cowry x

[ChuckBuck]

Ive heard of a new Japanese steel cowry x, supposedly it can be hardened to a staggering 65+ HRC. Any truth to these reports of super high HRC's from the Japanese?

 

[nozh2002]

It is more then 5 years old new steel. Hattory was making knives out of it, Fallkniven has one of the NL with it

http://www.newgraham.com/detail.aspx?ID=6006

By Composition it is like ZDP-189
Hitachi ZDP-189: C=3 Cr=20
Daido Cowry-X: C=3 Cr=20 Mo=1 V=0.3

Thanks, Vassili.

 

[mr.trooper]

Ive heard of a new Japanese steel cowry x, supposedly it can be hardened to a staggering 65+ HRC. Any truth to these reports of super high HRC's from the Japanese?

You DO know that that plain Jane 1095 can reach 66HRC with the proper heat treatment right?

 

[Greg]

I have a Koji Hara with Cowry-Y that sharpens up a treat and cuts like a laser. The Y version is the stainless version and only gets hardened to 63 or 64!
Greg

 

[ChuckBuck]

You DO know that that plain Jane 1095 can reach 66HRC with the proper heat treatment right?

Yes, I realize that you can make a lot of different metals very hard, but then comes brittlesness, corrosion, and other bad stuff. The cowry x is a powdered metal (like S30V, the CPM part stands for Crucible, Powdered, Metal, I think) with some molybdenum, chromium, for added wear and corrosion resistance. From what read, powerede metals achieve much better consistency throughout the piece, due to the fact that the metal is melted, and then sprayed, or atomized, like a squirt bottle of Lysol or something, probably more like a fuel injector in a car engine. I realize that there is a lot more to a blade other than HRC. I found out the hard expensive way I admit. But for kitchen/culinary applications, if you plan on taking great care of a knife that should only see wodden cutting boards, and soft bonless hunks of prime rib, a very high HRC esp in a stainless or stain resistant blade, made by a good maker like Blazen or Watanabe, could be worth the investment, if you do some homework, and take care of the blade, most importantly of all.

 

[hardheart]

if you do homework and take care of the blade, then brittleness and corrosion are not problems.

 

[me2]

Realize also that the effects of high hardness and brittleness, corrosion, etc are not directly related in terms of higher hardness means higher brittleness, corrosion etc. Many steels have a peak in performance in areas of unexpectedly high hardness.

 

[nozh2002]

I have a Koji Hara with Cowry-Y that sharpens up a treat and cuts like a laser. The Y version is the stainless version and only gets hardened to 63 or 64!
Greg

Covry X with 20% Chromium is quite a stainless.

Covry Y - C=1.2 Cr=14 Mo=3 V=1

Does not looks like it is more stainless then CovryX.
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On the market best 1095 has lower then 60HRC and I think there is a reason for this. Whatever it may gain over proper quenching probably will not be able compete with Japanese PM super hard steels (ZDP189, SRS15, YXR7...) which are already tempered to the same level which 1095 get over quenching.

Thanks, Vassili.