cpm420v

[millsidefive]

Both Spyderco and Crucible show cpm420v in their properties tables, but I can't find anyone who makes blades from this material. Can someone educate me about the pros/cons of cpm420v?

 

[Cliff Stamp]

On the positive 420V is very wear resistant (much more so than D2 for example), and is very stainless. On the negative it is rather brittle, having the impact toughness of D2 at 59 RC when it is tempered to 55/56 RC.

So you can either raise the RC to reach a hardness level suitable for crisp edge holding and take a huge drop in impact toughness (by more than a factor of 2) -or- leave the edge a bit soft so it won't chip, but then it will impact/roll fairly easy.

Phil Wilson uses it and tempers it really hard like 60 or so RC. That would give you a very crisp edge should last a long time and is suitable for the kind of knives he makes.

-Cliff