8Cr14Mov Vs EMERSON's 154CM

J

Jamesh Bond

Joined
Jan 14, 2007
Messages
1,760
Ok im wearing my ignorance on my sleeve here but . . .

My Kershaw CQC6K is 8Cr14Mov. While i cant find specs for this particular knife i usually see this steel hardened to 57-59 HRC. For the sake of the question, im assuming this applies here as well.

My EKI Emersons use 154CM, but are also only hardened to 57-59HRC.

Can anyone explain the benefit to the steel upgrade when the hardness is the same as the "cheap Chinese steel" used in the Kershaw?

There must be an advantage, but since Emerson doesn't take advantage of the higher carbon to bring the blades to a higher hardness, what enhancements over 8Cr does 154 bring to the table at that hardness?

Please enlighten me.

Thx.
 
If the steels are made with the same level of quality, the heat treatments are of equal quality, the blades are ground with some level of care, and the blades are ground appropriately for the job at hand, you probably wouldn't see much of a difference in real life. The problem is where the 8cr14mov is made and how much they cared about getting it right. 154cm is made by crucible which has a good reputation for quality steel. I've read some makers having concerns about crucible slipping regarding 154cm, though. But take that with a grain of salt because I can't provide proof of that.

There's also some award that KAI won regarding how they heat treat 8cr14mov for whatever that's worth. If the question was CPM154 vs 8cr14mov then the cpm version would win. But regular 154cm vs 8cr is probably a wash in the end. I've used both and didn't see a difference. The 8cr knife was much cheaper.
 
154cm has higher levels of wear resistance so it will (at similar hardness) take longer to dull in highly abrasive cutting. The added Wolfram, Molybdenum and maybe the Vanadium to some extent are all adding very hard carbides to the final steel make-up which the 8Cr does not have. Because of the extra wear resistance in the 154cm it will favor a coarse edge and at the stated hardness I find it to be very tough.

At 57-58 it will be noticeably more difficult to sharpen than 8Cr, at 60+ 154cm is challenging to sharpen even by my standards, probably why most production makers don't run it that hard.
 
as Jason mentioned Blade steel is more then Hardness (which all refer as HRCXX); toughness, geometry, wear resistance, the quality of the heat treatment, steel Composition...
HRC is only one parameter.
 
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