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Total sleeper

Palestrina wrote: ↑

Thu Feb 05, 2026 12:14 pm

... it has to be this one:


20260205_193245.jpg


So, if you're in doubt - now you know

Very underrated knife.

I think folks that love the delica overlook this model because they think it's too small, but they would be gravely mistaken.

Hi Shawn,

Sorry, got caught up in the VG-10, and forgot the ATS-154CM. Don't know if it's a Talkin' story, you decide. Lotta "hear-say" (Maybe Brian can add or verify)

I don't have as much first hand experience, but I'll share what I've learned. 154CM was a Crucible steel, that I believe was ...

Incredible, thank you for taking us on the journey, not only does that help us contextualize the steels before VG-10 but also the linege of how we got to BD1N which we see on the new lightweight PM2 along with the natural evolution to CPM SPY27 which in real world use has almost similar edge ...

Thank you @Deadboxhero i greatly appreciate the information. I’ll be adding a third 15V knife to my collection. The information here is 100 percent why. Also thank you original poster your question helped me decide between a Bodacious or a Military 2.

One last slightly off topic question. for ...

BBB It's a real honor to get what you can share.

So is there a new project you are working on with an eye towards taking yet another steel out of it lane for high performance knife use 🤔


Let's see what 2027 looks like. Eric says that they're going to do my collaboration folding knife and that ...

I love the curiosity, and those are certainly great questions.

However, there are certainly limits with what I could share which I'm sure you can understand. For context Spyderco also doesn't publish HRC so you can imagine how much more reticent they are to give "blueprints" on other metrics ...

BBB how did this steel come to your attention? What made you decide to figure out how to make a great knife steel out of it? You must have experiment alot to come up with your heat treating protocols.


Good question.

I've covered that some here down memory lane.
https://youtu.be/l0hG2DqGZLI ...

I thought that Crucible also had the only forge that could get hot enough to make 15V. Did I remember that wrong?


I think it was more about the spray nozzles used to create the steel powder or some other part that contacted the molten steel as 15V needed to be heated to a much higher ...

I think he touched on how it's used outside of the knife industry - "highly wear resistant industrial parts"

Shawn and Spyderco optimized 15V for use in the knife industry by developing a proprietary heat treatment protocol.

It kind of sounds like 15V was of no use in the knife industry until ...

The people here saying spend money on 15V now because they’re not making any more and it’s going to get dramatically more expensive when it’s gone are a little bit confused IMO.

While technically true that there may never be a steel marketed as “15V”, if it’s a useful steel there will be some ...

sal wrote: ↑

Mon Feb 02, 2026 7:34 pm

Deadboxhero wrote: ↑

Mon Feb 02, 2026 9:54 am

@sal

Could you take us back to when VG-10 was coming out and how it compared in your opinion to ATS-34/154-CM?

Hi Shawn,

That's a bit of a "Talkin' story". Too busy right now. will get to it in a day or two.

sal

I would greatly appreciated it, it was before my time.

BBB I think it is a pretty forgone conclusion your a pretty cool guy, I remember years ago when you first started posting here and following your exploits, there were some pretty cool and thin LC200N knives you made as I recall.

I am pretty sure Sal thinks so also and of course data didnt hurt ...

Red Leader wrote: ↑

Mon Feb 02, 2026 1:30 pm

Appreciate that answer, thanks Shawn.

Thanks, Red,

Keep up all the great posts

-shawn

Catchadroppimgknife wrote: ↑

Mon Feb 02, 2026 1:22 pm

Ok Dead Box - you convinced me. 15v it will be

(And then I will get the S90 Military later )

.

Welcome to the obsession
Strong choice.

Trick question.

Get both :p


Best answer ever. Now if only I had the funds for both.

Question for you. Does your heat treat change Larrin’s test results and if so then how?


It wasn't sent to Dr Larrin.

The heat treatment is proprietary and the data is not publicly available.

The BBB ...

Trick question.

Get both :p

It is certainly not a stainless blade, although it's not as reactive as 1095, 52100 etc it will certainly never be a stain free material.

So why deal with that?

The reason why non stainless tool steels are tolerated and sought after is because it is impossible to get that level of hardness ...

@sal

Could you take us back to when VG-10 was coming out and how it compared in your opinion to ATS-34/154-CM?

We don't use the Mohs scale for this.

That is like using a ruler when you need a micrometer.

The subject is beyond the resolution of Mohs.



I had to use diamond and CBN to get the micrograph of MagnaMax as clean as I did. Otherwise, it would result in smearing if I used softer alumina ceramic ...