CPM MagnaCut | Edge Performance

[Soanso McMasters]

Excellent write-up!

[Deadboxhero]

Excellent write-up!

Thanks man, took a little longer than I anticipated, certainly left me more curious also, but my main focus is making knives so not sure how much I can invest in this long term.

I appreciate it.

[Soanso McMasters]

Excellent write-up!

Thanks man, took a little longer than I anticipated, certainly left me more curious also, but my main focus is making knives so not sure how much I can invest in this long term.

I appreciate it.

Regardless of how far you take it, I’m sure everyone will be grateful for the addition of knowledge on this subject. It’s a mountain of work I’m sure. Good stuff!

[Deadboxhero]

Excellent write-up!

Thanks man, took a little longer than I anticipated, certainly left me more curious also, but my main focus is making knives so not sure how much I can invest in this long term.

I appreciate it.

Regardless of how far you take it, I’m sure everyone will be grateful for the addition of knowledge on this subject. It’s a mountain of work I’m sure. Good stuff!

I appreciate it.

enjoy

[cholla_remover]

The effort that went into this is clear, as are your explanations. Makes sense to say "run it harder" given your own prior experience. Now I'm certainly interested in how much harder they'll treat the production Magnacut PM2's. I agree that this is great stuff, thanks for going to the trouble and sharing it here!

[Airlsee]

Good info, thanks again for putting in the work Shawn!

[Outpost76]

I enjoyed reading this and I truly understand just how much time this all took to do. Until someone does a form of testing like this its hard to grasp how many man hours it takes to gather the data. I appreciate the effort you put in to this ,thank you.

[Deadboxhero]

The effort that went into this is clear, as are your explanations. Makes sense to say "run it harder" given your own prior experience. Now I'm certainly interested in how much harder they'll treat the production Magnacut PM2's. I agree that this is great stuff, thanks for going to the trouble and sharing it here!

Thanks man I appreciate it, hope something like that happens in the future.

[Deadboxhero]

Good info, thanks again for putting in the work Shawn!

Thanks man I appreciate your time.

[Deadboxhero]

I enjoyed reading this and I truly understand just how much time this all took to do. Until someone does a form of testing like this its hard to grasp how many man hours it takes to gather the data. I appreciate the effort you put in to this ,thank you.

Gerald, I appreciate that especially coming for you mad respect for all your hard work you've done. Testing all those different knives I know it's not always very glamorous. Keep up the hard work. Glad to see you got a Rockwell tester.

[Ramonade]

Thanks for the involvement needed ! And the skills. And the numerous equipments.

I obviously cannot recreate the same conditions, but this has me wondering about fatigued steel. Especially in regard to sharpening.
I'll check out Larrin's articles, I know there is intel in an older one...
(Here it is https://knifesteelnerds.com/2018/05/28/ ... -of-edges/)

[Wandering_About]

Very interesting stuff. The relationship between hardness and carbide volume is pretty fascinating. Also quite interesting to see how hard your CPM CruWear PM2 was, I was not expecting 64Rc! Glad you threw 52100 into the mix, it gives a bit of nice perspective.

Looking at the "front end sharpness" is interesting. When it comes down to it I have no problem pushing a knife until it is well into the "working edge" stage, but that said most knife nuts (and usually myself included) probably rarely if ever let knives get that dull.

[Woodpuppy]

That was indeed interesting, thank you DBH. The CRUWEAR PM2 was already a must-buy item after tax season, but even more so now. I have the sneaking feeling my old CRUWEAR Millie is harder than my Z-Wear Shaman, but they are different beasts so it’s a tough thing for me to be sure about. I’m eager to see any testing in the new MagnaCut-equipped Native 5 Salt!

