Steeltoez83 testing log

[Steeltoez83]

Spyderco rex 121 sage 5 lightweight. I was asked quite a bit to put this steel thru my testing. So far I have data points for the factory, first, and second edge. The knife is already sharpened ready for more cut testing. I found this steel very easy to sharpen too.

I've never owned a lightweight sage 5 before but I do like how this feels in hand. I like it better than the Para 3 lightweight based on my minimal experience.

[Red Leader]

Very nice! Looking forward to your excellent data points on both M398 and Rex-121.

[Steeltoez83]

The final cut number is 640. Factory edge started at 130 then moved to 350, then 460, and finished up at 640. The maxamet I tested earlier in this thread stopped at 520, but it's the softest maxamet I own. I did rockwell test this rex 121 and it's high 68 ish. I did notice blunting pattern similar to rex45 which did interest me. Rex45 did do better on the ice than both m4 and 4V, but I do want to run another test on different rex45 just to make sure.

[Steeltoez83]

I took my rex 121 to the ice the other day. I have sharpened up this sage several times already. I go back and forth if I should do a video on this steel or not. 20% of 640 is 128. 128 slices, 128 ice whacks and another 80 more slices and the edge hit testing failure. 336 total units of work for the rex. Obviously it's not a tough steel and not designed to chop but to slice. Plus a 1k edge finish does not cater to the composition of the steel either. Overall the performance numbers don't surprise me at all. It's under my 60% benchmark but I expected that to happen.

[JBoone]

“Plus a 1k edge finish does not cater to the composition of the steel either“

A couple of questions:

What finish would you suggest?

Any chipping during testing?

Also interesting regarding an almost 5X increase after a few sharpening if I am reading your post correctly.

[Steeltoez83]

“Plus a 1k edge finish does not cater to the composition of the steel either“

A couple of questions:

What finish would you suggest?

Any chipping during testing?

Also interesting regarding an almost 5X increase after a few sharpening if I am reading your post correctly.

The composition is somewhere around 30% carbide volume. Makes more sense to keep a lower grit toothy edge on it. After I'm done testing I will gravitate towards 400 grit for personal carry. I'm taking the same stance I have with s110v. 400-600 grit cbn/diamond and embracing the steels draw cutting capability. As far as damage goes, I haven't spotted anything. Mind you I set a fresh new apex every test edge, and the cutting is very controlled. All stressed steel was removed before I started hitting the ice too. I might do more impact testing but I'm undecided at this point.. it is fairly common to see performance triple or even higher with a few sharpenings. For testing purposes I always grind away the apex on the stone to ensure a clean slate for testing.

[Red Leader]

Rex-121 really showed up. Great testing.

Did you get final numbers on 15V? Cedric & Ada's youtube did a test of 15V in a PM2 I think, and on the medium he uses (sisal rope I think) he got 2000 cuts which outperformed his Rex-121 and tungsten carbide tests. You may have already seen that one. We live in a golden age of high performance knife steels...and it just keeps getting better.

[Steeltoez83]

I've tested the manix, the shaman and the pm2 in 15V. The manix did the best of all 3. The pm2 got another 70 slices so 254 units of work. 55% efficiency when I tested it last.

[GT99]

Curious to see the first testing of Rex 76 too now, because I saw you posted a pic of one on instagram earlier lol

[Steeltoez83]

My rex76 order also came with spyderco magnacut in the form of the native chief. I'm still gathering my thoughts on that model. And if I want to put magnacut thru some corrosive environment style testing bcuz it's a salt steel.

[Steeltoez83]

I have started doing corrosive testing now. Altho I haven't dialed in the specifics just yet. Priorities have pulled me away from testing for awhile. However I did receive a free sample of cpm d2 from SuperSteel Steve this week to test for him. When I think of corrosive environments, I think of a few location stereotypes. But for controlled environment testing, I'm sticking to kitchen use. Sunny Delight will be used as the acid in these tests. It's a testing equivalent of cutting citrus fruits or even anything tomato based. I tested a 20 min soak with cpm d2 and it was enough to fail testing. Instead of ice chops at 40% it was soaked in Sunny D at 40%. Both are different blunting mechanisms to experiment with. Im keeping the same pattern as previous testing so its not a departure from what i normally do.
20 minutes was just a starting point. And I'm leaning towards 10 minutes for the next trial run. I mentioned about this in December, so I figured an update was in order even tho I have no results to provide.

[Jeb]

Time is that one thing I can't put a value on lol. You have lots of time here on the books. Very impressive books.

