Is Maxamet from Taiwan "better" than from USA?

[sal]

"Better" is not a question with thickness and length differences. There could be a lot of variables?

sal

[Librarian]

It's not likely to be a future problem. I believe that Eric has decided to disco the Maxamet. We've decided that the Yin was greater than the Yang and the material, for us, is not reliable enough, for the customer, on top of how difficult it is to work the steel. I don't know that there will much of the material in the future.

sal

It's sad to hear that. But Rex121 is a more fragile and complex steel than Maxamet, are you planning to produce knives from it?
My initial question arose because I have a Sage Maxamet and I bought myself a Sage Rex121. Knowing the story of the knives from Maxamet, it became interesting for me to look for: are there any photos of broken knives from REX121? There are no such people yet. But the REX121 is only available on knives from Taiwan and, again, there are no broken knives, as in the case of Maxamet.

[vanka]

There would be no more knives produced from Rex 121. Already been confirmed by multiple sources - Sal, NSM, Dr. Larrin. Crucible went down and Erasteel bought the IP. Moreso it turns out there's not one foundry with capabilities to produce Rex121 and 15V. Sal mentioned there might be material left for maybe one more run of knives, most likely the same family - Sage or similar. As far as the knife world is concerned, Rex121 and CPM 15v are no longer available and I don't believe they will be revived anytime soon. Especially considering the new materials coming in, like MagnaMax and Z-12 Ultra. I firmly believe that in the next few years (3-5y) there would be readily available steels that would outperform Rex121 and 15v and would be a tad bit easier to produce and machine.

[RugerNurse]

Looks like people were prying with those. I assume it would snap by the hole because there is less material.

[Evil D]

Nobody ever wants to talk about what they were doing when catastrophic failure happens, it's always the brand/knife/steel/heat treat's fault.

My wife recently broke the blade on one of our Z Cuts. I asked what she was doing....splitting frozen steaks. Maybe I should make a thread and ask Spyderco why one of their thinnest blades can't handle such a common task

[vvs]

Nobody ever wants to talk about what they were doing when catastrophic failure happens, it's always the brand/knife/steel/heat treat's fault.

My wife recently broke the blade on one of our Z Cuts. I asked what she was doing....splitting frozen steaks. Maybe I should make a thread and ask Spyderco why one of their thinnest blades can't handle such a common task

I believe they attempted to free a stuck blade while cutting through a thick, grippy material such as resin or stacked/layered cardboard.
It’s a common misconception that buying a knife made from a top-tier steel means it will withstand any kind of abuse. I held the same belief years ago with my first knives and was genuinely puzzled when they didn’t last long. I managed to destroy the edges of several carbon Moras and even the S30V main blade on a Leatherman Charge TTi by doing some rather ill-advised things.

[dsvirsky]

One might also note that the pictures posted by the OP represent the entire population of broken Maxamet knives available on the Internet: nine (9) knives. I know there have been primitive cultures that counted, "1, 2, many" but I don't think most of us here would consider nine knives to be "many." Not out of the thousands of Maxamet knives manufactured in Golden.

[Librarian]

One might also note that the pictures posted by the OP represent the entire population of broken Maxamet knives available on the Internet: nine (9) knives. I know there have been primitive cultures that counted, "1, 2, many" but I don't think most of us here would consider nine knives to be "many." Not out of the thousands of Maxamet knives manufactured in Golden.

I'm not sure, but I think you didn't quite understand what the question was. But it's obvious that you don't understand at all how primitive cultures use counting.
In fact, trolls traditionally count like this: one, two, three, many, and people assume this means they can have no grasp of higher numbers. They don’t realise that many can BE a number. As in: one, two, three, many, many-one, many-two, many-three, many many, many-many-one, many-many-two, many-many-three, many many many, many-many-many-one, many-many-many-two, many-many-three, LOTS.

[Actinolite]

Looks like people were prying with those. I assume it would snap by the hole because there is less material.

Someone would have to study the problem, but it looks to me as though there's a weak spot where the sharp plunge line crosses the Spydeyhole. This is no problem the vast majority of the time. But there are the broken Maxamet knives, and I watched someone deliberately break a Spyderco knife but putting it in a vise and prying until it broke. It broke at about the same spot.

