Hey Sal, any chance of a Vanax SC mule??

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bluntcut
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Re: Hey Sal, any chance of a Vanax SC mule??

#121

Post by bluntcut »

Good to hear - edge damages are small and easy to fix. So vanax seems to perform quite well in 61-62rc range. I will try broaden this range include 63rc - one more time.

15V has corrosion resistance similar to M4, so it might turn into a tooth pick in concentrated salt water bath (in a year - hahaha). I'm sure s125v will be a bit more than orange if submerged in salt water as long as your vanax blade been...

I think, neither 15V nor S125v would able split that big boulder - as how you've been testing sharpening apex lately :p
Bloke wrote:
Mon Apr 09, 2018 4:16 pm
...
Luong the damage is surprisingly minimal and easy repaired but I’ll use the undamaged blade section to chop some bamboo and see how we fair.

The knife is still in a concentrated salt water bath with zero effect. :cool:

Edit: Send me a few more of those knives! :p
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Re: Hey Sal, any chance of a Vanax SC mule??

#122

Post by Bodog »

bluntcut wrote:
Mon Apr 09, 2018 5:18 pm
Thanks Bodog!

I haven't test 15V & S125V yet. Hopefully they are sheet metal with handles. At any rate, I expect this 68rc 15v be similar to your 70+rc 15v knife. Sure look forward to see how 400F vs low 300sF tempered stack against each other. Also how 66rc s125v vs 65rc s110v - both at 400F tempered.
Bodog wrote:
Mon Apr 09, 2018 1:13 pm
...
How are those 15V blades holding up?

I bet you spend more on belts than steel! Hahaha
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bluntcut
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Re: Hey Sal, any chance of a Vanax SC mule??

#123

Post by bluntcut »

Not too bad, since these blades got a smooth-scratchy-silk-lump 120 grit finished :p
Bodog wrote:
Mon Apr 09, 2018 5:56 pm
bluntcut wrote:
Mon Apr 09, 2018 5:18 pm
Thanks Bodog!

I haven't test 15V & S125V yet. Hopefully they are sheet metal with handles. At any rate, I expect this 68rc 15v be similar to your 70+rc 15v knife. Sure look forward to see how 400F vs low 300sF tempered stack against each other. Also how 66rc s125v vs 65rc s110v - both at 400F tempered.
Bodog wrote:
Mon Apr 09, 2018 1:13 pm
...
How are those 15V blades holding up?

I bet you spend more on belts than steel! Hahaha
bluntcut
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Re: Hey Sal, any chance of a Vanax SC mule??

#124

Post by bluntcut »

Yesterday my 63rc vanax ht attempt failed. Resulted with 61rc working hardness. Identified issues but sort of gave up vanax for about 12 hrs. Ordered another bar of vanax this morning => 2 more tries for 63rc.

Edit 20180411 PM:
Tested this vanax 14dps, 0.010" BET - passed whittle ebony & African Blackwood. Umm shouldn't be - only 63+rc edge pass AB whittling. Test 2 prev 61rc vanax blades against AB - both have big rolled. This vanax easily abrade prev 61rc vanax. Anyway, after a few scraping tests against 63-65rc blades, this vanax edge area is harder than 63rc. Yay! and LOL spine area is clearly around 61rc. Yup, this vanax blade hardened differentially by accident. I certainly will use this feature later.

Tested whittle dried cooked beef rib bone - micro rolls.

So my vanax chem mod worked. Once new bar arrives, I will repeat ht except avoid differential (consequence of time saving step).

https://i.imgur.com/FFFRNQi.png
Image
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Re: Hey Sal, any chance of a Vanax SC mule??

#125

Post by Bodog »

sal wrote:
Thu Feb 15, 2018 4:23 pm
We made a mule for testing which I am doing now in the kitchen and outside. We also made some CATRA mules which we'll also be testing this afternoon.

sal
Sal, any updates on getting this steel down to a decent price? Are you able to compare the steel to any others? What are your overall thoughts?
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koenigsegg
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Re: Hey Sal, any chance of a Vanax SC mule??

#126

Post by koenigsegg »

This would be a really fun one to test
S30V, VG10, M4, XHP, BD1, Cruwear, Elmax, Maxamet, 204P, H1, K390, A11, Rex45, LC200N, M390, 20CV, BD1N, S45VN waiting to afford MagnaCut
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Re: Hey Sal, any chance of a Vanax SC mule??

#127

Post by Sjucaveman »

I'd love something new as far as mules go.
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Re: Hey Sal, any chance of a Vanax SC mule??

#128

Post by NuNinja »

I would definitely be interested in 2 Vanax Mules to see how they compare to the LC200N Mule.
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Re: Hey Sal, any chance of a Vanax SC mule??

#129

Post by Sumdumguy »

Sal,

How's the Vanax Mule coming? I'm interested in trying that steel. I was going to buy the mt25, but I'll wait for the Native 5 salt and instead am looking at picking up a Sprig.

I'm really excited about Vanax from what I've read.
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Bloke
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Re: Hey Sal, any chance of a Vanax SC mule??

#130

Post by Bloke »

Got a bit of an urge to play with Luong’s knife again today and whittle through some Eucalyptus dead fall. I’m fairly hopeless and didn’t check how sharp the knife was before I started but I haven’t sharpened it since I slightly damaged the edge chopping electrical cable as per earlier post.

Anyhow, this is what I did with the knife earlier today.

Image

Image

Push cutting cross grain on that particularly stick sounded a lot like the ping you hear before you find a chip in the blade and I stopped to inspect the blade on several occasions. No Chips (!) and surprisingly enough it still cut newsprint cleanly.

