Darrin Sanders Custom in Z-A11 Steel (CPM 10V) - Full Review

Rhinoknives1 said:
Darrin,
Great looking little working knife.

That's what I love to make and see are REAL Working knives for kitchen or field! I'll pass on the mirror polished enlayed and jeweled closet queens. I appreciate the craftsmanship and the look of high end stuff for a few minutes and then I'm back to wanting to see a knife that you can use hard all day!

Ankerson,
Thanks for the review and Darrin, Thanks for making such a cool little work horse!

And I LOVE that Ironwood!
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I'm with you on that Laurence. mirrored polish does nothing for me.
great test and a sweet knife that is some pretty awesome results. that amount of cutting just amazes me.
Justin
 
Droptine5 said:
I'm with you on that Laurence. mirrored polish does nothing for me.
great test and a sweet knife that is some pretty awesome results. that amount of cutting just amazes me.
Justin
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With A11 it takes one heck of a lot of cutting to dull it, that knife wasn't dull or anywhere near dull in any point of the testing, the edge still had really good bite after the rope and again after the cardboard.
 
Ankerson said:
With A11 it takes one heck of a lot of cutting to dull it, that knife wasn't dull or anywhere near dull in any point of the testing, the edge still had really good bite after the rope and again after the cardboard.
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That just dawned on me earlier today and now I'm wondering how long you could EDC an A-11/10V blade before it actually needed sharpening. I'm thinking months maybe even years.
 
Nice work Darrin , I look forward to seeing what you do with those two knives we were talking about.

After my packages get there your going to laugh at 15v , let alone 10v :)
 
darrin sanders said:
That just dawned on me earlier today and now I'm wondering how long you could EDC an A-11/10V blade before it actually needed sharpening. I'm thinking months maybe even years.
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I would say for most people it would be a VERY long time...
 
Thanks Colin, I can't wait to try that stuff out. It sounds like it will make finishing this stuff much easier.

I hear ya Jim, I'll be making an EDC for myself soon.
 
darrin sanders said:
Thanks Colin, I can't wait to try that stuff out. It sounds like it will make finishing this stuff much easier.

I hear ya Jim, I'll be making an EDC for myself soon.
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One of those sharpen it and go for so long you forget how long it's been since you sharpened it. :D
 
Great review, Jim, especially when we can put it in context with all the other testing you've done and posted.

It's amazing that Darrin's Z-A11 blade at 62.5 HRc is roughly as tough as D2 at 62 HRc, maybe even tougher. I think that's a bit harder than D2 is normally run, but still impressive.

And what really, really amazes me is that Z-A11 at 62.5 HRc is much more wear resistant than powder M4 at 64 HRc, at least according to Zapp. I have a camping knife in powder M4 at 64 HRc, and it just doesn't get dull.

I was kind of curious as to whether this knife can be stropped in any reasonable time frame.
 
Twindog said:
Great review, Jim, especially when we can put it in context with all the other testing you've done and posted.

It's amazing that Darrin's Z-A11 blade at 62.5 HRc is roughly as tough as D2 at 62 HRc, maybe even tougher. I think that's a bit harder than D2 is normally run, but still impressive.

And what really, really amazes me is that Z-A11 at 62.5 HRc is much more wear resistant than powder M4 at 64 HRc, at least according to Zapp. I have a camping knife in powder M4 at 64 HRc, and it just doesn't get dull.

I was kind of curious as to whether this knife can be stropped in any reasonable time frame.
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You have to remember that M4 has less than half the Vanadium in it than A11 does. :)

Yeah, no problem at all stropping A11. :)
 
Jim, you have done more work with true "super" steel class blades than anyone I know of. Heck, what is this, 3 or 4 A11 class steels ? That is a lot of cutting just with those knives not to mention the S110V, K390, S90V, S60V, CPM M4, etc..

Darrin's work is up to the expectations I had for the knife when you told me you got it in. With those beautiful Ironwood scales and the thin, high hardness blade it's a knife that should last a few generations if taken care of.

These are truly the "good old days". Thanks again for posting your results Jim, and thanks to Darrin for putting out such high performance knives. Between Darrin, Phil and Big Chris and all you other makers putting out such high performing knives and setting the bar higher for Foundries& Metallurgists, knife manufacturers now using "super" steel in production knives because of threads like this one creating demand that wasn't nearly as large before.

We all win from these.

Joe
 
The Mastiff said:
Jim, you have done more work with true "super" steel class blades than anyone I know of. Heck, what is this, 3 or 4 A11 class steels ? That is a lot of cutting just with those knives not to mention the S110V, K390, S90V, S60V, CPM M4, etc..

Darrin's work is up to the expectations I had for the knife when you told me you got it in. With those beautiful Ironwood scales and the thin, high hardness blade it's a knife that should last a few generations if taken care of.

These are truly the "good old days". Thanks again for posting your results Jim, and thanks to Darrin for putting out such high performance knives. Between Darrin, Phil and Big Chris and all you other makers putting out such high performing knives and setting the bar higher for Foundries& Metallurgists, knife manufacturers now using "super" steel in production knives because of threads like this one creating demand that wasn't nearly as large before.

We all win from these.

Joe
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Joe,

We are most defiantly in great times. :)

Jim
 
Awesome work Jim and Darrin!

I've had the pleasure of making some sheaths for Darrin's fine knives, and I am always impressed with his work. Couldn't keep my hands off those knives. His heat treating is top notch, and alot of my recent blades have had some of Darrin's magic.

The design on this knife is outstanding.
 
Love the design of the knife, in one word it's Classy. I love tradional looking blades with modern materials. My question is it's corrosion and staining resistance?
 
Maddogg774 said:
Love the design of the knife, in one word it's Classy. I love tradional looking blades with modern materials. My question is it's corrosion and staining resistance?
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Well, it's not a rust magnet....

Here are my A11 knives, the top one I have had for about 3 years.....


DSC_4725.JPG
 
Custom K390 partial tang EDC at 64 HRC from david Williamson, semi mirror polished by me... this is my second K390 knife and I love this steel.

K390-mirror%20polished.JPG
 
Jesus, I don't know how to embed a photo in my post... :( It works differently from our local czechoslovakian forum. Can someone help me with this? I would like to show you what type of surface finish can be done on A11 class, REX 121 and other high carbide steels. Thanks.
 
Ondrej Sabol said:
Jesus, I don't know how to embed a photo in my post... :( It works differently from our local czechoslovakian forum. Can someone help me with this? I would like to show you what type of surface finish can be done on A11 class, REX 121 and other high carbide steels. Thanks.
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You can e-mail it to me and I'll post it for you, or you can get an online photo-account (google/picassa, photobucket, etc.) and embed it via URL, or you can purchase a membership on BF that allows direct uploads.
 
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