Video
There is a video version of the following information:
What is Buderus?
Buderus is a steel mill in Germany. They have several of their own knife steel products, including Nitro-V, Nitro-B, and Nitro-X7. They have also produced a wide range of standard grades, including 1095, 80CrV2, 15N20, and W2.
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.
New video with Q&A! If you want to ask questions for Q&A videos come join us at Patreon.com/KnifeSteelNerds
11/18/2025: I added that the book is now available in South Africa from SD Knives & Supplies.
Links to buy are at the bottom of the article!
Video
Knife Engineering
In recent years, I have been mostly known as the “MagnaCut man,” but before MagnaCut, my biggest success was probably with Knife Engineering. When I started my website, Knife Steel Nerds, I hadn’t thought about writing a book because I thought I was doing a website instead. But I soon realized that a website works better for individual articles than it does for introducing an entire subject. So that led me to writing the book Knife Engineering: Steel, Heat Treating, and Geometry. That allowed people to learn the subject in order with all of the appropriate introductory material. The book has been a big success with many copies sold and many rave reviews from knifemakers and knife buyers alike. I tried very hard to make the subject as easy to understand as possible, and so it has been gratifying to hear people say that the book was exactly that.
We traveled to Nevada to visit my dad, Devin Thomas, and make some Damascus with Pop’s ProCut. Along the way we saw some sites around my hometown and my wife tries to prove that her town is better.
Patreon
Thank you Patreon supporters! Through Patreon support I was able to pay for metallography and for the consumables for making coupons and running the CATRA experiment. If you want to support more knife steel research please join us at Patreon.com/KnifeSteelNerds
If you would like to support metallurgy research like this, please come join us at Patreon.com/KnifeSteelNerds. You get to see articles and videos early and join our community.
Video
Here is the video version of the following information:
My steel research is supported through Patreon. Patreon supporters saw the news on Pop’s ProCut before anyone else. There is currently an article about the upcoming MagnaMax only available on Patreon.
