CRKT/Knifecenter Hootenanny: Not actually S30V

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Misanthropia

Misanthropia

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UPDATE 10/24/16: CRKT has confirmed these ARE NOT S30V blades and Knifecenter is requesting all buyers return them. See post #86 for a statement from both companies. In addition, check out page 2 for further evidence from me of their dubious steel.

On Friday I received the Knifecenter exclusive CRKT Hootenanny, which is done in a titanium bolsterlock with CF scales and an S30V blade. For $130, it's been pretty good so far. However, last night I cut up an apple and was stunned at how quickly the highly polished satin finish stained. I'm not kidding, it was faster than any of the M4 blades I've ever used.

So I ask, is this normal? From my experience with S30V, it isn't. But I want to see how people feel about this. This picture, which is lightly edited to show the amount of staining, was take probably 10 minutes after I cut the apple. What you can't see is the total discoloring on the secondary bevel:

crkt_zpsm3wmt8h5.png


I should clarify that I'm not trying to level any JDavis level accusations here at CRKT, it's been a while since I've had an S30V (have tons of S35VN blades) and maybe it's just a lack of experience that is causing me to be so surprised.
 
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In 10 minutes? I've never experienced such a thing with s30v. I've had some light rust spots after forgetting to clean a military and PM2 after a day or two but nothing like that.
 
Apples will stain (patina) carbon blades that fast.

But S30V is a stainless steel and shouldn't that.
 
Yes, this really doesn't seem like how S30V should behave... but then, I usually clean my S30V knives fairly quickly after getting them wet with anything...
 
Never seen any "stainless" steel stain that fast, not even some of the cheap "stainless" kitchen knives that I have had for years....

Not really sure where you go with that?

Of all the things I can complain about when it comes to S30V, this isn't one of them....
 
This throws into question anything CRKT sells as being represented properly. Maybe you all can tell one steel from another on sight, but I can't.
 
Only stainless I have had stain like that is ZDP. Somehow a pretzel roll, of all things, gave it an ugly stain on the blade from cutting pieces off. That said, I have cut acidic or mildly corrosive things numerous times with steels less corrosion resistant than S30V without a lick of spotting or staining. I have even had better performance than that from high polish satin D2. You definitely got a bum knife, it looks. I would definitely call the seller and CRKT. Also good for posting this here, a couple more reports like this and CRKT has some explaining to do (one report could be a bum heat treat, even some highly corrosion resistant steels can corrode easily with just the wrong HT).
 
I have some stainless knives that have done that but I have really bad water where I live. Flitz polish has always taken care of the problem.
 
Update: It was relatively easy to polish it off. I'm going to try and reproduce this to make sure this wasn't some sort of fluke. If it happens again, I'll probably get in touch with Knifecenter. Can heat treatment affect stain-resistance?
 
I just cut a lemon and apple with 3 s30v from different brands and did not experience this at all.
 
22-rimfire said:
This throws into question anything CRKT sells as being represented properly. Maybe you all can tell one steel from another on sight, but I can't.
Click to expand...

I don't think crkt would lie about materials

I think a more likely scenario is a botched heat treat.

less likely but plausible is somewhere down the line, steels got mixed up. supplier could've sent the wrong material or crkt got it mixed up in their warehouse
 
Misanthropia said:
Update: It was relatively easy to polish it off. I'm going to try and reproduce this to make sure this wasn't some sort of fluke. If it happens again, I'll probably get in touch with Knifecenter. Can heat treatment affect stain-resistance?
Click to expand...

Not HT, but (I am really stretching here) it could be a poorly composed batch of the steel, so the properties aren't exactly what they should be...
Thing is, to make S30V act like 1095 would be an error I can't see happening.

I would subject it to a bit of testing as you I am sure you are going to, and see what happens...

Cut up a lemon and post some pics.
 
Okay, so I gave this test a try again. After using some Simichrome, this is what the blade looked like before I cut the new apple:

20161017_185346_zpsqz6laasw.jpg


Here is it mid-cut, with the apple culprit pictured:

20161017_185640_zpshqqpuhpg.jpg


And here is waiting about 7 minutes, without wiping the blade off (still apple juice on it):

20161017_185920_zps9p0cptgn.jpg


And here is the blade after wiping it down:

20161017_190147_zpsmmfla3aq.jpg


20161017_190150_zps77oei72y.jpg


And here is a video that hopefully shows it a little better, including the brown (oxidized) juice from the apple (it will be in 1080p once it's processed fully by YouTube):

[video=youtube;BU99x8dBGKo]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BU99x8dBGKo[/video]

As I say in the video, it is behaving exactly like a carbon steel knife, and is actually making the apple taste like it was cut with a carbon steel knife. This is really bizarre.
 
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