Spyderco Forums

I ballpark figure is always nice. I've always appreciated Sal's posts revealing the HRC of protos. I don't hold spyderco to that exact number either. He is just giving us a data point. I hope most people understand that and just take it for what it is. Having a ballpark idea is very nice. Re: ballp...

The last thing we need is an Rc arms race. I don’t have the faintest clue what Rc any of my Spyderco knives are. Somehow they all work great. Are you saying that you would be fine with a Benchmade folder in 3V with an HRC of 56? That is what started these discussions two weeks ago. Does it work wel...

For the sake of calibrating... the people driving the hrc conversation are all specifically repeating that hrc is only one contributing predictor of performance. We’ve been repeating this every time we’ve talked about it.

So back to the original topic.... soft M390. Dave Warren of Tuya Knives is getting some positive attention today on Instagram. His company had been selling M390 advertised at 59-61. His company saw JcoolG19's HRC test numbers of their knives at 57 hrc and he called the factory in China and had them...

And finally, do you agree with Crucible that CPM 20CV at 58 HRC (while this might not be optimal) has as much wear resistance as CPM m4 at 63 HRC ? Or are they over-selling one of their steels over another one ? https://photos.smugmug.com/Picture-a-Week/2019/January-2019/n-T8nww7/i-HQ6q8tk/0/6d9917...

HRC is matrix hardness. A given sample, within a useful range of hardness, will gain wear resistance with higher hrc. But, comparing two compositions, that hardness won’t necessarily overcome carbide. Carbides are the difference, here. That’s what Deadbox Hero was alluding to. (See also: nitrides) ...

So either use a knife like a knife and be rewarded with more performance. Or use like a hammer. Well, yeah, well said; except - this might be entirely me - I missing an answer to my question. I am comparing two knives with identical geometry in practical use (PM2), wasn't using them as hammer or pr...

I dunno, I don't have any S35VN, I just enjoy watching a good pissing contest. First of all, I'd appreciate it if you'd lay off me a bit. I'm not trying to stir up anything like you. I was giving you an opportunity to say something on topic. Secondly, I've used both steels in several different mode...

If I was to guess, if there was an error, it would probably be the way the tester mounted the specific knife under the indenter on the anvil. https://imgur.com/kxSbXsH.jpg https://i.imgur.com/kxSbXsH.jpg I saw a picture of a red manix2 IIRC under test (found it), and it was an assembled knife inden...

He's merely shedding more light on an important and recently more prominent (popularity-wise) issue. The existence of Maxamet and the fact that it's ran at high hardness shouldn't be a legit excuse for other premium steels being so soft. Far be it for me to throw myself in front of the uber hard M3...

Indeeeeeed. BTW, I should have prefaced my reply by pointing out that I sometimes comment to clarify for third parties. I didn’t want anyone to see the data sheet listing for working hardness and walk away with the badly mistaken impression that the optimal range for these steels in cutlery is 57-5...

Poor performance on a factory edge is often indicative of damage during sharpening. Belt sharpening generates a lot of heat, and the thinner the grind (apex, secondary, shoulder— not stock thickness), the easier it is for damage to occur. Some compositions suffer less from the heat than others. This...

... The working hardness from the data sheet is in the context of use in the plastics industry, for which these steels were developed. The condition sets, structural and edge geometry, etc for that use is vastly different than folding cutlery application, for which you’ll generally hear an ideal ra...

From Carpenter CTS-204P's pdf sheet: "The typical working hardness for the alloy is 57/59 HRC; however, a higher working hardness of 62/63 HRC can be used to enhance the material's wear resistance at the expense of corrosion resistance and toughness " Bohler Uddeholm CATRA test results: B...

Xplorer wrote: ↑

Wed Jun 12, 2019 1:14 am

^^Very well stated^^

Thank you, X

This would neatly explain why Spyderco consistently nails ht on so many steels, including less common stuff peaking as high as 69hrc (Maxamet) and I guess "nailing ht" means optimal for you box and rope cutters ... But: not all of us want knives to be optimized for wear resistance. I do k...

57-62 is +/- 3, I think reasonable considering large production batches, batch to batch, and hardness testing error tolerances. 59-62 is +/- 2, I think exceptionable for large production. I would expect +/- 1 only for small batch custom. Spyderco has very tight tolerances. Best in the production wo...

...As a result, it should be fairly common to see hrc distribution across same-batch samples range from 57-62... Really? That's a huge spread. I know next to nothing about heat treating, but it surprises me greatly that Spyderco can't get a heat treat any more consistent than +/- 5 HRC points. To b...

To any interested parties, Gerald at Outpost76 on YouTube just put up an edge retention test, run three times, to verify performance range, on his channel. It’s a PM2 in M390, tested at 62hrc. When compared to multiple edge retention tests of 57-59hrc M390/20CV/204P, this is jaw dropping. The perfor...

I had no idea this thread was a thing until Kurt shared it in our steel chat this morning. I’m still groggy— it’s 7:12am where I live, and I haven’t had my coffee, yet. I just wanted to take the time to create an account here and thank the special corner of the community who have an active interest ...