Spyderco Forums

M42 looks interesting, with it's high cobalt and molybdenum, and it's ability to reach 68-70 rockwell. This steel is one I would love to see in a Golden sprint run. Crucible and Carpenter each have their own M42. Rex M42 from Crucible and Micro Melt M42 from Carpenter.

I'm still hoping we see a "casual bombshell", confirming a 15V sprint run or Afi model flash batch. This was discussed a couple months back. Sal mentioned they had some 15V on it's way and would be testing it out.

Oh and a Rex 45 Manix 2 G10 run please! Shaman/Native/Native Chief also, but first the Manix. :D

Hmm I've never heard of this one!?

Probably this BMF here -> https://www.crucible.com/eselector/prod ... exm42.html

That Joule rating on the Charpy test has me quaking in my boots though.

bagsnatcher wrote: ↑

Sun Aug 25, 2019 12:56 pm

That Joule rating on the Charpy test has me quaking in my boots though.

It would probably be a little more acceptable at 62-64 HRC. I wonder how much you give up in other areas running it that soft though.

Looks like a purpose built steel for high hot hardness. It isn’t terribly high in vanadium, tungsten or carbon. Not sure that it is a great choice for a blade besides the high hardness. CPM Rex20 looks cool. :cool:

I am way more interested in seeing some CPM-T15!

My vote is for CPM REX54... you can probably guess why :D

My high speed tool steel blades are by far my favorite. They include m2, m3, cpm-m4, m35, m42, t42, cpm-rex45, hap40, maxamet.
Spyderco's cpm-rex45 is the best folding knife blade ever produced, for my uses. I hope we see more.

If Spyderco were to add another hss to the line up, my vote would be like awa54, cpm-rex54.

jpm2 wrote: ↑

Sun Aug 25, 2019 6:15 pm

My high speed tool steel blades are by far my favorite. They include m2, m3, cpm-m4, m35, m42, t42, cpm-rex45, hap40, maxamet.
Spyderco's cpm-rex45 is the best folding knife blade ever produced, for my uses. I hope we see more.

If Spyderco were to add another hss to the line up, my vote would be like awa54, cpm-rex54.

I see you listed M42 as one of your favorites. How does it perform in a blade?

Albatross wrote: ↑

Sun Aug 25, 2019 6:46 pm

jpm2 wrote: ↑

Sun Aug 25, 2019 6:15 pm

My high speed tool steel blades are by far my favorite. They include m2, m3, cpm-m4, m35, m42, t42, cpm-rex45, hap40, maxamet.
Spyderco's cpm-rex45 is the best folding knife blade ever produced, for my uses. I hope we see more.
If Spyderco were to add another hss to the line up, my vote would be like awa54, cpm-rex54.

I see you listed M42 as one of your favorites. How does it perform in a blade?

It performs excellent. I made it to field dress and process deer at the time, but after using it a few times, I preferred a different knife I had previously made from t42. Not because of the steel, but style of knife. As it turns out though, I feel t42, m35, and a few others are slightly more stable than m42.
All these home made knives were experiments, ground from parting tools, except the m3, which was a power hack saw blade. They were already heat treated and very hard to grind. I think they are all ingot steels, since it was the 80's and 90's.

M42 was the original 69-70 Rc high speed steel. Developed by Vasco in the early 1960's.

jpm2 wrote: ↑

Sun Aug 25, 2019 8:36 pm

Albatross wrote: ↑

Sun Aug 25, 2019 6:46 pm

jpm2 wrote: ↑

Sun Aug 25, 2019 6:15 pm

My high speed tool steel blades are by far my favorite. They include m2, m3, cpm-m4, m35, m42, t42, cpm-rex45, hap40, maxamet.
Spyderco's cpm-rex45 is the best folding knife blade ever produced, for my uses. I hope we see more.
If Spyderco were to add another hss to the line up, my vote would be like awa54, cpm-rex54.

I see you listed M42 as one of your favorites. How does it perform in a blade?

