BD1N toughness

[Matus]

amen to that

[Ramonade]

Yet another reason to add as why I heavily use "for me" and "I like" when i discuss steels

[chronovore]

There has never been a consensus among the “industry performance” of steel in knives. Look at five different knife steel rating charts and you will get five different answers. It always surprises me when someone argues against a test result of mine and says that “everyone knows” such and such steel cuts longer, is tougher, etc than another. People have their bubbles where people agree on certain things but there are other bubbles where they think something else. I’ve been around for much longer than Knife Steel Nerds and historically ideas about steel performance were impossible to piece together into a coherent picture. I know, I tried for years. People just cherry-pick the results from what they like. This forum guy, or that YouTuber, or this redditor in this comparison said this steel is better than that one and I like that result and I am either ignoring the others or I am ignorant of them. And where there has been consensus has been as dangerous as where there hasn’t. For example, steels perceived as high end are given high marks for toughness even if it is the wear resistance that is good and the toughness isn’t.

Larrin, you are amazing and I am grateful for your many contributions, from the corrosion resistance table I recently quoted on Blade Forums to the custom fixed blade in MagnaCut sitting on the desk next to my computer as I type this.

My argument against your particular results here is that they reflect your heat treatments for these steels as opposed to the actual heat treatments that these steels will get in the production knives in which most people will actually be encountering them.

A crucial question for any scientific study is what exactly is being modeled. Just thinking about Spyderco knives, your edge retention ratings for BD1N, VG-10, and S30V are 3.5, 4.5, and 6 respectively. Is that consistent with the actual edge retention of these steels in the Spyderco knives that use them?

[Ramonade]

@chronovore : If one is actually trying to test the steels, one has to do the optimal heat treats otherwise the potential of each steel is not shown. As Dr.Larrin said earlier (and numerous times), people were claiming properties of this or that steel for years without anything backing it up. Now we know what toughness, wear resistance, corrosion resistance, etc each steel can truely achieve and how it compares to others.

It's impossible to create these data points around the heat treats of 1 brand without having the exact initial problem about claims that are impossible to verify

[Larrin]

A crucial question for any scientific study is what exactly is being modeled. Just thinking about Spyderco knives, your edge retention ratings for BD1N, VG-10, and S30V are 3.5, 4.5, and 6 respectively. Is that consistent with the actual edge retention of these steels in the Spyderco knives that use them?

Yes. I have analyzed the full CATRA datasets of two major knife manufacturers. You can read about one of them here: https://knifesteelnerds.com/2018/11/19/ ... retention/

There were no major surprises when I did my own testing instead even though I was heat treating them instead of the knife company. The relative differences are the same.

[Baron Mind]

BD1N was 8.3 ft-lbs at 59.2 Rc.

Several days worth of work, just for one sentence.

I don't think folks understand how much work goes into this.

We're just going to ignore this comment? I am not a member of this class of high level, huge dedication, forgers and physicists of the knife community, but as one who appreciates science, and an obsessive pursuit of one's passion, I can appreciate what you mean. The "pfft, idc what the test says, I skinned 3 squirrels with my knife and she was still sca-reaming sharp" crowd bothers me.

[Baron Mind]

Double post

[Big_Tex]

Informative video on performance of BD1N… obviously not related to it’s toughness per se, but worth watching