any AI these types of questions. My tests for A2 were around 15 ft-lbs. A2 has the same carbon but 3% lower chromium, which would likely give it an advantage in toughness over DC53.