Magnamax performance discussion

[vivi]

I got surprised with a magnamax Mule in the mail, so figured I'd start a thread for the performance of this steel.

I started out by carving a bit of scrap wood in my burn pile.

The Mule appeared to have a fresh factory edge when I received it. It scrape shaved just fine,but didn't quite pop arm hairs, so maybe it had seen a little use.







Anyways, the edge and sharpness showed zero change from 20 minutes of making some shavings and feathersticks with the scrap. Did some light prying on some of the cuts, and a lightly batoned it through some seasoned wood a few times.

So far so good.

Planning to keep working with the factory edge angle for now. Think I'll touch it up on some stock medium rods on the sharpmaker, seeing if the 15 degree slots hit the apex, and if not I'll use the 20 degree slots. Then I want to see how much cardboard it can go through before the edge starts to degrade.

Next I want to test out the corrosion resistance. Unfortunately I only have DLC magnacut, but I was thinking about submerging this blade and my Military 2 in a salt water mixture and observing any changes. Figured I'd start with an overnight soak and repeat as needed until I see some sort of corrosion on either steel.

Has anyone else had a chance to use any magnamax knives? How's the performance on yours so far?

[Deadboxhero]

Well done Vivi

[vivi]

started the corrosion test.

I took three knives and gave them a few passes on the sharpmaker brown rods until they each cleanly shaved. This way I can see how much the edge degrades instead of simply checking the surfaces for spotting.



Magnacut DLC Military 2

Magnamax Mule

Ontario paring knife (1095 to the best of my knowledge)

Next I had my kid make us a salt water mixture. 3 cups warm water, one tablespoon salt, stirred until the salt dissolved.



Will check it out every hour until bed time, then most likely leave them all over night.

edit:

no change in either spyderco after an hour

[Sterling454]

My experience has been similar so far. My MT46P tackled just over 3,200 linear feet of double wall cardboard before it quit cleanly cutting printer paper. I put my own 17° mirror edge on it finishing with a .5 micron diamond strop. (Thread going on the Mule Team forum for more detail) So far, it feels like solid competition for the best wear resistant steel in my collection surpassing 15V, K390, and S90V.

I have some maple I've been carving on that chipped up my 15V Manix 2. I'll be attacking it with my MagnaMax next to see if it suffers similar damage.

[Deadboxhero]

My experience has been similar so far. My MT46P tackled just over 3,200 linear feet of double wall cardboard before it quit cleanly cutting printer paper. I put my own 17° mirror edge on it finishing with a .5 micron diamond strop. (Thread going on the Mule Team forum for more detail) So far, it feels like solid competition for the best wear resistant steel in my collection surpassing 15V, K390, and S90V.

I have some maple I've been carving on that chipped up my 15V Manix 2. I'll be attacking it with my MagnaMax next to see if it suffers similar damage.

What was the sharpening progression for the 15V?

[vivi]

Well here's the corrosiom results after three hours.







As you can see, the magnamax mule rusted along the edge, and the Ontario got a good bit of dark rust on it, while the Military 2 is spotless.

The edge was still sharp enough to shave, and the more polished primary grind of the blade still looked spotless.

Now something I thought about is having the carbon steel in the same salt water bath as the mule might skew the results.

So the next step is to polish off the rust with bar keepers friend if a wet rag isn't enough to remove it, then repeat the test overnight with a new container and new mix.

Based on these results it doesn't look like a salt worthy steel.

That said, taking 2-3 hours submerged in salt water to show this small amount of corrosion is by no means a poor level of corrosion resistance, especially if edge holding really is on par with K390.

Here I am setup for the next stage of the test.

I cleaned out the container and did the same ratio, 3 cups water, 1 tablespoon salt.

Cleaned up the edge with an abrasive green dish scrubber so the rust was gone, no soap or bar keepers friend required.

touched it up on the sharpmaker again to give it a fresh edge.

Placed it in at midnight. Plan to remove it at noon later today, document the results, then move on to some edge retention testing.

[Jeb]

Cool results V, I want to see the MagnaMax left outside in the rain too. The rain has its ability to really nail things I forget to put up outside and we have a really heavy dew and/or rain lol.