Image

Image

I’m not sure what I’d compare Vanax SC (with Luong’s heat treat) to, but it seems to perform more like a tool steel than other stainless blades I’ve played with and my initial thought when I sharpened it the first time. I avoid burrs as best I can but I found what little burr I did raise cut off fairly clean like ZDP-189 might, for example.

None of this stuff is scientific but Eucalyptus is pretty hard so when you consider you get a blade steel that I certainly can’t rust, a stable edge that sharpens to silly sharp effortlessly and holds that high sharpness the way Vanax SC does and you’d have to think you’re on a winner.

Thanks Heaps, Luong! ;)

This is definitely a steel I’d like to see more of and I’d be interested hearing more and maybe comparing notes with Gringo and Chad’s knife and Shawn with his. :)
Last edited by Bloke on Sat Dec 22, 2018 5:06 am, edited 1 time in total.
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bluntcut
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Re: Hey Sal, any chance of a Vanax SC mule??

#131

Post by bluntcut »

Nifty strong arm and wrist you've, Bloke. Thanks for good whittle test against dried eucalyptus, this wood has fine grain; dense; hard and tough. And appreciate a good refresh review!

BCMW work shop is operational again. I will experiment with ht 3.0 (your knife has ht 2.5) on D2 first, if it went well then vanax get a few tries.

A little crammed work shop
https://i.imgur.com/zdNLSWV.jpg
bluntcut
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Re: Hey Sal, any chance of a Vanax SC mule??

#132

Post by bluntcut »

Vanax HT [Hardness profile without nitrogen partial pressure] chart could be a good candidate for corrosion/water/salt-water chopper.
https://www.alphaknifesupply.com/Pictur ... nax-DS.pdf

Aim/hope to produce a 61+rc chopper with 9" blade, 1.8" wide, 0.174" thick. For proper hrc test, I need to ground at least 0.7mm below surface.
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Deadboxhero
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Re: Hey Sal, any chance of a Vanax SC mule??

#133

Post by Deadboxhero »

Thanks for the pics and review Alex.
Wow Luong, that handle is gourgous!
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Re: Hey Sal, any chance of a Vanax SC mule??

#134

Post by Surfingringo »

I was planning to update this thread soon anyway. About a month ago I reprofiled one my fillet designs that Chad Kelly made. I lowered the edge to 10 dps with a 15 dps microbevel. The edge performance thus far has been nothing short of astounding. I have cleaned probably 25 fish with the knife, many of them Snapper with heavy scales and bones. I have also used the knife in the kitchen during that entire period. The edge is almost completely undamaged and still has plenty of bite and will still scrape shave arm hair. and slice magazine paper. I feel like this is the best edge performance I have gotten out of a fillet knife in any steel. Add to that the fact that the steel is extremely tough and completely rust proof and this is about as good as stainless steel gets in my book.
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Xplorer
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Re: Hey Sal, any chance of a Vanax SC mule??

#135

Post by Xplorer »

Preach my brotha'.. :D

All of my testing has been leading me to the same conclusion. I'm finding Vanax's properties ideal for EDC use as well. Stays sharp longer than S30V, very tough, never rusts and easy to sharpen. What's not to love?...uhmm. ...well..the price..the price is not that lovely..but the steel is amazing! :D

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bluntcut
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Re: Hey Sal, any chance of a Vanax SC mule??

#136

Post by bluntcut »

Thanks Shawn. Desert Ironwood often good looking and has excellent stability in service... It seems you mostly use synthetic material for handle, however if you like, next time, when I ship to you something, remind me to include a block of DI.
Deadboxhero wrote:
Sat Dec 22, 2018 2:55 pm
Thanks for the pics and review Alex.
Wow Luong, that handle is gourgous!
I also agreed with Lance & Chad on vanax has overall outstanding wear resistance+corrosion to other steels at similar hardness and carbide volume%. Stating such because a 64+rc s30v has better edge retention than 61rc vanax.

Vanax high price and [ht hardness profile w/o partial nitrogen pressure] keep this steel in niche knife market.
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steelcity16
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Re: Hey Sal, any chance of a Vanax SC mule??

#137

Post by steelcity16 »

I wonder if a dealer could request a Native Salt sprint in Vanax (nuclear green scales?)? Would be a great knife and a more practical "mule" for Vanax for most people than a fixed blade.
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sal
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Re: Hey Sal, any chance of a Vanax SC mule??

#138

Post by sal »

We could build anything that we want. The high price of Vanax, difficulty in our getting it (for some reason?) and the new tariffs makes for an expensive piece. With a minimum steel order and minimum processing requires a larger number of knives be made. The high price of the finished product would reduce sales which means we or the exclusive distributor "might" have to sit on slow moving inventory for a long time which is a questionable investment? We'll watch demand on threads like this one.

sal
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Re: Hey Sal, any chance of a Vanax SC mule??

#139

Post by Bodog »

sal wrote:
Sun Dec 23, 2018 2:39 pm
We could build anything that we want. The high price of Vanax, difficulty in our getting it (for some reason?) and the new tariffs makes for an expensive piece. With a minimum steel order and minimum processing requires a larger number of knives be made. The high price of the finished product would reduce sales which means we or the exclusive distributor "might" have to sit on slow moving inventory for a long time which is a questionable investment? We'll watch demand on threads like this one.

sal

Sal,

Are you able to give an estimated price of a Salt line native with vanax? If you told us the knife would cost about $300 or whatever most of us would shut up because that cost WOULD be too high.
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sal
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Re: Hey Sal, any chance of a Vanax SC mule??

#140

Post by sal »

Hi Bodog,

Pretty hard to guess because we've no real experience working with Vanax and we've not purchased large quantity. We had to buy a test piece locally as response from BU was inconsistent. I have a Mule that I've been testing for a while.

sal
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