Simply asked: Are Larrin's test results on of 15V's toughness reflective of what the toughness should be on Spyderco's production of 15V?
To expand:
I have been looking through Larrin's blog posts and the 15V thread and from what I can glean it seems that the data on Larrin's blog is based on a heat treat protocol that may not be the final version that Spyderco used.
I realize that Shawn and Spyderco may want to keep the exact protocol a bit of a proprietary secret, so maybe I'm asking too much for confirmation of specific numbers, but I'm wondering if the results that Larrin has found in testing should still be considered representative of how the steel in the knives Spyderco is putting out should perform.
I know that Shawn sent Larrin some samples he heat treated for the micrographs but looking at Larrin's edge retention article I see he listed the heat-treat specs he used for CPM-15V:
However, in his article about CPM-15V he mentions this about the heat-treatment used:
Having read the 15V thread, I saw that Shawn initially started with an austenizing temperature of 2150, and then later said he found that lowering it a bit helped, so I'm wondering which temperature was used for the micrographs, Larrin's tests, and for the Spyderco knives.So to do my recommended low temper I would use 1850-1950°F for 30 minutes followed by a plate quench and then a cold treatment, the coldest you have available (freezer, dry ice, liquid nitrogen, etc.). Temper at 300-500°F twice for 2 hours. If I didn’t have liquid nitrogen I might stick to the 1850-1900°F range. Doing your own hardness vs austenitizing temperature measurements would show you where the hardness drop is. Using temperatures above the hardness drop means excess retained austenite which is bad.
It probably seems like I'm reading way too much into this, but I'm curious mostly about how the toughness figures might differ. From what I've been seeing reported (and in my own experience) the 15V on the Spyderco folders is sharpening up and deburring much easier than people expected, and I am wondering if this is down to the carbide size being very fine compared to the size of the abrasives used. That would be great since smaller carbides = higher toughness, and so it has me wondering if the steel on the Spyderco production run of 15V might actually be a bit tougher than the samples that Larrin tested.
Anyway, just curious, and I figured since all the people involved post here, it couldn't hurt to ask. :)
