CPM 440V v. Tool steel

May I present you with Coronach, the unhappy camper.

All he wants is a knife...a simple knife. Just one. He would like it with a very robust lock, and strong blade steel.

A seemingly simple request.

Alas, however, the search for this Holy Grail of sorts drags on for him. Knives with tool-steel blades only seem to be offered in 'run of the mill' locks. Knives with axis or rolling locks only seem to be offered in ATS-34.

Enter the possibility of the Military with a rolling lock, and this newfangled CPM-440V steel.

Oooooh, thinks Coronach. Perhaps this is the One. The design of the Military has been lauded many times on The Forum. Spyderco is a respected name. The only question remaining is this steel.

So, he wonders...just how good is it?

smile.gif


Mike



------------------
Hey! Uncle Sam!

(_!_) Nyah nyah nyah!

Refund! You lose! :)


 
I think someone needs to tell Coronach's boss that he needs more work to do...=)
Danelle
 
CPM420V Military, 3 1/2" blade. Rolling lock. A WINNER!!! -AR

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- Intelligent men, unfortunately, learn from fools, more often than fools learn from intelligent men.

 
CPM-3V Military with a 4 1/2 blade (or whatever blade length would give a scaled up handle 1/2" longer than the current one), with a rolling lock and a symmetrical index finger cutout.

-Cliff
 
T

Tom Carey

Joined
Oct 10, 1998
Messages
811
Cliff,

I would kill for one of those! After spending some time with 3V I must say it is impressive.


Regards,

Tom Carey

------------------
IF you are a knife maker interested in free space on the web.
Check out. CGA online

www.anova.org/cga/

 
I can only speak for 440V....Awesome stuff.

I might try an AFCK in M2 but it will take something special to seperate me from my Military.

Now awaiting the Rolling lock(deep breath in now let it out)
wink.gif


------------------
God bless!

Romans 10:9-10

"Military" Fans Unite!!
 
Heh. Danelle, this IS my busy day at work.

Seriously? Is there any place where I can read about the durability/performance of this steel?

Mike


------------------
Hey! Uncle Sam!

(_!_) Nyah nyah nyah!

Refund! You lose! :)


 
This thread had some interesting comparisons:
http://www.bladeforums.com/ubb/Forum1/HTML/001674.html

Also, Fred Perrins Military Review is always fun to read for those extolling the virtues of the C36:
http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Set/2292/Militaryrev.html

Have fun!
Danelle


[This message has been edited by djo62 (edited 29 April 1999).]
 
Cliff - Wouldn't need a "cut out" with a Rolling Lock. Would have to redesign that portion of the handle anyway. A symmetrical cut out would be the only way to do it, but the question becomes the depth of the cut out. (gloves, etc.)

Not sure about 3V at this time. Corrosion resistance could be a problem in a hard working varied conditions folder.
sal
 
You are correct of course Sal (about the handle design), that's what I get for posting without coffee. As for corrosion resistance, I have not had a problem with the mini-AFCK in M2 that I had for months. While I don't live in the Jungle, I am less than a km from the ocean and the mini was my daily carry.

I can understand the importance of high corrosion resistance though as that is probably one of the most important aspects for a large number of people. Here is an idea. You mentioned before that there is time and cost involved in selecting a new steel (in reference to 420V specifically), that I can understand. What I was wondering is could you simply make the handle/lock and have someone already familar with the blade material grind it? This way you could offer say 3V Militaries with no R&D overhead.

-Cliff
 
Sal, correct if I'm wrong, but didn't you guys already do a bunch of 420V knives. I doubt that 3V is any harder to grind and may actually be easier.
 
Cliff - Thre is much more to creating a blade thatn just the grinding. All of the operations are affected by the steel. At this time, I don't know of any production shops that are more familiar with grinding production CPM steels than Spyderco. To my knowledge, Kershaw is the only other company even attemptiong CPM in production and they are two years behind us. They saved somer time by following our lead, but the little intricacies of working with CPM in production is more difficult.

Cobalt - Buying a ton of 3V and then trying to turn it into a knife is a major project. 440V is currently the "King of Production steels". We're not yet convinced that the monumental task of "changing" at this time would be worth the effort. We now have Owen here and we'll be able to progress faster on on our research, but a production project is probably more involved than most are aware of.
sal
 
Sal I oversimplified somewhat. To be specific, how about as a first stage process that you take your current Military and say ship a dozen or so to a maker and have them ungrade them to 420 blade. You then have a dozen or so blade that you could run against the regular 440V ones. This should be a fairly cheap way for you to see if it is worth the effort to go from 440 to 420.

-Cliff
 
Cliff - Testing is best done with mules that we make. A custom maker wouldn't serve in this area, we have a custom maker on staff.

We've just recently managed to effectively make 440V in production. This was quite a task. At this time, converting to another steel would hinder all other projects.

We're still waiting to see if the general market ELU can tell or will pay for the difference. We're still not convinced that 420V provides sufficient difference to make it worth the effort of the addtional costs that grinding creates.
sal
 
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