Then it really rust my stuff ever time and no matter what it's made from, I swear it will rust up my aluminum framing square if I leave it outside lol

[Sterling454]

My experience has been similar so far. My MT46P tackled just over 3,200 linear feet of double wall cardboard before it quit cleanly cutting printer paper. I put my own 17° mirror edge on it finishing with a .5 micron diamond strop. (Thread going on the Mule Team forum for more detail) So far, it feels like solid competition for the best wear resistant steel in my collection surpassing 15V, K390, and S90V.

I have some maple I've been carving on that chipped up my 15V Manix 2. I'll be attacking it with my MagnaMax next to see if it suffers similar damage.

What was the sharpening progression for the 15V?

From the box, I slaughtered untold quantities of cardboard with the factory edge which was roughly 18°. Once it didn't cleanly cut printer paper, I put it on my Work Sharp Precision Adjust Elite and started with fresh abrasives. I started by using a the 220 grit diamond plate for the reprofiling to 15°. After the majority of the work was done, I stepped up to the 320 grit diamond plate to raise a consistent burr. From there, I progressed from the 320 to a 400, 600, and 800 grit diamond plates to refine the scratch pattern. After that, I deburred with a the ceramic hone until I couldn't feel the burr by touch anymore. I then shifted to a series of strops I made using old Work Sharp tri-hones where I removed worn out diamond plates and replaced them with similar thickness veg-tanned leather sourced from Tandy Leather. I had treated the leather with Bick 4 leather conditioner before applying diamond abrasives sourced from TechDiamondTools.com. The first suede-sided strop was loaded with 1,200 grit diamond progressing to 2,000 grit then 4,000 grit at which point the stropping leather switched to the grain side for 8,000, 14,000, and finally 50,000 or 0-0.5 micron diamond.

I use this sharpening system for all of my blades and have been very happy with the result. I don't have a Bess tester but I do have a 200x magnifier I use in conjunction with my phone for some pretty decent edge inspection/photos. Being a fixed angle system (even if it's an entry-level model), I'm confident I've properly reprofiled, refined, honed, and stropped the steel. Although, I will admit, I've only mastered a hair whittling edge with this specific progression and no others yet.

[Jeb]

Sounds down right polished to a Razor to me man. I bet at the end results to this run out its awesome.

[vivi]

results from an 11 hour soak in salt water without other knives as potential contaminants confirms two things for me.













1 - when polished, magnamax has very good corrosion resistance.

2 - magnamax will not be a part of the salt line-up.

The edge went from aggressively sending arm hairs flying to just barely being able to scrape shave after 4 or 5 passes on the same spot of my arm. Very noticeable edge degradation.

So in my eyes this seems more along the lines of S110V but tougher than Magnacut with more edge retention. Time will tell.

I'll try to gather up all the cardboard I can and get to working on edge retention testing later today.

[cjk]

I am wondering if anyone has hardness tested their MagnaMax mule yet.

[cjk]

@vivi In your use, is MagnaMax more or less corrosion resistant than S90V? Do you easily rust S90V?
While the MM design goal might have been "stainless K390", my thoughts are more towards how MagnaMax actually compares and contrasts to S90V. Maybe I'm crazy, but S90V seems to be its natural competitor.

[vivi]

@vivi In your use, is MagnaMax more or less corrosion resistant than S90V? Do you easily rust S90V?
While the MM design goal might have been "stainless K390", my thoughts are more towards how MagnaMax actually compares and contrasts to S90V. Maybe I'm crazy, but S90V seems to be its natural competitor.

I haven't used S90V believe it or not. Had the original CF/S90V Military back in the day but traded it for a busse before I used it.

Sounds like a good comparison based on what I know of the steel.

[vivi]

double tap, nets actin funny

[Jeb]

I got some of the S90V and have been disappointed in it, like it corrosion resistance just not it's edge retention.

First thing right from the get go, I notch mine and on Cedar at that. Re-honed and was hoping it was from being it's first honing, was certainly more careful to see if it was me just be way to rough lol. I do that lol

It just doesn't hold the edge like I had planned for the knife, so it's left hanging in the safe with others I like, just don't edc. So far my M4 stuff that is DLC is way out in front for my rough uses around here.

I have high hopes for the MagnaMax to step up and blow the M4 away and in all categories... I will be shocked if it doesn't.

[vivi]

all set for eome edge retention work

[Jeb]

Get the kick starter out and both paws on it, and fire it up!