Hardness testing of a sampling of production and custom knives

Added Spyderco Mule Team 18 in S110V.

I have to say that although the looks of these knives (Spyderco Mules) always put me off a little I have been EDC'ing either a MT17 in K390 or the MT18 in S110V for about a month and I am very impressed with the comfort and in the function as light duty all purpose, and slicing knives.

I'll test the K390 in the next while and add it. I also have an OTK custom in K390 coming which I will test. :)
 
Added Big Chris Bushcrafter in S90V. THis is right on the target of 60, and has thin grind. Should be a good slicer. :D
 
I have a s90v knife from big Chris and its my best cutter. This steel goes from scary sharp to very sharp rather quickly, but then stays that way for a long long time.
 
My pleasure, and yes that has been my experience with S90V as well. Loses its crazy sharpness pretty fast but stays very sharp for a very long time. I have a S90V knife that I cut up cardboard boxes for the fire for w whole winter without sharpening and it still push cut cardboard at the end, with more effort than at the start, but still cutting rather than tearing.
 
Added OTK (Ozark Traditions Knifeworks) DC slicer in K390. This is a sweet cutting machine, Does develop a patina somewhat more easily compared to some of the blades I have in other high alloys like 10V. But no sign of actual corrosion/or spots of rust. This is a fairly aggressive cutter. And its Hard... :) I haven't had to sharpen it since the initial sharpening I put on it when I got it.
 
Added a second Benchmade 710-2 in M390 slightly less hard than my first one, but still just over the specified hardness.

Added a Benchmade 940-1 in S90V, this knife is target at 59-61 hardness, and mine tested just barely into the range at 59.3

Added 2 Spyderco Farid K2's in CPM 10V, both are impressively hard, being the hardest knives I have tested in any steel, production or custom.

Added Koster Karda 6 in CPM 3V, hardness I expected the target to be 60 but tested quite a bit lower than at 58.4. Thick stock for a small knife, run fairly soft for this steel should be incredibly tough.

Darrin Sanders Kiridashi in 10V, at 60.6. Nice little cutter, fine edge, single bevel zero grind.
 
The OLFA Box cutter blades are their premiuim LBB or ultra-sharp line. Marked OLFA JAPAN 0.5. They are ground very fine, but some still seem to have a hint of wire edge. So lose their apparent sharpness fairly quickly. Once stropped lightly that problem goes away.

Testing shows a hard blade, results vary some depending on location of test. They seem to be through hardened with little temper hence their propensity for brittle failure at the score marks. They are harder than I expected, although there may be some over rating in the test due to the thinness of the blades.
 
I tested two of my knives. The Big Chris 10v .65 inches stock measures .64 at the spine and he said target was 64-65 and tested 64.5 but my Paramilitary 2 s110v tested at 57. Someone said I should send it back to Spyderco but instead I sent it off to be annealed and re-hardened to 64 and then re-ground.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
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