About the Magnum Tanto II, Lynn Thompson said "...you have perhaps the ideal tanto ..."
That's something. Lynn Thompson isn't always so mild in his praise!
Actually, as a Cold Steel fan myself, I can't overemphasize my contempt for its San Mai steel. In the real world, hard, high carbon steels are laminated by layers of softer steels to add strength. Like Damascus, the idea is for there to be hard steel that might otherwise be a bit brittle with softer steels that will add strength, but on their own not be hard enough to take an edge.
The idea works when the steels are right, but what Lynn Thompson is doing is taking cheap, soft everyday junk stainless and laminating VG-1 stainless, which is strong and corrosion-resistent enough not to need laminating. Instead of improving the steel, he's actually substantially weakening it and charging a boatload of $$$ in the process.
So which would you rather have, a big, solid blade of VG-1, or a small core of VG-1, laminated with strips of 420 steel? Now if Thompson had laminated his Carbon V steel, that might have been different; however, until someone is able to convince me otherwise, I think San Mai III is an enormous waste of money. The slab of VG-1 in a Cold Steel Voyager Tanto with a 5-inch blade will be far superior to the San Mai III blade you get in the Magnum Tantos.
Cold Steel: San Mai means "three layers". It's the term
given to the traditional laminated blades used by the
Japanese for swords and daggers. Laminated construction
is important because it allows different grades of steel to
be combined in a single blade. A simple way to think of
this type of construction is to imagine a sandwich: The
meat center is hard, high carbon steel and the pieces
of bread on either side are the lower-carbon, tough side
panels. The edge of the blade should be hard to maximize
edge holding ability, but if the entire blade was hard it could
be damaged during the rigors of battle. For ultimate
toughness the body of the blade must be able to withstand
impact and lateral stresses. Toughness is generally associated
with "softness" and "flexibility" in steel, so that, surprisingly,
if a blade is made "tough" the edge won't be hard enough to
offer superior edge holding. San Mai III® provides a blade
with hard (higher carbon) steel in the middle for a keen,
long lasting edge and tougher (lower-carbon) steel along
the sides for flexibility.
In other words, San Mai III steel is like a slice of Roman
Meal bread stuffed between two slices of Wonder Enriched
Bread. For me, skip the Wonder!
.
