CPM MagnaCut – The Next Breakthrough in Knife Steel

[Chronovore]

MagnaCut is a stainless steel. My book has steel ratings. On that rating system MagnaCut is a 9.5/10 for corrosion resistance. It’s more corrosion resistant than most available stainless knife steels.

BTW, thanks for putting that together. I've been using your corrosion rating table quite a bit around the web when questions come up.

Questions about the corrosion resistance of a particular steel come up frequently. They tend to generate a lot of anecdotal answers, wrong answers based on raw chromium content, or answers based on questionable charts that have been published over the years. Having better answers rooted in science and having them in a meaningful context with other steels is extremely helpful.

 

[Fir Na Tine]

I pre ordered the knife. Thank you for posting this!

 

[Popsickle]

Seems a group specific Demko knife is in the works

 

[Fir Na Tine]

Seems a group specific Demko knife is in the works

Details please

 

[nattynarwhal]

MagnaCut is a stainless steel. My book has steel ratings. On that rating system MagnaCut is a 9.5/10 for corrosion resistance. It’s more corrosion resistant than most available stainless knife steels.

Pardon me if this has been already mentioned in your articles, but how does it compare to a steel like nitrobe77?

 

[Larrin]

Pardon me if this has been already mentioned in your articles, but how does it compare to a steel like nitrobe77?

Nitrobe77 has much lower wear resistance and is reportedly being discontinued.

 

[nattynarwhal]

Nitrobe77 has much lower wear resistance and is reportedly being discontinued.

I was wondering more about the corrosion resistance aspect of it. Your articles state that nitrobe has a pretty high resistance to pitting because of the high Mo content, but that it’s just shy of vanax when hypothetical corrosion resistance is measured. Where does magnacut fall on that scale? Do you think it’d be more or less corrosion resistant than nitrobe?

 

[Larrin]

I was wondering more about the corrosion resistance aspect of it. Your articles state that nitrobe has a pretty high resistance to pitting because of the high Mo content, but that it’s just shy of vanax when hypothetical corrosion resistance is measured. Where does magnacut fall on that scale? Do you think it’d be more or less corrosion resistant than nitrobe?

MagnaCut does better than other stainless steels with the same amount of Cr/Mo in solution because of the lack of chromium carbides, so it is hard to compare at the top end. In my corrosion testing article I gave Nitrobe77 a 9.6/10 which is similar to the rating I gave to MagnaCut so I suppose they would be in the same ballpark. If I had to guess I would say that Nitrobe77 is somewhat better but can't say for sure.

 

[bikerector]

Three customs in MagnaCut just arrived from @David Mary

Camp knife, pig sticker and hunter. The bottom two have Suretouch handles for extra grip.

Besides a folder and maybe a really small fixed blade if you're into that kind of thing, you may never need another knife. I had David run me an Al Mar SERE styled fixed blade, modeled far more after the folder than the fixed, and I haven't been nice to it and it's holding fantastically.

That bottom knife seems like it would be about perfect for an "everything but chopping" knife. I would be curious what the larger knives do for you over time if you put them to use chopping.

 

[tinfoil hat timmy]

Besides a folder and maybe a really small fixed blade if you're into that kind of thing, you may never need another knife. I had David run me an Al Mar SERE styled fixed blade, modeled far more after the folder than the fixed, and I haven't been nice to it and it's holding fantastically.

That bottom knife seems like it would be about perfect for an "everything but chopping" knife. I would be curious what the larger knives do for you over time if you put them to use chopping.

chop! ing! test!
chop! ing! test!

 

[Currawong]

you may never need another knife

I may also never need to sharpen a knife again. These knives just keep cutting with no noticeable loss of sharpness. Packaging, cardboard, chicken bones... MagnaCut is living up to the hype so far.

 

[BigKurtHaze]

This week’s haul, Tactical Pteradactyl and Deep Cuts Cutlery.

 

[kobold]

This week’s haul, Tactical Pteradactyl and Deep Cuts Cutlery.

