Spyderco Forums

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...

Spyder, Sounds like you are talking about a combo boat knife, diving knife, bait knife. That is a bit out of my niche and I am having to focus more lately on my designs that are most requested. Best to send me an e mail through the web site and I can get more specific. By the way I am in the process...

Thanks all for the birthday greeting. Birthdays are coming a bit to fast now. Looking forward to some waterfowl and antelope and deer hunts this year plus saltwater fishing when ever I can put it together to go over to the coast. In between of course make some knives. Also looking forward to to the ...

Hi Lance, that is most likely Pakka Wood. Thin laminations of dyed or colored birch glued up with epoxy. Sort of like micarta only wood. Enjoy the show.

ZMW, I use the Sprig for waterfowl hunting ( no surprise there). You probably know Sprig is a nickname for a Pintail duck. I don't think you need to worry about it holding up. The best way to do joints like legs is to bend the joint back so you can see where the two bones come together and just cut ...

No seminar this year.

HI Guys, I am planning to make the drive up from Northern California. I don't have a table this year but will be walking around Friday and Saturday. I will drop by Spyderco from time to time and also visit with Ed Schempp and other makers and material suppliers. Hope to meet some forum members that ...

Yes the Bow River has been in the early photo stage for a while. I missed SHOT this year so didn't get the benefit of feed back on the design. I am planning to make the drive up to Oregon show next week so hope to get caught up on what Sal and Eric and Rebecca are now thinking about it. There are a ...

Thanks for the information Michael, This also illustrates that stainless (stain resistant) grades will also rust under with the right environment conditions. 440C and other 400 series stainless as well as a whole range of similar grades with added chrome are not as resistant to corrosion and pitting...

Hi Spyder, I guess it kind of depends on what you are fishing for and what bait you are using. I think a fillet knife can be a bait knife but a bait knife would make an awkward fillet knife. I agree a 4 inch blade, either stiff or flexible is also a bit short for a fillet knife. 6 to 6.5 inch is a a...

Lance, beautiful fish, I will bring the soy and wasabi. Mucho sashimi and poki, Thanks for the photos, puts us right there. Phil

I have been using K390 from the start ever since it was introduced by Bohler and I got some small samples to try. A bit of history is that it is the European version of CPM 10V but not the exact chemistry (about 1% less V plus small addition of a few others). That is because the CPM 10V chemistry wa...

Dodog, yes even though I don't have experience with Vanidis 6 the chemistry would indicate less stain resistance and an end hardness of around RC 61 would be higher than CPM S60V on average. S60V was more like 58/59. Doc, The CPM 440V came from the basic 440C chemistry but with 6% vanadium. The CPM ...

Yes, CPM 440V, T440V, CPM S60V all the same grade just different designations evolved over time. This was the first one with the CPM process with enough Chrome to be stain resistant. The problem early on was that is had a pretty low obtainable hardness. It was later tweaked a bit to help with that b...