I Tested the Edge Retention of 48 Steels

[Cycletroll]

Larrin & Shawn,
Do you have any hard data on s90v toughness at the 59-61 HRC that Spyderco traditionally treats to? Further, I am curious how s90v and s110v compare in toughness at similar HRC? From what I gather from your data thus far s90v should be slightly tougher?
How does s90v @60HRC compare to m390/204p/20cv? Basically, what is the toughest stainless high carbide steel?
Again, thanks so much for your hard work and the data it generates.

Hopefully we will be able to answer those questions in the future. My guess is toughness specimens for S90V would come out closer to S110V though because I would probably compare with the same heat treatment.

Thanks, I'll keep an eye out.

[Larrin]

I should clarify I meant the hardness would be similar. I think S90V has a decent chance of being tougher.

[sal]

Hi Larrin,

I appreciate your attention to detail.

sal

[ikaretababy]

Wow this represents a lot of work and I can't think of two people in the community better suited to undertaking such a task.

Also, wow your predicted catra results being so close is **** impressive... :cool:

[GarageBoy]

Has anyone ever done a force vs numbers of cuts with different steels? Would be interesting to see how different steels dull - probably very time consuming

[Deadboxhero]

I got the steel from Sal today.

That brings the list to
Spy27
Rex76
CPM T15
420 Stainless
Bohler M398
Rex 45
Maxamet

These are the next Catra blades to be made for Dr Larrin at Knifesteelnerds.


-Shawn

[attila]

I got the steel from Sal today.

That brings the list to
Spy27
Rex76
CPM T15
420 Stainless
Bohler M398
Rex 45
Maxamet

These are the next Catra blades to made for Dr Larrin at Knifesteelnerds.


-Shawn

AWESOME!!!! Thanks Shawn!

[The Meat man]

I got the steel from Sal today.

That brings the list to
Spy27
Rex76
CPM T15
420 Stainless
Bohler M398
Rex 45
Maxamet

These are the next Catra blades to be made for Dr Larrin at Knifesteelnerds.


-Shawn

Cannot wait!! I think you two need some kind of award for all this. :cool:

[JuPaul]

^^^Excellent! I'm especially interested to see the results for rex45 and spy27, and it's very cool to see some new (to me) steels being tested as well.

[fixall]

I got the steel from Sal today.

That brings the list to
Spy27
Rex76
CPM T15
420 Stainless
Bohler M398
Rex 45
Maxamet

These are the next Catra blades to be made for Dr Larrin at Knifesteelnerds.


-Shawn

Do you know if there are plans to charpy impact test all of the samples used in the edge retention test so that the edge retention and toughness data all correlates with the exact samples used?

[JohnDoe99]

Recently I was able to acquire a used CATRA machine, so I heat treated just about every knife steel I had, made 57 knives with the help of knifemaker Shawn Houston, and tested them all to see which cut the longest. For a few of the steels I did multiple heat treatments to look at a couple variables and to see the effect of hardness. I also compared edge retention and toughness to see which steels have the best balance of properties. https://knifesteelnerds.com/2020/05/01/ ... fe-steels/

Larrin,

I am reading one of your data charts, the third one down. Is it indicating that ZDP-189 directly competes with k390 and rivals s110 and s90v? Your TCC equation basically gauges "edge retention?"

Thanks in advance.

[fixall]

Recently I was able to acquire a used CATRA machine, so I heat treated just about every knife steel I had, made 57 knives with the help of knifemaker Shawn Houston, and tested them all to see which cut the longest. For a few of the steels I did multiple heat treatments to look at a couple variables and to see the effect of hardness. I also compared edge retention and toughness to see which steels have the best balance of properties. https://knifesteelnerds.com/2020/05/01/ ... fe-steels/

Larrin,

I am reading one of your data charts, the third one down. Is it indicating that ZDP-189 directly competes with k390 and rivals s110 and s90v? Your TCC equation basically gauges "edge retention?"

Thanks in advance.

Not Larrin obviously, but as far as edge retention goes... The chart shows that K390 at ~63rc slightly edges out ZDP-189 at ~65RC (within the margin of error though I imagine). S110V at ~62RC looks to be about 3% better than ZDP-189 at ~65RC, and S90V at ~61.6RC is about 8% better than ZDP-189 at ~65RC.

[Albatross]

It's important to keep in mind, this doesn't represent the hardness levels seen in Spyderco knives. Spyderco's ZDP-189, for instance, is usually 63-64. Spyderco's S90V is usually 59-61. If anyone is making a purchase, based on the data in BBB and Larrin's test results, there might be some disappointment, without proper context.

The numbers i mentioned for ZDP-189 and S90V, have come from the HRC Database thread and from the rockwell testing done by jcoolG19 2 on YouTube.

[Larrin]

There are trendlines on the chart for seeing the approximate effect of hardness. Such as Vanadis 8 and K390 having similar edge retention if hardness were the same.

[JohnDoe99]

Recently I was able to acquire a used CATRA machine, so I heat treated just about every knife steel I had, made 57 knives with the help of knifemaker Shawn Houston, and tested them all to see which cut the longest. For a few of the steels I did multiple heat treatments to look at a couple variables and to see the effect of hardness. I also compared edge retention and toughness to see which steels have the best balance of properties. https://knifesteelnerds.com/2020/05/01/ ... fe-steels/

Larrin,

I am reading one of your data charts, the third one down. Is it indicating that ZDP-189 directly competes with k390 and rivals s110 and s90v? Your TCC equation basically gauges "edge retention?"

Thanks in advance.

Not Larrin obviously, but as far as edge retention goes... The chart shows that K390 at ~63rc slightly edges out ZDP-189 at ~65RC (within the margin of error though I imagine). S110V at ~62RC looks to be about 3% better than ZDP-189 at ~65RC, and S90V at ~61.6RC is about 8% better than ZDP-189 at ~65RC.

Thanks.

[JohnDoe99]

There are trendlines on the chart for seeing the approximate effect of hardness. Such as Vanadis 8 and K390 having similar edge retention if hardness were the same.

I see. Thanks for the work you do.

[Deadboxhero]

*Update



Was able to get some surface grinding done yesterday.

Ready for HT.

These are the next steels that will be tested.

Thanks to Spyderco for sending the Maxamet, Rex45 and the Spy27.

Spyderco was very nice and surfaced the decarb off on the Maxamet and Rex45
HUGE time and work saver they made it flat with a good finish which saves a lot of work and helps with getting accurate hardness test readings.

I'll keep folks updated on the progress.




-Shawn

[blues]

Good stuff, Shawn. Many thanks, (again), to you and Larrin for edumucating us reprobates.

[Deadboxhero]

Good stuff, Shawn. Many thanks, (again), to you and Larrin for edumucating us reprobates.

Thanks Elliott, I'm happy folks like yourself appreciate the time and work that goes into something like this.


-Shawn

[Naperville]

Good stuff, Shawn. Many thanks, (again), to you and Larrin for edumucating us reprobates.

Thanks Elliott, I'm happy folks like yourself appreciate the time and work that goes into something like this.

-Shawn

This is fantastic! Looking fwd to the additional data.