Any Pop's ProCut Dialogue?

[ScarFoot]

From what I understand Bos heat treating uses the conveyer belt furnace and the steel falls into oil at the end.

This is my understanding as well. I don’t see how they could handle the volume and maintain a decent reputation any other way.

 

[Dawsonknives]

I watched the video ----------- so here are my thoughts on this…

We have been making knives here at Dawson for over 50 years and I personally have worked with quite a few steels, from ATS-34 to 52100 to CPM-Magnacut. I can remember when there were a lot of concerns being thrown around on the internet about Magnacut not holding an edge. This was baffling to me because we were seeing great results with Magnacut and didn’t have the lamination issues that others were having. So I would submit that this, just as with the Magnacut, is probably not a steel issue.

We do extensive testing on every steel before we lay our brand on it, Procut is no different. You can see a few of the highlight reels from some of those tests here, here, and here. We found it to be an excellent steel that 1. Offers a razor-sharp edge on par or better than other modern steels, 2. Holds that edge cut after cut, 3. Displayed excellent lateral strength (Flexed close to 20 degrees in either direction and returned to true), and 4. Extreme impact resistance (edge resisted chipping, cracking or rolling when driven into a piece of steel Unistrut with a sledge hammer). We are able to get our edge hardness to Rockwell C of 62-63 and still retain superb flexibility. The heat treat is the soul of a blade, you’ve got to know what you are doing with it in order to pull out the best attributes of the steel.

 

[Crag the Brewer]

Still no information from Bos.....
I'm thinking/hoping it's just the thicker stock, for whatever reasons, I'm not seeing the flaking on the thin stock. This is my second thin edge I'm working on. No issues.

Early next week I'll send 3 blanks to Pops for evaluation......

Thanks.

 

[Crag the Brewer]

I was wrong... again.






*Still just another gut punch......
It's interesting that it seemed correct, untill I PUSHED it...
. I battoned maybe 6 times with the logs length ways...... It was Cross battoning that broke it

 

[Taz]

Whats the grain structure in the breaks looking like?

 

[Crag the Brewer]

Long conversation on the phone with Bos.
Very willing to talk and share their process.

I'm forwarding a direct number for Joey to discuss it with them, too

 

[Mecha]

So uhhhhh...did it turn out the quenchant was haunted or what?

 

[Forrest Taylor]

Wow, those are really aggressive serrations.

 

[Crag the Brewer]

So uhhhhh...did it turn out the quenchant was haunted or what?

Don't know....
I apologize for my absence, I've been in Chicago -land too Much recently for work. I haven't had time for Anything the last couple of weeks.


I did send a couple blanks to Bos, and more to Joey at Pop's..... Joey said Larrin wants to look at them too.

I had bought 4 bars of steel, so I have quite a few samples to hand out.

 

[Crag the Brewer]

Whats the grain structure in the breaks looking like?

-I can't see it well enough, I'm hoping the experts can find something.

 

[Taz]

Does it look like powdered sugar or granulated sugar? That should be visible by eye?

Bad on left, good on right. Bad was 1095 HT'd as AEBL (forgot what steel it was), right is 64 HRC Magnacut.

 

[Stuart Davenport Knives]

Taz, excellent photo demonstrating grain structure. One of the best I've seen online.

 

[LCoop]

Yeap I'd love to see or hear the results of this post.

 

[Taz]

Thanks! Complete accident, forgot what steel the blanks were. Though it was AEBL, but it went 67 out of the quench tempered down to 63 and super chippy. Acid etched it and saw it was carbon, not stainless! 1095 wrapped in foil pouch, 30 minutes at 1950, plate quench and cryo...67 hrc quenched, steel was super cooked and large grain!

 

[Crag the Brewer]

Does it look like powdered sugar or granulated sugar? That should be visible by eye?

Bad on left, good on right. Bad was 1095 HT'd as AEBL (forgot what steel it was), right is 64 HRC Magnacut.
View attachment 3043947

I sent the previous broken one to Joey, I don't have it... I could grind/break more, but I'd rather grind some good blades for a bit

 

[DevinT]

Thanks! Complete accident, forgot what steel the blanks were. Though it was AEBL, but it went 67 out of the quench tempered down to 63 and super chippy. Acid etched it and saw it was carbon, not stainless! 1095 wrapped in foil pouch, 30 minutes at 1950, plate quench and cryo...67 hrc quenched, steel was super cooked and large grain!

Great example of hrc alone not being a good indicator of a proper heat treatment.

Hoss

 

[dfarm]

I had bumped into a guy telling me that he's a fan of procut at 67 rockwell this weekend.

I don't think my as quenched hardness was much higher than that, if at all. Lol

Any thoughts on that?

 

[Crag the Brewer]

Tracking to Pops shows delivery at 12/9
Also messaged Larrin, he wants to look at them too....

I'll keep everyone posted, If I hear anything from the three

 

[Crag the Brewer]

No, I was just wondering if that could be the problem.

Hoss

Larrin is asking me privately about This too.
He asked about the direction and the way the profiles are layed out? I didn't have many pictures of that early stage. "Luckily" I took a progress picture for someone.

This was the blank that I was first having problems with. I started grinding the false edge, and was getting flaking. I was able to grind past the flaking on the false edge, but stopped when it just kept reappearing.

The false edge is shown in the middle of the bar.
Larrin asked if I could send this blank to him too.
I was going to save it for a tracing pattern.
This photo was taken on June 20th.

 

[DeadPineKnives]

Looking forward to seeing how this all plays out, and I hope you get to the bottom of it! When I have problems like this, the answer tends to be a stupid little thing I missed.

Please don't think I'm trying to be "that guy" because I'm not, but threads like this are why I tend to be a little wary of the latest developments in knife steel technology... I'm really hoping that your worries and mine are soon set at ease, as I'd really love to love Procut and maybe try some for myself.

Here are my questions, which I hope will contribute something of value...

Are you grinding bevels before or after heat treat? If before, are you noticing any issues with delamination then?

Have you broken any heat treated blanks to check the grain structure?

Could you send a blank to someone to be hardness tested to check behind BOS?

Has anyone sent ProCut to Peters yet?

Just hoping to add some more potential perspectives so that we can hopefully solve this mystery that much sooner!