Does LC 200N work harden?

I don't think it does. H1 does though.

 

Not to my knowledge.

sal

 

LC200N is no maxamet or K390, but I'm quite happy with the performance of my spydiechef. I'd say it does slightly better than VG-10.

 

I absolutely LOVE my Spydiechef.

 

Work hardening is caused by plastic deformation. Grinding will cause very little of it, especially when using a coarse abrasive. Burnishing can happen when grinding or abrading but I doubt that it would make much difference and that only happens on the surface of the steel. Internally it does not change.

I personally don’t think that H1 work hardens either. If it does then either I am missing something or it defies the laws of physics. That is just my opinion though and many folks disagree.

 

No it doesn’t, there has been an actual study/evaluation done by Larrin (Knife Steel Nerds) that is as “scientific” as anything out there...the gist of it was that:
A) H1 does not work harden
B) the edge is not any harder than the spine, some of the edges tested were actually the softest areas on the whole blade.
C) there’s nothing special about H1 except that it’s hard enough to make a decent knife steel while being extremely corrosion resistant. Most steels that are that low on carbon and/or that corrosion resistant can’t get hard enough to make a good blade steel. H1 makes a decent one, albeit not that good.

Unfortunately, there is a lot of misinformation out there, sadly Janich (who works for Spyderco) keeps repeating a story about work hardening H1 and there’s really no way it can be true.

As for LC, it is hardened more conventionally and the nitrogen level is amped up by the PESR process to a level that is high enough for a small amount of chromium nitrides to form, this helps wear resistance (a small amount). There are other nitrogen steels that have much higher levels of nitrides, be it vanadium or chromium.

 

I'm a big VG10 fan, and I think my Autonomy in LC200N has better edge retention.

 

I found I can get my Spidiechef hair whittling sharp on just a regular sharpmaker. Given the rust resistance of LC200NI'd say it's an exceptional steel.

Contrasted to my Ladybugs in H1; while I can get them to feel as sharp they won't cut hair with the same ease.

 

I did think it was wild that the H1 is not heat treated but is work hardened by rollingto flat bar sizes at the mill.

Its nice to see the urban myth of work hardning plain edge H1 with special sharpening and grinding laid to rest.

It's just a Austenitic Stainless steel.

It looked like in order to boost the hardness a guy would have to do some redneck cold forging with a hammer and reduce/compress the metal.
Doesn't seem like there would be any control to that and it would just be brittle if not break in the process.

(Hold my beer )

I like Lc200n much better.

The CrN,Cr2N chromium nitrides are harder than the basic Cr7C3 Chromium Carbides we usually get. This is why we see such a big boost in performance.

However Vanadium Nitrides are softer than Vanadium carbides, but much finer thanks to the process used to create them and some inherit qualities to nitrogen.

VN is still harder than Cr2N and other softer Carbides However.

 

I always wondered the anecdotal reports of godly cutting performance of serrated H1 were just placebo effect based on some passing remarks from the forums. My personal experience with a couple of serrated tasman salt tells me that they can’t really hold edge half as well as advertised. One of the got severe edge roll from cutting small strands of copper wires.
I’d probably trust Larrin more on this.

 

during edge grinding/sharpening.

 

I would like to hear why H1 in serrated edges cuts more paper in a CATRA than just about any other steel?

sal

 

Those who say that H1 can’t hold an edge at all must be talking about PE H1. Because my SE H1 blades mostly hold their edges very well. I have rolled the serrations on my PAC Salt and Atlantic Salt, but they were easily fixed with my SM. I’ve never rolled the SE edges on any of my Tasman Salts.

That said, I personally like LC200N better than H1. It’s good in both PE and SE, and it seems to “age” better with use than H1 does (IMO).

Jim

 

Good question. What other steels have been CATRA tested with serrated edges?

 

We test them all. The nitrogen steels with serrated edges are usually longer lasting edge retention.

sal

 

He didn’t have a conclusion in that area...I’m curious how a well balanced toughness/edge retention steel like Cruwear or CPM154 performs serrated on a CATRA. Also the low toughness/high wear resistance alloys like ZDP and S110V

 

Hi John,

Generally, the serrated version will cut about twice the plain edge.

sal

 

I would as well.

 

Well I mean not to be obvious but if the serrated one cuts better then it's the serrations.

The why is likely because having the peaks of the serrations contact first they act like birds flying in echelon.