Cruwear or Aogami Super Blue?

A

amflud

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Jun 10, 2009
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Of the two which do you prefer and why? What are the major differences between the two? What are your likes and dislikes about them?

Thanks in advance,

Adam
 
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I think it'll be hard to tell until we have more cru-wear knives. To my knowledge there was only a mule and now a military sprint planned.
 
aogami only has a tiny bit of alloying elements basically it is a very pure carbon steel which is capable of high hardness and should hold a sharp edge for a good long while. Cruwear is a tool steel with a lot more alloying elements including 7.5% chromium, vanadium and tungsten. If you look at the composition it is similar to cpm3V. It will have higher toughness and corrosion resistance than aogami but is not stainless. It would tend to have large abrasion resistant carbides and possibly harder to sharpen. Aogami excels in the hard, thin edges of kitchen knives but due to its hardness can chip if abused. Cruwear is suited for a knife where toughness and impact resistance are important.
 
From Crucible's site, Cruwear is tougher than CPM D2, not CPM M4 level though, and its wear resistance is not quite S30V, but close. Of course this is graph info, not knife info.
 
Thank you very much for the responses. Sounds like they're quite different, so I'm glad I asked.
 
nccole said:
From Crucible's site, Cruwear is tougher than CPM D2, not CPM M4 level though, and its wear resistance is not quite S30V, but close. Of course this is graph info, not knife info.
Click to expand...

hmm, if that's the case I would choose super blue. Cruwear not as tough or as edge holding as cpm m4, if I was shopping for another knife like that I'd certainly look for another CPM M4 knife.

I think my CPM M4 Millie will suffice though ;)
 
I have both in the Spyderco Mule Team series and several other Aogami Super Blue knives. As Scottie3000 mentioned there is not a lot of comparisons and reviews out there on Cruwear knives due to the very limited offerings. I can't really provide much or any additional feedback on the Cruwear Mule Team (correct HT version) because I haven't spent a great deal of time using mine. I can only say that it didn't wow me like some of the other Mule Teams did like S90V, M390, M4 and Super Blue, but that is some very good company. I use the Aogami SB knives quite a bit, however.

My impression of both is pretty much the same as olpappy's and others comments. Cruwear is tougher and more corrosion resistant than Super Blue but that's not saying much as far as corrosion goes because SB patinas very easily. I would say the corrosion resistance of Cruwear is more closer to M4 or 3V although I think 3V is better in that regard. Super Blue is much easier to sharpen than Cruwear and I suspect will maintain a more acute edge, but I have not really pushed the edge limits of the Cruwear. I'm curious what application you are considering these for, because I don't view them as steels that would be in the running for the same job.

I like Super Blue very much in a slicing capacity and as mentioned have several knives made out of it. Even with a polished edge it tends to grab whatever it is cutting rather than slide over it as some steels do. Cruwear I guess you could say I'm still on the fence about but unlikely to purchase additional knives that use it. I'm can't personally testify that it has any advantages over the 3V and M4 and other steels with similar characteristics that I already have, but based on other reports and testing it does not.
 
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