12C27 vs CPM-440V

aerius: Any idea how hard Kershaw leaves their 440V? This is, by the way, the point that Cliff has been making about 440V, and occasionally getting flamed for -- that it has to be left relatively soft in order to increase toughness, but that means reduced strength and a higher propensity to roll or ding.

Joe
 
Joe, according to the their website the blade is hardened to 55-57 HRC, and I have a feeling mine is on the lower end of that range. Partly my fault, but I've reground the blade to an included angle of around 25 degrees or so, maybe a bit less for better performance when cutting up cardboard bike boxes which it does a great job of. My BM 710 is also ground to about the same angle since it's used for the same thing. Final edge on both of them was done on a Japanese waterstone of unknown grit, but I'm guessing that it's about 2000-4000 or so judging by the polish it leaves on the edge. Further testing will be done today when I go to work in about an hour, providing the boss is busy with sales up front.
 
Aerius,

Thanks for the info.

BTW, my 710 is sharpened to 15 degrees per side. It's been holding up fine even to some pretty hard use without chipping. I think Benchmade may have softened their ATS-34 a bit, because I have an old mini-AFCK with a thicker edge (20-degree edge with 15-degree thinning bevels) that did chip.

The thin edge, combined with a coarser finishing grit (I finished on the spyderco "coarse" gray stone) ended up giving me a 700% performance improvement on poly rope versus a factory-new 710. That is, I could do in one stroke what it would take you 8 strokes to do with the factory version. I've been going around demonstrating this to people who show me their new 710s
smile.gif
(Okay, so, I'm obnoxious).

Joe

 
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