Now I have seen everything. This has to be the first pink knife that I want.

 

[Rob_Angerer]

When S30V was introduced (2001), it was developed as a cutlery steel (more than an industrial steel). Over a few years time, it displaced ATS-34 & 154CM as the defacto standard benchmark steel for quality blades. D2 continued to have a place because it was cheap and held a decent edge if heat treated properly, but it isn't stainless. Bob Loveless was the guy who championed both ATS-34 and 154CM many moons ago. I watched that transition to S30V over those ensuing years. S35VN and S45VN are just incremental modifications to S30V. S30V is still a very good steel, so it's kinda funny to me that people are starting to thumb their noses at S30V, when it's still a very good knife steel, tougher than M390.

“It's tough to make predictions, especially about the future.”​

― Yogi Berra

Larrin Thomas' Magnacut is now poised to displace S30V as the defacto standard in the knife industry, and I do not find that dicey to predict, even about the future. The key is that it's a breakthorugh in it's balance of properties ... at a given hardness, it's as tough and abrasion resistant (edge holding) as CPM 4V and Cruwear, but it's a near super-stainless, right there with M390/20CV/204P in corrosion resistance.

On the corrosion front, Magnacut is only bested slightly by specialty alloys Vanax and LC200N/N360/Cronidur 30/Z Finit, but those steels can not be run nearly as hard as Magnacut. Vanax tops out at Rc61 if the heat treater knows his business. I think LC200N tops out at Rc60 but Larrin's papers speak to that. Magnacut can be run out to Rc65 although that might be a couple points too high to be safe for general purpose use (fine for slicers).

We just need Crucible to ramp up Magnacut production, Niagara to keep up with rolling it out, and the big production houses (Spyderco, Benchmade, Kershaw/ZT) will adopt it for premium knives as the Magnacut prices come down. Watch Chris Reeve Knives as a bellwether...

 

[stormchaser90]

that's very interesting. what are some knives that came with that type of steel?

 

[nattynarwhal]

When S30V was introduced (2001), over a few years time, it displaced ATS-34 & 154CM as the defacto standard benchmark steel for quality blades. D2 continued to have a place because it was cheap and held a decent edge if heat treated properly, but it isn't stainless. Bob Loveless was the guy who championed both ATS-34 and 154CM many moons ago. I watched that transition to S30V over those ensuing years. S35VN and S45VN are just incremental modifications to S30V. S30V is still a very good steel, so it's kinda funny to me that people are starting to thumb their noses at S30V, when it's still a very good knife steel, tougher than M390.

“It's tough to make predictions, especially about the future.”​

― Yogi Berra

Larrin Thomas' Magnacut is now poised to displace S30V as the defacto standard in the knife industry, and I do not find that hard to predict, even about the future. The key is that it's a breakthorugh in it's balance of properties ... at a given hardness, it's as tough and abrasion resistant (edge holding) as CPM 4V and Cruwear, but it's a near super-stainless, right there with M390/20CV/204P in corrosion resistance. On the corrosion front, Magnacut is only bested slightly by specialty alloys Vanax and LC200N/N360/Cronidur 30/Z Finit, but those steels can not be run nearly as hard as Magnacut. Vanax tops out at Rc61 if the heat treater knows his business. I think LC200N tops out at Rc60 but Larrin's papers speak to that. Magnacut can be run out to Rc65 although that might be a couple points too high to be safe.

We just need Crucible to ramp up Magnacut production, and the big production houses (Spyderco, Benchmade, Kershaw/ZT) will adopt it for premium knives as the prices come down. Watch Chris Reeve Knives...

I have a magnacut custom at 65 hrc and I’ve not seen any chips or rolls yet. The geometry is pretty extreme at 0.008” bte and 17 dps but the steel seems to be extremely resilient against both chipping and rolling. The only downside is that at 65Hrc, the choseras and Shaptons are extremely slow to remove material while sharpening. I’d definitely try to sharpen with Diamond abrasives

 

[Karl H]

We just need Crucible to ramp up Magnacut production, and the big production houses (Spyderco, Benchmade, Kershaw/ZT) will adopt it for premium knives as the prices come down. Watch Chris Reeve Knives...

