Chippy steels

[LostCause]

What steels are from your experience chippy?

What has chipped and how did it happen?

These are the steels that I personally witnessed chip:
D2 (Leatherneck knife, I chopped into wood and small piece of the edge has left stuck in the wood).
ZDP-189 (Endura, my friend was cutting some zip ties and was left with chip that was about the same size as match head).
Elmax (TRC South Pole, that same friend was hitting a bone with it to compare it with my S390 custom).
S30V (some Benchmade, coworker used it on cardboard and has hit a staple, chip was so small you had to look up close to see it).


This is not very scientific, but general rule of thumb is that if a lot of people mention same steel as chippy from their experience - chances are that you might have that same experience with that same steel.

 

[luethge]

D2 - many knives
S30V - benchmades, striders, spyderco, MOD.
M390 - Hinderer, Microtech
204P - Microtech
ATS-34 - Benchmade
S35VN - Spartan
4140 - RMJ shrike

Knives were all used somewhat normally. Boxes, tape, food, zip ties, cement bag opening, cut roofing felt, dropped, some pallet straps etc.

 

[Crag the Brewer]

Funny, I haven't chipped D2 yet....

I've chipped 3V, Cruwear, flat out Broke A2, maybe 80crv2 with chips?







Wispy thin, sushi grade edges of Hard Cruwear being pounded through hard, knotty pine knots.
This edge was so thin and sharp, it actually felt good going into your finger....haha. idk if I've ever seen an edge That sharp before, or since.


I believe Anything can get ruined if you try hard enough.....(Yup, I'm a dumbass, so you don't Have to be)

*Edit to add.... I'm Lousy at marketing, haha.... This knife is now free, if you sign up to Win it.... In my Give Away link below

 

[el gigantor]

I've chipped two of Cold Steel's S35VN blades. Still, I love them!

 

[kobold]

D2 (Bravo 1), from hitting a rock.

Tiny bit of the tip on a PM2 Maxamet from accidentally stabbing a steel barrel (I couldn't see it, it was covered with cardboard . It was not really visible and was a non-issue after the first sharpening. Maxamet is not brittle.

I think many steels are not chippy, if the heat treat is done right.

 

[K.O.D.]

S30V--Spyderco, Benchmade
M390--Custom Seamus Nor'Easter
CTS-204p--Spyderco Southard
S35VN--Three Sisters Forge Beast

 

[scorpnsnake]

Funny, I haven't chipped D2 yet....

I've chipped 3V, Cruwear, flat out Broke A2, maybe 80crv2 with chips?







Wispy thin, sushi grade edges of Hard Cruwear being pounded through hard, knotty pine knots.
This edge was so thin and sharp, it actually felt good going into your finger....haha. idk if I've ever seen an edge That sharp before, or since.


I believe Anything can get ruined if you try hard enough.....(Yup, I'm a dumbass, so you don't Have to be)

*Edit to add.... I'm Lousy at marketing, haha.... This knife is now free, if you sign up to Win it.... In my Give Away link below

Just for future reference. I personally would never cut logs with a CW knife. lol

 

[JWright214]

I chipped a VG-10 Delica cutting a thick zip tie once. I dropped my first Izula on my concrete garage floor and chipped the edge. It must have landed just right for that one to happen. And I had a small chip in a s30v 112 that a co-worker dropped on asphalt when breaking down a box. That’s it I think.

 

[Skar]

Only chipping I’ve had was manix 2 cv20.
I still like the knife a lot, first Spyderco and all.

Very small chips just frustrating and seemed to happen often. I wasn’t even using it on anything ridiculous.

 

[Bluearcflash]

Chipped a hogue Ritter on a zip tie. It's 20CV

 

[Daedric Panther]

S110v on a zip tie, same thing happened with a s35vn Spartan blades

 

[oldmanwilly]

I've chipped 1095 on an old Benchmade CSK. That's just poor tempering.

More recently I've chipped an Endura in 20CV. I don't blame the steel though, I was using a thinly ground knife to punch holes in a tin planter. Then I wiggled the tip around. I was all but asking it to chip.

 

[ShaiHulud]

I chipped the tip off of a Fallkniven knife in CoS steel once, but after I reground the tip it didn't happen again

 

[knarfeng]

The only blade that chipped when I didn't think it should have was a Kershaw Link in 20CV. I was cutting some carpet padding, did not hit anything other than the padding, and ended up with a number of chips along the edge. There was some side load on the blade, but not an unreasonable amount.

