Spyderco Forums

Thanks to Larrin for doing a lot of the ground work and characterizing this new grade. HIs article has an incredible amount of work in it. I was impressed with the photo micrographs showing a nice even distribution of carbides and a relatively fine grain structure. As far as I know no one has made a...

Hi Sal, a good question and was thinking the other day that with so many good steels available now if I had to pick only 3 to work with what would they be? For the long edge holding on hunting and utility I would go with one of the A11's and right now K390 since that is what I am set up for. CPM S90...

I kinda grew up with CPM S90V and if I was limited to one blade steel for the stainless application it would be 90V. CPM S110V is very close in all aspects but somewhat harder to work with. CPM S30V and ELMAX in that class would be a close second, Simple operations like drilling on CPM S110V require...

Yes, rounding off the back of the choil and the very first part of the edge was a detail that was on the prototype. I was happy to see the maker picked up on that. It was not done on the first sample we got back. Very easy to sharpen all the way if that is the preference. Thanks, Phil

Hi All, This one has been in the works for a long time and has been a lesson in perseverance. Eric hung in there and the end product is very nice. I got a sample about 2 weeks ago and I ordered some since I know they are going to go fast. Will be anxious to hear the feed back when they get out there...

HI Jim, nice clean design and shades of the classic Bowie. Good choice on the steel grade and a good balance between ductility and hardness and geometry for edge performance. It was worth waiting for. Congratulations Jim and Spyderco, Phil

Right now salmon are plentiful in the ocean of the north california coast. I just had some fresh last night and it is the best this time of the year when they are feeding on anchovies. The meat bright red/orange and the oil just runs out of them on the BBQ. Tomorrow I will cold smoke some and also m...

I appreciate hearing the stories about that day. My father flew C47's troop carrier squadron 49th from England. He flew on the eve of D day and also on D day +1. He was shot down over Caratan on +1 and landed the air plane in a flooded area putting out the fire. He was carring a cargo of land mines....

I have one of Shawn's hones, not sure which version ( Shawn can get more specific) but I would second Xplorer's description. It has a feel and a cutting personality that is truly unique. No problem with grades like K390 and Rex 121. We used a lot of different hones cutting various materials when Sha...

Wayne was a gentleman and was always open to share his knowledge. He encouraged many fledging knife makers (myself included. He was a co founder of the Oregon Knife show and a talented writer who specialized in the technical aspects of both forging and stock removal. He was very good at combining ma...

Skinner, all good advice above. If you want confidence on how your blades will do in the field then get some manila rope, 5/8 or 3/4 inch and do some cutting yourself, try different angles, sharpening and grits. Manila rope is a good substitute for animal hair and hide. Also check out how Jim cuts w...

Garage Boy, Yes CPM S90V came out before CPM S30V. Problem was that S90v req'd a furnace that would go to 2100 or so and most custom guys did not have the equipment to heat treat it. It has excellent wear resistance and that makes for good edge holding but the other side of the coin is it is hard to...

440V discussion Wayne Goddard wrote an article I think for Blade magazine on 440V and introduced it . Like Sal this is the first PM grade I used. The idea that it had a low potential hardness probably came from me since at the time I was sending it out for heat treat and it came back in the 57 range...

I have a South Fork BD!N test knife in the kitchen, in the drawer for a couple of years now. The other day my wife cut and boned about 60 chicken thighs for her famous lemon grass chicken. Every thigh she cut against the bamboo cutting board and also filleted out the bone. I had sharpened it for her...

Hi Arty, If you do a side by side edge holding comparison ( I cut 3/4 inch rope) with the exact same knives sharpened the same way you might find CPM S30V ( I don't use S35V) will do a bit better. I use both for fillet and in actual use in the field and there really is no practical difference. Phil

HI Larrin, Excellent article. I enjoyed the history aspects as well. You cleared up the fact that 154CM was used for high temp bearings rather than turbine blades. I did not know that RWL 34 was named after Bob Loveless but now makes obvious sense. He must have used some of it but the later knives h...

Pelagic; and others, very interesting testing with a lot of effort and some good analysis on testing with rope in general. I have been doing rope cutting tests for a long time and have come to some conclusions myself. I gradually evolved from 1/2 inch manila to 3/4 inch and a slicing sawing type cut...

I just made one test blade as described by Surf. There was some feedback on being a bit brittle on the edge. With a little more work on heat treat, some additional tempering experimenting to get a bit lower hardness I think that could be much improved. I subsequently made a fillet knife with it and ...

Hi Nemo, thanks for the report on the Sprig and also some history on the PM steels. Takes me back a few years. It is always nice to get feed back on how the collaboration designs are woking out in actual use. Phil

Hi Captn, CPM 154 is the particle metallurgy version of 154CM. ATS-34 is pretty much the same thing only made in Japan. These grades were developed as bearing steels and could take higher temperatures with out hardness loss if tempered at the high end ( 975 F) Bob loveless used both 154CM and ATS 34...