CPM REX

[dubya3]

I'm sure this has been brought up before, possibly beaten to death. What's the scoop with REX 121, is it just too expensive, hard to manufacture and or hard to acquire to use in production folders? I read somewhere it's used in one custom, I believe it was from Farid. It sounds like a beefed up 110v from the little I read, maybe a bit too brittle, not tough enough?

[can't freehand]

According to legend, its the steel to end all steels.

Not sure why exactly no one in production uses it. Maybe it really is much harder to grind than even s110v. I think its mostly due to the laws of 'Business'. Marketing plays a huge role. Zero Tolerance would only use it for Operator appeal and then charge $800. Kershaw considers S30V and Elmax to be rarities. Benchmade rarely ventures beyond 154cm. Lion Steel is D2. Even Gerber leverages S30V for 100 dollars. Pretty much every company besides Spyderco will only market a high carbide steel if it has a well worn mystique surrounding it. Its a peculiarly conservative industry. Then there's manufacturing.

[Evil D]

I've used the term "swatting flies with a sledgehammer" here before. This steel is more like swatting flies with a nuclear bomb.

[sal]

it's very expensive to purchase and process. We have a run being produced for us for a Mule Team.

sal

[dubya3]

it's very expensive to purchase and process. We have a run being produced for us for a Mule Team.

sal

Sal, you and the rest of spyderco are the best at bringing us these exotic steels to play with and the MULE is the perfect platform. I can't wait to get that MULE!

[Evil D]

it's very expensive to purchase and process. We have a run being produced for us for a Mule Team.

sal

You just sold me my first mule.

[Cujobob]

According to legend, its the steel to end all steels.

Not sure why exactly no one in production uses it. Maybe it really is much harder to grind than even s110v. I think its mostly due to the laws of 'Business'. Marketing plays a huge role. Zero Tolerance would only use it for Operator appeal and then charge $800. Kershaw considers S30V and Elmax to be rarities. Benchmade rarely ventures beyond 154cm. Lion Steel is D2. Even Gerber leverages S30V for 100 dollars. Pretty much every company besides Spyderco will only market a high carbide steel if it has a well worn mystique surrounding it. Its a peculiarly conservative industry. Then there's manufacturing.

S125V or S110V should have more than enough edge retention for most folks so I don't see a major need in the market for something beyond that (as there reaches a point where sharpening time and effort becomes less than ideal). S110v is just now becoming a bit more common and that's still not many companies involved using it.

[dubya3]

There doesn't really have to be a need for a new steel to be tried, it's the want factor. I could go the rest of my life and be plenty happy with VG10 but I want to play with other steels!

[Ruarch]

it's very expensive to purchase and process. We have a run being produced for us for a Mule Team.

sal

I haven't bought a mule yet, but this would be one I would buy.

[Ankerson]

According to legend, its the steel to end all steels.

Not sure why exactly no one in production uses it. Maybe it really is much harder to grind than even s110v. I think its mostly due to the laws of 'Business'. Marketing plays a huge role. Zero Tolerance would only use it for Operator appeal and then charge $800. Kershaw considers S30V and Elmax to be rarities. Benchmade rarely ventures beyond 154cm. Lion Steel is D2. Even Gerber leverages S30V for 100 dollars. Pretty much every company besides Spyderco will only market a high carbide steel if it has a well worn mystique surrounding it. Its a peculiarly conservative industry. Then there's manufacturing.

S125V or S110V should have more than enough edge retention for most folks so I don't see a major need in the market for something beyond that (as there reaches a point where sharpening time and effort becomes less than ideal). S110v is just now becoming a bit more common and that's still not many companies involved using it.

S125V is very rare other than one production company doing limited runs and those knives aren't exactly slicers, the HRC level is keep low in the 61 range. It's a good steel though from what I have seen out of it, but with the special handling that is required and the extreme wear resistance overall makes it very difficult to work with. Not to mention it's very expensive also. The Russian guys seem to really like it and from the info I have they buy the heck out of it. I can see why as there is no other stainless like it and it is really in a class by itself when handled correctly.

S110V is being used by Spyderco currently and it's an excellent steel and it seems that Spyderco has it down pretty well with what they are doing with it. Looks like we will see a lot more of it from them in the future, I believe it and S90V are at the top of the pile when it comes to production knives.

I think REX 121 will be a good Mule Team steel for those who want to try it, should be interesting for those who do actually buy them and test them.

[Bodog]

According to legend, its the steel to end all steels.