[Steeltoez83]

I tested these guys last night. I put 2 coats of chapstick on each knife after sharpening. I then did 50 slices on my sanding roll for each knife. A utility razor dulls around 50-55 slices in my testing. After I was done, I let each knife soak in Sunny Delight for 4 minutes. Rinsed off with regular water and allowed to dry overnight. The intention was to replicate a moderate week of kitchen use and see how steels stack up. Maxamet obviously has a tremendous advantage in wear resistance, but how does it stack up against steels like vg10 in this testing environment? Well vg10 passes my testing parameters but maxamet did not. Maxamet did better than k390 but not enough to pass my benchmark. 15V, vg10, and custom cpm d2 from Steve Callari all passed. They balance workload evenly across the apex. Bd1n blunts at the heel first, but passed. The k390 actually did the worst of all six samples. The cpm d2 did the best, having the most amount of travel distance on my index card. 15V and vg10 were nearly identical in distance, but the advantage goes to 15V.

[Steeltoez83]

I did cut testing on this exact knife roughly 10 months ago. I decided to run it again just to see if there has been any drifts in my overall process. I checked the edge frequently at 300 and beyond. My last evaluation was at 365 which failed 4 out of 5 checks. So I'm calling it 370 which matches the same number I got 10 months ago.

[Steeltoez83]

Lately I have been experimenting with rex 76. I have quite a few data points collected, and many more to come. I decided to run the dlc version as my regular testing parameters. And the satin version will deviate from the normal system. Im going to be spreading the info over several posts. The models are the pm2s that have released recently. I tested the factory edge on the dlc version and achieved 80 slices. The satin version hit the spyderco ceramics before testing began. I did 40 strokes on the medium and fine benchstones. Figured the instructional video for the sharpmaker provides a guideline of 20 passes on the corners, and 20 for the flats. For the following tests I used my 400 grit supervit in conjunction with the medium benchstone. But those data points will be provided in another post. The purpose was to see if there would be a noticeable difference in performance between them. IIs there is a valid argument to hone a fresh brand new knife out of box on something like a sharpmaker before use in the field? The satin version was able to hit 120 units of work before reaching test failure. Normally I dont put any emphasis on how well a factory edge performs unless it comes from a custom maker. However this test showcases a 50% increase in performance by honing the edge before first use.

[Steeltoez83]

Here's a recap of the next 5 test results I achieved with the satin version of rex76. I used my 400 grit super vit diamond stone to properly ensure a fresh apex. The sharpmaker cbn rods are rated 400 mesh, so I figured a worn in rod set could be comparable. I then used the brown ceramic benchstone to refine the apex thru honing. I believe 1k is the best place to stop forming burrs entirely. But the spyderco ceramics especially for my testing purposes are set to refine only. I set limitations to 40 passes just so I had consistency across all test trials. The rex76 achieved a score of 160 for the next run. Followed by 220, then 285, then 330. I know the dlc diamond runs had a far greater leap in performance but those tests are still ongoing. As a final test, I decided to lower the pass count from 40 down to 16. To see if the burnishing effect would decrease and a higher score achieved. Rex76 only achieved 20 more cuts finalizing at 350. Now the refined factory edge and the 1st edge jumped by 40 units of work here. And in my other listed testing here on this thread we see jumps far higher from factory to first edge. The dlc version jumped nearly 200% but those data points will be provided in a future post.

[Steeltoez83]

I'm behind on updates for this thread. Anywho I did complete pure wear resistance testing for the dlc version of the rex76. The factory edge landed at 80, then 230, followed by 315, then finally landing at 465. Using proper abrasives speeds up the process to achieving max performance. Rex76 is in the same category as 15V and seki k390 with my cut testing.

What is also interesting to me atleast is how the satin version also stopped at 350. I have years of testing not documented here basically stopping at 350 whenever ceramics were introduced in the sharpening. I normally choose just my super vit 1k for testing, but whenever I deviate from it, 350 seems to be the overall stopping point with ceramics.

[arnold ziffle]

do you have videos of your testing?

[Steeltoez83]

I did record a few videos for YouTube. I think it's the equivalent of watching a dumpster fire. Normally I stick to Journaling my findings on Instagram for those interested. It would become extremely boring to make the same video over and over.

[Steeltoez83]

The next test I did was compare 15V with rex76. For this cut test I used my 800 grit silicon carbide king neo stone. I was interested to see if the satin rex76 would jump higher, whereas the 15V would obviously go down. But would they both meet at the same point I wondered. So I did side by side testing to find out. Evidence points towards rex76 matching the results from 15V with proper abrasives. And I've already tested seki city k390 with my neo stone multiple times already. I checked at 100, 200, 300, 350, 390, and at 420 both failed. I did stop testing once each knife passed 300 cuz I was tired that day. However both failed at the exact time. Silicon carbide stones in this case the king neo pushes performance to 90% of maximum obtainable performance.