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Last night I marked up an 89mm x 19mm clear pine plank and chopped it by holding the plank in my left hand and chopping down with the knife in my right hand at 45deg to the grain. The knife bites easily with just it’s own weight in a chopping swing and I thought random chopping with light to mild force in this manner may exert some lateral pressure on the blade ... If it did there was no damage, plastic deformation or chipping in any way.



I had a little more quality time with my new Province this morning. I set up as below and chopped into the pine plank as you can see. The knife’s weight and balance point, which is through the first scale screw hole (closest to ricasso) made chopping through the pine plank quite effortless with moderate force from a sitting position. The handle which I prematurely thought “Blocky” does not feel that way in use, certainly not chopping. In fact the handle feels very secure, comfortable and I felt in control of the knife at all times.






The knife had no problem cleaving dry hardwood sticks in one hit, way quicker than I could have snapped them.



I stood this bit of hardwood on the block and went about chopping it. You may see from the shot below how cleanly the knife chopped the hardwood. Fairly impressive!



I’ve got some rope to play with and I’ll dig up some electrical cord to chop as well and report back with that.

The knife is an absolute beast. I was expecting a great knife in view of the people involved but the knife is better than expected.



I should add the knife has suffered no edge damage that I can see or feel and it still easily and free cuts newsprint in any direction. Pretty cool for a factory edge I reckon. :)

Great report. I really like the mixture of trad and modern lines of this knife, and glad to hear it works so well.

I knew it would be good. A clip point Bowie has been proven for 200 years. This knife is a good looking rendition.

Bloke wrote: ↑

Sun Sep 29, 2019 12:34 am

Last night I marked up an 89mm x 19mm clear pine plank and chopped it by holding the plank in my left hand and chopping down with the knife in my right hand at 45deg to the grain. The knife bites easily with just it’s own weight in a chopping swing and I thought random chopping with light to mild force in this manner may exert some lateral pressure on the blade ... If it did there was no damage, plastic deformation or chipping in any way.



I had a little more quality time with my new Province this morning. I set up as below and chopped into the pine plank as you can see. The knife’s weight and balance point, which is through the first scale screw hole (closest to ricasso) made chopping through the pine plank quite effortless with moderate force from a sitting position. The handle which I prematurely thought “Blocky” does not feel that way in use, certainly not chopping. In fact the handle feels very secure, comfortable and I felt in control of the knife at all times.






The knife had no problem cleaving dry hardwood sticks in one hit, way quicker than I could have snapped them.



I stood this bit of hardwood on the block and went about chopping it. You may see from the shot below how cleanly the knife chopped the hardwood. Fairly impressive!



I’ve got some rope to play with and I’ll dig up some electrical cord to chop as well and report back with that.

The knife is an absolute beast. I was expecting a great knife in view of the people involved but the knife is better than expected.



I should add the knife has suffered no edge damage that I can see or feel and it still easily and free cuts newsprint in any direction. Pretty cool for a factory edge I reckon. :)

Very nice, looks like you are starting to have fun. :spyder:

No need to worry about "hurting" it.... You won't be able to, that knife can take anything even remotely reasonable and come through it just fine.

Don't let the thinner blade stock fool you, we made the blade taller so we could run thinner stock. If the blade wasn't as tall it would have been around 3/16" to 1/4" thick to get the same strength.

Enjoy it with complete confidence in the design.

Doc Dan wrote: ↑

Sun Sep 29, 2019 4:00 am

I knew it would be good. A clip point Bowie has been proven for 200 years. This knife is a good looking rendition.

We wanted to go with the more traditional original type Bowie blade design as it was actually stronger and better IMO than some of the later designs.

More adapted to field use.

It will surprise a lot of people how good this knife really is.

Is the Province shipping with an edge that acute, or did you reprofile when you first got it?

Thanks for the impressions. That is a very desirable knife IMO.

dj moonbat wrote: ↑

Sun Sep 29, 2019 8:07 am

Is the Province shipping with an edge that acute, or did you reprofile when you first got it?

That's the factory edge....

Thanks for posting Bloke. I still can’t quite get my head around the handle design. I had the same initial impression of the handle as you when I held one, so I appreciate you sharing some observations from actual use.

I try to keep an open mind on these things. I’ve found in the past, when I thought I knew what I really liked, there can be designs I wouldn’t have chosen that really work better than you thought they would.

I have no experience with 4v. O.ther tool steels, yes, but not this one.

Thanks, Bloke. I knew it from just looking at the photos, the Province the knife designed and made for serious work. Style be damned. Keep the reports coming.

Well, well ... "If it ain't Bloke ... then don't fix it"!!!

Thanks for the review ... I saw one in a display case and passed it over based on looks alone (most always a bad decision).

Now I'll have to make a trip back and check it out...

CG

Ankerson wrote: ↑

Sun Sep 29, 2019 8:43 am

dj moonbat wrote: ↑

Sun Sep 29, 2019 8:07 am

Is the Province shipping with an edge that acute, or did you reprofile when you first got it?

That's the factory edge....

Nice. I'm happy to see that 4V's edge stability is going to good use.

Great post! I can’t wait till the weather gets a bit cooler here in Texas to start camping again and really put my Province to work!

Wonderful test and photos! I have this knife but have not chopped any wood with it. I have to do more research on 4V but thought that I would start in this forum.