This doesn't dissuade me from owning Spydercos; The Spydeyhole works perfectly to open a knife one-handed. Since I don't pry with any knife, let alone a folding knife, I don't care about someone deliberately breaking one. But I am careful with my Sage 1 Maxamet.

[dsvirsky]

One might also note that the pictures posted by the OP represent the entire population of broken Maxamet knives available on the Internet: nine (9) knives. I know there have been primitive cultures that counted, "1, 2, many" but I don't think most of us here would consider nine knives to be "many." Not out of the thousands of Maxamet knives manufactured in Golden.

I'm not sure, but I think you didn't quite understand what the question was. But it's obvious that you don't understand at all how primitive cultures use counting.
In fact, trolls traditionally count like this: one, two, three, many, and people assume this means they can have no grasp of higher numbers. They don’t realise that many can BE a number. As in: one, two, three, many, many-one, many-two, many-three, many many, many-many-one, many-many-two, many-many-three, many many many, many-many-many-one, many-many-many-two, many-many-three, LOTS.

No, I understood what the question was perfectly well. It was an attempt to extrapolate a conclusion from a statistically insignificant number. As well as to mischaracterize what many of us would consider to be a relatively small number as a large one.

However, I'm not at all sure what quoting Terry Pratchett has to do with anything.

[vapedudde1975]

They're using the steel for stuff it wasn't designed to do my Manix 2 in Maxamet has been great edc I would never pry with this steel and it will never break like that if you use commonsense.

[Evil D]

Seems pretty obvious and expected that putting a big hole in a blade is going to make it weaker in that spot. It's also expected that some steels are going to be more likely to fracture than bend. Seems even more likely that you'd understand how these things add up to make a combo that you shouldn't be prying with or even twisting hard during cuts. Some steels are just better for slicers.

[Ramonade]

Para 3 and pm2 are staples of the knife world. The Sage 5 is excellent but less prominent.

That could be another factor

[LorenzoL]

Seems pretty obvious and expected that putting a big hole in a blade is going to make it weaker in that spot. It's also expected that some steels are going to be more likely to fracture than bend. Seems even more likely that you'd understand how these things add up to make a combo that you shouldn't be prying with or even twisting hard during cuts. Some steels are just better for slicers.

Perfect post, I was going to state something along those same lines but could not have put it better.

[Pokey]

Looks like people were prying with those. I assume it would snap by the hole because there is less material.

As soon as I started reading these posts I wondered whether the folks that put the pictures on the Internet said what they were doing with the knife just before they broke.

I’ll admit I’m not really that interested in finding out either. I’ve never broken any knives before.

[raygixxer89]

One might also note that the pictures posted by the OP represent the entire population of broken Maxamet knives available on the Internet: nine (9) knives. I know there have been primitive cultures that counted, "1, 2, many" but I don't think most of us here would consider nine knives to be "many." Not out of the thousands of Maxamet knives manufactured in Golden.

I'm not sure, but I think you didn't quite understand what the question was. But it's obvious that you don't understand at all how primitive cultures use counting.
In fact, trolls traditionally count like this: one, two, three, many, and people assume this means they can have no grasp of higher numbers. They don’t realise that many can BE a number. As in: one, two, three, many, many-one, many-two, many-three, many many, many-many-one, many-many-two, many-many-three, many many many, many-many-many-one, many-many-many-two, many-many-three, LOTS.

But there's only nine (9).

[Bolster]

Taiwan Maxamet Sage - Broken Tip.
Why can't the Taiwanese make a better screwdriver than this?

[Fireman]

[zhyla]

Before everyone concludes it must be the users at fault I would like to point out a Maxamet PM2 will set you back $288. I think we can all agree people shelling out for that already know not to pry with a knife or use it as a screwdriver.

[GarageBoy]

Before everyone concludes it must be the users at fault I would like to point out a Maxamet PM2 will set you back $288. I think we can all agree people shelling out for that already know not to pry with a knife or use it as a screwdriver.

To be fair, I've met plenty of people who "buy the best" because in their mind spending more money means buying something more durable. Plenty of people who buy M series and AMG cars because "they're the best" - without caring what makes them the best