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Are there any H-1 folders?
- Thread starter Brian6244
- Start date
. Will be my first Spyderco in many years.
silenthunterstudios
Slipjoint Addict
- Joined
- Feb 2, 2005
- Messages
- 20,039
I recently read an article in Blade praising ZDP steel. I saw several knives, including kitchen knives from William Henry, covered, and the Salt series were profiled as well. What's the big difference between ZDP and H1?
Completely different steels:
H-1 is a precipitation hardened steel which means it is hardened by slowly cooling the hot steel. It is not shocked and tempered like ordinary steel. During the cool down chemical additions to the steel fall out of solution (they precipitate, like salt out of hot saturated salt water that is cooled), meaning they dont fit into the iron matrix and break up the lattice structure. The chemical composition of the precipitates can vary widely. Since H-1 contains some nitrogen and *no appreciable amount* of carbon, I would assume that the precipitates are likely going to be nitrates (most likely, chromium and vanadium nitrate). Despite having searched for it, I havent been able to find a detailed chemical description of H-1. H-1 gets further hardened by workhardening (waltzing, hammering, and apparently grinding too), which breaks up the lattice structure into smaller grains which prevent slipping between the plains of Fe atomes effectively hardening the steel. H-1 is very corrosion resistant (doesn't rust. period). As far as I know H-1 is not a powdered steel. Due to the workhardening during the grinding process, H-1 seems to be differentially hardened, softer at the spine, harder at the edge) approaching 65-67 Rc. Edgeholding on CATRA (which measures abrasion resistance mainly, essentially tons and tons of paper) is good but not outstanding.
ZDP-189: Well since not even the chemical composition is published, its probably Hitachi only knows what is going on with this steel, but one thing is for sure: It contains *sooo much* carbon, that it should be classified as CAST IRON!!! (Definition of cast iron is by carbon content of over 2.06% carbon which is the maximum amount of carbon that can be desolved in austenite at 1148 deg C.). Apparently the sintering of powdered steel allows completely new compositions in steel. CPM30/60/90V contains already unusual high amounts of carbon. Supposedly, ZDP-189 remains usable at hardnesses (around 67 Rc, remember, the Rc scale is nowhere near linear) where ordinary steel is glass like brittle. Apparently it is not overly tough at those hardnesses, so it is laminated with softer steel to increase toughness (impact resistance). The edgeholding of ZDP-189 is supposed to be beating S30V by a mile and then some in the same range of S90V. Corrosion resistance is supposed to be quite good.
Disclaimer: I am not metallurgist, no expert and not a knifemaker. The above is just a regurgitation of what I have been able to read and gather.
H-1 is a precipitation hardened steel which means it is hardened by slowly cooling the hot steel. It is not shocked and tempered like ordinary steel. During the cool down chemical additions to the steel fall out of solution (they precipitate, like salt out of hot saturated salt water that is cooled), meaning they dont fit into the iron matrix and break up the lattice structure. The chemical composition of the precipitates can vary widely. Since H-1 contains some nitrogen and *no appreciable amount* of carbon, I would assume that the precipitates are likely going to be nitrates (most likely, chromium and vanadium nitrate). Despite having searched for it, I havent been able to find a detailed chemical description of H-1. H-1 gets further hardened by workhardening (waltzing, hammering, and apparently grinding too), which breaks up the lattice structure into smaller grains which prevent slipping between the plains of Fe atomes effectively hardening the steel. H-1 is very corrosion resistant (doesn't rust. period). As far as I know H-1 is not a powdered steel. Due to the workhardening during the grinding process, H-1 seems to be differentially hardened, softer at the spine, harder at the edge) approaching 65-67 Rc. Edgeholding on CATRA (which measures abrasion resistance mainly, essentially tons and tons of paper) is good but not outstanding.
ZDP-189: Well since not even the chemical composition is published, its probably Hitachi only knows what is going on with this steel, but one thing is for sure: It contains *sooo much* carbon, that it should be classified as CAST IRON!!! (Definition of cast iron is by carbon content of over 2.06% carbon which is the maximum amount of carbon that can be desolved in austenite at 1148 deg C.). Apparently the sintering of powdered steel allows completely new compositions in steel. CPM30/60/90V contains already unusual high amounts of carbon. Supposedly, ZDP-189 remains usable at hardnesses (around 67 Rc, remember, the Rc scale is nowhere near linear) where ordinary steel is glass like brittle. Apparently it is not overly tough at those hardnesses, so it is laminated with softer steel to increase toughness (impact resistance). The edgeholding of ZDP-189 is supposed to be beating S30V by a mile and then some in the same range of S90V. Corrosion resistance is supposed to be quite good.
Disclaimer: I am not metallurgist, no expert and not a knifemaker. The above is just a regurgitation of what I have been able to read and gather.