Anyone have any links to great info on 4V?

Has anyone any idea of the HRC for this knife?

Can anyone compare and contrast 4V to S35VN and 3V for me?

I just responded to Sal's question about steels with Maxamet, M390 fam, and S35VN but I might be persuaded to include 4V in that list instead of S35VN if I knew more.


Bodog said the following. Is it accurate?

4V/Vanadis 4E (62 RC)
Corrosion Resistance - 4
Ease of sharpening - 6
Edge Retention - 8
Toughness - 8

Naperville wrote: ↑

Sun Sep 29, 2019 3:23 pm

Wonderful test and photos! I have this knife but have not chopped any wood with it. I have to do more research on 4V but thought that I would start in this forum.

Anyone have any links to great info on 4V?

Has anyone any idea of the HRC for this knife?

For CPM 4V edge performance information:
viewtopic.php?t=81487

Hardness data for Spyderco's other CPM 4V knives:
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=83847

CRUCIBLE INDUSTRIES SAYS:
http://www.crucible.com/PDFs/DataSheets ... t%204V.pdf

CPM 4V is a powder metal tool steel with an outstanding combination of properties including high impact toughness and very good wear resistance. CPM 4V should be considered for service in fine blanking, powder compaction tools, for processing high-strength low-alloy (HSLA) steels, advanced high-strength steels (AHSS) and applications where a combination of strength, wear resistance and toughness is required.

Applications: CPM 4V should be considered for applications where a higher attainable hardness and additional abrasion resistance is required than can be offered by CPM 3V.

4V is tougher than: CPM Rex M4, CPM 10V, A2, D2
4V is NOT as tough as: CPM 1V, CPM 3V

4V has MORE wear resistance than: 1V, 3V, A2, D2
4V has LESS wear resistance than: M4, 10V, but it is very close to M4 in wear resistance.

Typical HRC numbers are between 58HRC and 64HRC



ZKNIVES SAYS:

CPM 4V(Crucible) - Crucible CPM alloy. Very similar to Bohler-Uddeholm Vanadis 4E steel. As Crucible states it has high impact toughness and wear resistance and should be considered for the applications whre higher attainable hardness and wear resistance are desired compared to Crucible CPM 3V steel. Both features would work well for light/medium use knives. Haven't used CPM 4V, however its analog form Bohler-Uddeholm, Vanadis 4E is definitely one of the best knife steels I have ever used. CHeck Vanadis 4E for more info.


BLADE HQ SAYS:

4V
Edge Retention: 8
Toughness: 9
Ease of Sharpening: 5
Corrosion Resistance: 5

3V
Edge Retention: 7
Toughness: 10
Ease of Sharpening: 5
Corrosion Resistance: 5

M4
Edge Retention: 9
Toughness: 7
Ease of Sharpening: 3
Corrosion Resistance: 2

S35VN
Edge Retention: 8
Toughness: 6
Ease of Sharpening: 5
Corrosion Resistance: 7

A2
Edge Retention: 6
Toughness: 8
Ease of Sharpening: 4
Corrosion Resistance: 5

D2
Edge Retention: 7
Toughness: 6
Ease of Sharpening: 3
Corrosion Resistance: 4

Naperville wrote: ↑

Sun Sep 29, 2019 3:23 pm

Wonderful test and photos! I have this knife but have not chopped any wood with it. I have to do more research on 4V but thought that I would start in this forum.

Anyone have any links to great info on 4V?

Has anyone any idea of the HRC for this knife?

Can anyone compare and contrast 4V to S35VN and 3V for me?

I just responded to Sal's question about steels with Maxamet, M390 fam, and S35VN but I might be persuaded to include 4V in that list instead of S35VN if I knew more.


Bodog said the following. Is it accurate?

4V/Vanadis 4E (62 RC)
Corrosion Resistance - 4
Ease of sharpening - 6
Edge Retention - 8
Toughness - 8

Check out post #1320 here. Nathan Carothers works extensively with 3V and 4V as well as PSF27:

https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/th ... t-17638219

Ankerson wrote: ↑

Sun Sep 29, 2019 6:58 am

Very nice, looks like you are starting to have fun. :spyder:

No need to worry about "hurting" it.... You won't be able to, that knife can take anything even remotely reasonable and come through it just fine.

Don't let the thinner blade stock fool you, we made the blade taller so we could run thinner stock. If the blade wasn't as tall it would have been around 3/16" to 1/4" thick to get the same strength.

Enjoy it with complete confidence in the design.

Hey Jim, a big congrats to you and all involved in the design and production of the Province. :cool:

This is the most fun I’ve had with a knife in many years, though I freely admit that the thin grind left me a little apprehensive about chopping into dry hardwood at first and that’s why I started with the clear pine. However, cleaving the little hardwood sticks and the larger branch leaves me confident that the blade will handle anything I’m likely to throw at it and 4V is proving to be an impressive blade steel.

I’ll do some more with it, at least by next weekend and keep you all posted.

Thanks everyone! :)

And to anyone sitting on the fence over this one, I’d say take the plunge. This thing is one **** of an awesome package you couldn’t possibly regret buying.

Thank you for the very practical review. I use a longer blade for chopping tasks and a shorter blade for household chores, but the Province is very tempting.