Spyderco Forums

:spyder: Well, my wife took in my manix to work (she's a setup in a Q1 rated factory) and rockwell tested it on the big free standing rockwell hardness tester. Well, all I can say is she had the opposite of Simona's experience! Her normal various parts came in at their usual hardness of 58-64 but the manix came in at 81.6 Rc! :eek: I reckon' the diamond tip may have hit a tiny bit of superhard carbide and given the higher hardness number :confused: ? Otherwise this things hard like glass! :eek: She tested it on the ricasso. :spyder:

:spyder: Tomorrow she's taking in a Chinook II and a delica 3, we'll see what happens! :cool: :spyder:

Holy crap, that's a substantial difference.

Keep us informed as to how the others fare, this is kinda unusual. I would assume it's a mistake in the read, or some kind of fluke. At that high of a hardness, the Manix blade would shatter when it hits a staple in cardboard. :eek:

You have my attention, and knowing Sal it won't be long until you have his attention as well. Very peculiar...

-Jeff

There has to be an error in the reading. Otherwise the thing is almost as hard as carbide.

Normally I think they test in more than one spot just for such an occurance. I know when I get stainless liners back from Paul Bos there are at least three Rockwell test divets on each liner and sometimes as many as five.

STR

Yes you might have hit a pocket of Vanadium carbide. The riccaso is a small area and is difficult to test with blocking on the anvil of the RC tester. I usually do three tests even if the first comes back in parameters it might be an anomaly. I always inspect the marks post test; they should be consistant with the reading. A RC reading in the 80 leaves an almost impreceptable mark. Good luck in your evaluations...Take Care...Ed

That can't be right. Are you sure she didn't accidentally take one of your "ceramic" blade Boker knives instead of the Manix?

http://www.premiumknives.com/ShopSite/B ... nives.html

Unless the rumor about Spyderco making a super duper ZDP-189 blade Manix is really true and you accidentally got a test model.

Hi Michael,

Let us know the results of her second test. Very interesting!

Joyce @ Spyderco

Sorry I do not want to be rude; but most likely, this is measurement error. Rc of core of harden steel usually in upper sixties max., carbides are in mid seventies. According to hardness charts, Rc goes up to 80.
Most likely, it was used different from C scale or penetrator was damaged.
There is good chance that it was Ra scale Ra81.2 is correspond to Rc60 and this is where Manix should be. The only difference between A and C scales is weight settings. possible that somebody who used tester before change weight from 150 kg to 60.
R

:spyder: It was a measurement error, the factory uses the ra scale indeed and not Rc the delica and native came in at 75.5 and 97.9 respectively so I guess all is well. :o :spyder:

So what would that equate too, I'm not familiar with the ra scale? :confused:

:spyder: I dunno, my wife's currently walking around bugging foremen looking for a conversion chart. :spyder:

This is a good conversion chart.

http://www.metal-mart.com/Guides/Hardne ... _steel.htm

Michael Cook wrote: :spyder: It was a measurement error, the factory uses the ra scale indeed and not Rc the delica and native came in at 75.5 and 97.9 respectively so I guess all is well. :o :spyder:

Now you got me. Ra 75.5 is 49.5 Rc. You do not want a knife with 49.5 Rc.
97.9 Ra does not exist. Ra 92 is a max.
Send your knives to me I will check hardness. I will not do it on mine, I would hate marks from testing

So the Manix blade was about RC 60 from what I could guess, unless I read that chart wrong.

Sounds a little high, I thought Spyderco kept S30V a little softer. :confused:

Michael,
If your knife tested HRC 49.5 you got A LEMON!

I would like very much to know the hardness of ZDP-Delica. The same as ZDP Caly jr.? HRC 64/65?


Franco

:spyder: Well it seems that the knives don't fit well in the testing machine so rather than continuing to put marks all over my knives I'll just call it a failed experiment. :o :spyder:

Michael Cook wrote: :spyder: Well it seems that the knives don't fit well in the testing machine so rather than continuing to put marks all over my knives I'll just call it a failed experiment. :o :spyder:

I am sure the MANix benefits from a few character scratches... :)