I don't count blades that chip when hitting rocks as being the fault of the blade, more like, "Rats! I hit a rock. Well THAT was stupid of me."

 

[oldmanwilly]

I don't count blades that chip when hitting rocks as being the fault of the blade, more like, "Rats! I hit a rock. Well THAT was stupid of me."

Whaddya mean? Any knife that can't baton through concrete without chipping is clearly garbage.

Which reminds me: I chipped a Kershaw folding skinner, flipper-thing. I think it was in some Sandvik steel. It was partially serrated (I hate Kershaw serrations) and ground super thin. I tried to slash through a small bamboo shoot and caught it right where the serrations met the plain edge on a particularly thin, angular section of the blade. The shoot flexed and blew a half-moon shaped chip right out. I doubt it was the steel's fault, just too thin and no match for the bamboo.

*Edit to add a pic. It was a Kershaw Storm. The circled area is where the chip occurred.

I still have mine tucked away with some camping gear somewhere.

 

[ShaiHulud]

Whaddya mean? Any knife that can't baton through concrete without chipping is clearly garbage.

Which reminds me: I chipped a Kershaw folding skinner, flipper-thing. I think it was in some Sandvik steel. It was partially serrated (I hate Kershaw serrations) and ground super thin. I tried to slash through a small bamboo shoot and caught it right where the serrations met the plain edge on a particularly thin, angular section of the blade. The shoot flexed and blew a half-moon shaped chip right out. I doubt it was the steel's fault, just too thin and no match for the bamboo.

I chipped a crkt nathans knife kit while trying to carved a stick, it was for sure garbage..

 

[dirc]

anything on the low end of toughness will likely be chippy, unless a specific ht regime is used to maximize toughness at the expense of hardness

Larrin has some great charts like this one,

and

anything under 10 foot pounds will be chippy and really even under 15 (I would be wary at least)
20+ imho is a good range for normal knife use

40+ is what you want for swords/machetes etc where much abuse will happen

 

[Shuya]

anything on the low end of toughness will likely be chippy, unless a specific ht regime is used to maximize toughness at the expense of hardness

Larrin has some great charts like this one,

and

anything under 10 foot pounds will be chippy and really even under 15 (I would be wary at least)
20+ imho is a good range for normal knife use

40+ is what you want for swords/machetes etc where much abuse will happen

Funny thing is, the only hard chipping knife I had encountered was on a bow making course where some dude wrecked his D2 Scandi blade (cant remember the brand) to the point where he has chips of 1-2mm all over the blade from scraping the bark off.
I had a 14C28N blade from Casstrom, no problem on the very same task.

According to that chart, 1095 should be prone to chips, my 4 Esee blades disagree on that. No matter what stupididy I throw at them, they have never failed me.

 

[LostCause]

Funny thing is, the only hard chipping knife I had encountered was on a bow making course where some dude wrecked his D2 Scandi blade (cant remember the brand) to the point where he has chips of 1-2mm all over the blade from scraping the bark off.
I had a 14C28N blade frm Casstrom, no problem on the very same task.

According to that chart, 1095 should be prone to chips, my 4 Esee blades disagree on that. No matter what stupididy I throw at them, they have never failed me.

That is what I also always wonder with these charts. It is good for general direction but real life use often shows different results.

80CrV2 should be plenty tough, but I had JP Peltonen that lost it's tip from simply being stabbed into wood, I didn't even pry. It wasn't even small break as it was at least 1cm long Possibly bad HT. But ironically, as pointless as JoeX tests are - I must hand him this one. He also called that knife brittle. Lost tip is not the same as chipping, but that also happened. After hearing this, one friend sold his Peltonen to other friend... and the guy eventually complained about it being brittle.

That same guy has Terava Jakaripuukko in same steel and he never had any issues... really makes you think.

 

[Larrin]

ESEE 1095 is so soft it just deforms:

Any knifemaker can make a steel brittle through bad heat treating. Despite their reputation for ease in heat treating, simple steels are the easiest to overheat and make brittle.

Geometry is most important for a knife's resistance to chipping or breaking, of course. A thin knife will chip even if it is made with unobtanium. A sharpened prybar won't break even if it is made with brittle garbage. It is in the regime of optimizing for performance where things matter. The more optimal steel choice in terms of hardness and toughness will handle the thinner geometry and therefore cut better as well.