I think it is the other way around. When the major knife manufacturers start ordering Magnacut, instead of S30V, then Crucible will replace S30V production with Magnacut.

That being said, I have no idea what the time periods are between order placement and production. I would expect the major producers to have annual contracts with the steel makers.

 

[Matthew Gregory]

Lots of great observations in this post, Rob.

When S30V was introduced (2001), over a few years time, it displaced ATS-34 & 154CM as the defacto standard benchmark steel for quality blades. D2 continued to have a place because it was cheap and held a decent edge if heat treated properly, but it isn't stainless. Bob Loveless was the guy who championed both ATS-34 and 154CM many moons ago. I watched that transition to S30V over those ensuing years. S35VN and S45VN are just incremental modifications to S30V. S30V is still a very good steel, so it's kinda funny to me that people are starting to thumb their noses at S30V, when it's still a very good knife steel, tougher than M390.

“It's tough to make predictions, especially about the future.”​

― Yogi Berra

Larrin Thomas' Magnacut is now poised to displace S30V as the defacto standard in the knife industry, and I do not find that hard to predict, even about the future. The key is that it's a breakthorugh in it's balance of properties ... at a given hardness, it's as tough and abrasion resistant (edge holding) as CPM 4V and Cruwear, but it's a near super-stainless, right there with M390/20CV/204P in corrosion resistance. On the corrosion front, Magnacut is only bested slightly by specialty alloys Vanax and LC200N/N360/Cronidur 30/Z Finit, but those steels can not be run nearly as hard as Magnacut. Vanax tops out at Rc61 if the heat treater knows his business. I think LC200N tops out at Rc60 but Larrin's papers speak to that. Magnacut can be run out to Rc65 although that might be a couple points too high to be safe.

We just need Crucible to ramp up Magnacut production, and the big production houses (Spyderco, Benchmade, Kershaw/ZT) will adopt it for premium knives as the prices come down. Watch Chris Reeve Knives...

 

[Rob_Angerer]

I have a magnacut custom at 65 hrc and I’ve not seen any chips or rolls yet. The geometry is pretty extreme at 0.008” bte and 17 dps but the steel seems to be extremely resilient against both chipping and rolling. The only downside is that at 65Hrc, the choseras and Shaptons are extremely slow to remove material while sharpening. I’d definitely try to sharpen with Diamond abrasives

Good to hear. I switched to diamond stones, almost exclusively, when I experienced my first sharpening attempt on S90V. Never looked back.

Knives are tools, and tools have can have broad or narrow purposes. If you know you have a blade that's HRc=65, treat it as such... a slicer supreme... not a knife to chop and twist.

 

[Rob_Angerer]

I think it is the other way around. When the major knife manufacturers start ordering Magnacut, instead of S30V, then Crucible will replace S30V production with Magnacut.

I see your point. There is a bit of a push/pull right now.

Crucible has produced (pushed) enough Magnacut for those motivated to find it, buy it, and test it out, and I'm sure the big production houses have begun testing. Guys like Matt Gregory, Big Chris Berry, Big Brown Bear (Shawn), Gary Creely, RJ Martin, Robert Erickson, and many others have made and tested blades, and some have publicly commented on test results that uniformly validate Larrin's laboratory measurements showing the balanced steel characteristics.

So you are correct... the demand side, buy orders, needs to "pull" Magnacut into production, displacing other steels (e.g. S30V, S35VN) in Crucible's production schedule ... and volumes need to improve to bring prices down a bit.

I think a lot will evolve over the next calendar year. I would guess a Paramilitary 2 or Shaman in Magnacut will become available as a sprint, since the Para2 is a bit of a "mule" platform, and the beefy Shaman is a perfect platform for Magnacut's toughness. Did I mention to watch Chris Reeve Knives...?