It performs excellent. I made it to field dress and process deer at the time, but after using it a few times, I preferred a different knife I had previously made from t42. Not because of the steel, but style of knife. As it turns out though, I feel t42, m35, and a few others are slightly more stable than m42.
All these home made knives were experiments, ground from parting tools, except the m3, which was a power hack saw blade. They were already heat treated and very hard to grind. I think they are all ingot steels, since it was the 80's and 90's.

Very interesting. Thanks for sharing your experience with M42. The more rare and obscure steels seem to attract speculation, so it's great when we have members who can speak from experience.

Larrin wrote: ↑

Mon Aug 26, 2019 11:30 am

M42 was the original 69-70 Rc high speed steel. Developed by Vasco in the early 1960's.

I was curious about that, after jpm2 mentioned using it in the 80s and 90s. If knife companies had been using crazy steels like that back in the 60s and 70s, I wonder where we would be now.

Larrin wrote: ↑

Mon Aug 26, 2019 11:30 am

M42 was the original 69-70 Rc high speed steel. Developed by Vasco in the early 1960's.

Albatross wrote: ↑

Sun Aug 25, 2019 6:46 pm

I was curious about that, after jpm2 mentioned using it in the 80s and 90s. If knife companies had been using crazy steels like that back in the 60s and 70s, I wonder where we would be now.

After making a few fixed blades, I approached some custom makers to do me a folder... none of them would touch it. One of them estimated the cost of just abrasives alone (sanding belts?), and it was more than a months pay for me at the time. :eek:

Back in the 60's there wasn't anything commonly available to appropriately sharpen steels like these, high carbide 65+ rc.

I wonder who first used a high speed tool steel for their knives. I think benchmade started with m2 in mid 90's ?
I heard Gerber also used m2 for a while, not sure the time period.

I have no idea who would have used high speed steel in knives first. It's been around since 1900. Probably someone using scrap steel.

Edit: I found a reference to high speed steel hunting knives in 1946: https://books.google.com/books?id=ZHAcA ... d+steel%22

Best I can tell, the description says "(h)ollow-ground ** high speed steel, solid aluminum handles, rugged ** to heft, well balanced for hunting, fishing? and skinning. Each knife *** guaranteed that the blade will never come out of the handle."
Wish I could make out what it says between hollow-ground and high speed steel.

I faintly remember Gerber hss knives had aluminum handles.

It says hollow-ground blades of high speed steel.

jpm2 wrote: ↑

Mon Aug 26, 2019 1:12 pm

Larrin wrote: ↑

Mon Aug 26, 2019 11:30 am

M42 was the original 69-70 Rc high speed steel. Developed by Vasco in the early 1960's.

Albatross wrote: ↑

Sun Aug 25, 2019 6:46 pm

I was curious about that, after jpm2 mentioned using it in the 80s and 90s. If knife companies had been using crazy steels like that back in the 60s and 70s, I wonder where we would be now.

...Back in the 60's there wasn't anything commonly available to appropriately sharpen steels like these, high carbide 65+ rc...

I didn't think about that. Without proper sharpening stones, the average user would have had an interesting time trying to sharpen their high carbide, ridiculously hard blades.

Albatross wrote: ↑

Mon Aug 26, 2019 6:45 pm

jpm2 wrote: ↑

Mon Aug 26, 2019 1:12 pm

Albatross wrote: ↑

Sun Aug 25, 2019 6:46 pm

I was curious about that, after jpm2 mentioned using it in the 80s and 90s. If knife companies had been using crazy steels like that back in the 60s and 70s, I wonder where we would be now.

...Back in the 60's there wasn't anything commonly available to appropriately sharpen steels like these, high carbide 65+ rc...

I didn't think about that. Without proper sharpening stones, the average user would have had an interesting time trying to sharpen their high carbide, ridiculously hard blades.

Before diamond plates, the best available to us was silicon carbide.
I suppose if m42 had been used as a knife steel in the 70's, they could have run it at 59-62 hrc and would be somewhat easier to grind and get sharp, but even run softer I personally think you can't get the most out of your high carbide steels without harder abrasives than silicon carbide, even at coarser grits. A good example of this would be the original Spyderco run of hap40.