Not sure why exactly no one in production uses it. Maybe it really is much harder to grind than even s110v. I think its mostly due to the laws of 'Business'. Marketing plays a huge role. Zero Tolerance would only use it for Operator appeal and then charge $800. Kershaw considers S30V and Elmax to be rarities. Benchmade rarely ventures beyond 154cm. Lion Steel is D2. Even Gerber leverages S30V for 100 dollars. Pretty much every company besides Spyderco will only market a high carbide steel if it has a well worn mystique surrounding it. Its a peculiarly conservative industry. Then there's manufacturing.

S125V or S110V should have more than enough edge retention for most folks so I don't see a major need in the market for something beyond that (as there reaches a point where sharpening time and effort becomes less than ideal). S110v is just now becoming a bit more common and that's still not many companies involved using it.

S110V seems to be more than tough enough for most people's needs so why not increase the wear resistance at the cost of toughness some more? As long as the blade doesn't explode when cutting boxes and rope it'll be alright for around 75% of the people out there. I recently saw a rex 121 blade, just a blade, at 67 hrc selling for about 120 bucks. I really thought about buying it.

[Cujobob]

Toughness is a necessary attribute in any knife. At what point would you go with a ceramic blade?

[swigert]

it's very expensive to purchase and process. We have a run being produced for us for a Mule Team.

sal

You just sold me my first mule.

Same here

[dubya3]

According to legend, its the steel to end all steels.

Not sure why exactly no one in production uses it. Maybe it really is much harder to grind than even s110v. I think its mostly due to the laws of 'Business'. Marketing plays a huge role. Zero Tolerance would only use it for Operator appeal and then charge $800. Kershaw considers S30V and Elmax to be rarities. Benchmade rarely ventures beyond 154cm. Lion Steel is D2. Even Gerber leverages S30V for 100 dollars. Pretty much every company besides Spyderco will only market a high carbide steel if it has a well worn mystique surrounding it. Its a peculiarly conservative industry. Then there's manufacturing.

S125V or S110V should have more than enough edge retention for most folks so I don't see a major need in the market for something beyond that (as there reaches a point where sharpening time and effort becomes less than ideal). S110v is just now becoming a bit more common and that's still not many companies involved using it.

S110V seems to be more than tough enough for most people's needs so why not increase the wear resistance at the cost of toughness some more? As long as the blade doesn't explode when cutting boxes and rope it'll be alright for around 75% of the people out there. I recently saw a rex 121 blade, just a blade, at 67 hrc selling for about 120 bucks. I really thought about buying it.

I agree with you and Cujo. We don't need REX 121, don't need S110V and most of us probably don't even need anything better than S35VN but it's fun and interesting to see how different steels act.

It's like having chrome wheels on a truck, the basic steel wheels work just fine but you get the chrome because it's cooler and basically just because you can. That's my take on it anyway.

I think the MULE platform is one of the coolest things I've ever seen from a knife company. I love the idea of being able to try these super premium steels at a fair price and not to mention you get to customize the knife however you want. I have two MULE's already and will definitely grab a REX when they're available. Thanks again Sal, you guys are truly a unique company that takes care of its customers.

[Philo Beddoe]

it's very expensive to purchase and process. We have a run being produced for us for a Mule Team.

sal

REX 121? Wow.

[Philo Beddoe]

"I agree with you and Cujo. We don't need REX 121, don't need S110V and most of us probably don't even need anything better than S35VN but it's fun and interesting to see how different steels act."

That makes no sense..how can you or anyone else for that matter decide what someone else "needs"?

[VashHash]

I'm in for 2.

[ohcyclist]

sign me up.

[dubya3]

"I agree with you and Cujo. We don't need REX 121, don't need S110V and most of us probably don't even need anything better than S35VN but it's fun and interesting to see how different steels act."

That makes no sense..how can you or anyone else for that matter decide what someone else "needs"?

Well, I am truly sorry I confused you.

The average user (and probably most people in the world) could get by just fine without S110V, S125V or REX 121. I'm not sure what the rest of the users NEED that kind of steel for but I tend to think people get the super duper premium stuff because they simply want to have it, myself included.

[Cliff Stamp]

It sounds like a beefed up 110v from the little I read, maybe a bit too brittle, not tough enough?

It isn't stainless, and in reference to the comment about ceramic, it doesn't have the properties of ceramic either in regards to sharpening. It is harder to grind than 10V, significantly more wear resistanct, significantly lower in apex stability and toughness.

There are some odd comments made about it noting it is impossible to grind/sharpen on regular stones, that isn't the case, I actually zero ground the 121REX with a basic Japanese alumina stone.

It has some interesting properties because it is both exceptionally hard (~70 HRC) and has a very high MC carbide volume, if you are cutting which is mainly dependent on wear resistance and you cut until low sharpness then it does very well.

I have a bunch of video's on the one I have and a few posts/articles.