[Gtscotty]

Interesting info, thanks for posting. From Larrin's introductory material on MC, it was apparent that for it to shine in smaller knives it really needed to be in the higher hardness range, maybe 63 - 64, this seems to back that up. I suppose the production variance mentioned illustrates one reason why there can be so much noise in user perceptions. Someone who, by luck of the draw wound up with a 61 HRC MC PM2 is less likely to be impressed with edge retention compared to someone who received a 63.5 HRC copy, they would have higher toughness, but the difference there is probably harder to notice in everyday pocket knife use.

Hopefully upcoming Spyderco MC production variance can be controlled well enough that most folks can get a copy with hardness somewhere in that 63-64 sweet spot.

[JRinFL]

Thank you DBH for your time, effort and willingness to share.

[Cycletroll]

Thank you Shawn! I particularly appreciate your emphasized commentary on controlling variables such as precise adge angle, acquiring a crisp & deburred edge with undamaged steel. As consumers I feel we get hung up on the purchasing of scientific stats and qualities and lose sight of the profound impact our own contribution (sharpening) makes!
Your comment on 52100's tolerance of mediocre sharpening is profound in its implications.
I for one will be "honing" my sharpening skills even further this year.
Thank you for the inspiration!

[Eli Chaps]

Great stuff Shawn and thank you so much for taking the time to prep for, conduct, and report out on this testing!

I really like that bar graph. For years you've preached the Trinity Gospel (composition, HT, geometry) and that graph is direct testimony.

Ya just can't get this kind of excellent info at Bed, Bath and Beyond!

[Deadboxhero]

Haha thanks Erik, I appreciate it.

It's very interesting how all you have to do is switch up a few variables and you can maximize the performance of something.

Yeah the better business bureau doesn't have anything to do with that either

Great stuff Shawn and thank you so much for taking the time to prep for, conduct, and report out on this testing!

I really like that bar graph. For years you've preached the Trinity Gospel (composition, HT, geometry) and that graph is direct testimony.

Ya just can't get this kind of excellent info at Bed, Bath and Beyond!

[Deadboxhero]

Well, Thank you, I appreciate it.

Yes, edge fatigue is a very curious thing.

It's difficult to explore and discuss without control to rule things out.

Yes, that is an excellent article.

Thanks for the involvement needed ! And the skills. And the numerous equipments.

I obviously cannot recreate the same conditions, but this has me wondering about fatigued steel. Especially in regard to sharpening.
I'll check out Larrin's articles, I know there is intel in an older one...
(Here it is https://knifesteelnerds.com/2018/05/28/ ... -of-edges/)

[Deadboxhero]

Yeah it's interesting, I know that people would say that they would like a simple carbon steel that has lower carbide volume and softer carbides (which may be at lower hrc hardness) because it would hold the front end sharpness better.

However, from this testing it appears they dull at faster rate to the working edge. Meaning, what we are seeing is not the inherent qualities of the steel but its in the sharpening technique and abrasives used.
Testing shows that it just works better with their sharpening technique and abrasives more than it being an inherit quality of the steel.

This is nice because this is what I'm experiencing in real world which is difficult to discuss with people that are experiencing something different which appears to come down to the sharpening and abrasives used, not the steel.


I thought the testing was interesting because we could see the effect of higher hardness with less carbide, lower hardness with more carbide and highest hardness with a decent complement of carbide.


It was also interesting how there wasn't as much separation between the steels that had almost the same hardness. The carbide volume was different but the fraction of hardest carbides making up that volume was also different.

I guess with higher hardness, resistance to deformation is a pretty big deal, it certainly helped with cleaning up the edge and removing burrs with ease.

Very interesting stuff. The relationship between hardness and carbide volume is pretty fascinating. Also quite interesting to see how hard your CPM CruWear PM2 was, I was not expecting 64Rc! Glad you threw 52100 into the mix, it gives a bit of nice perspective.

Looking at the "front end sharpness" is interesting. When it comes down to it I have no problem pushing a knife until it is well into the "working edge" stage, but that said most knife nuts (and usually myself included) probably rarely if ever let knives get that dull.