How Strong are Strider S30V Fixed Blades?

[MatthewSB]

I always hear about how tough Strider knives are, does anyone know where I can find any torture tests of their fixed blades?

I searched and all I could find are "just out of the box" reviews, aside from one that was made from 3V where they were hammering it through a cinder block with another cinder block. I'm more curious about the S30V that they use in most of their fixed blades, I've heard that S30V is 'chippy' and ill-suited for fixed blades, but I'm always interested "Why".

 

[Twindog]

"Strength" has meaning in both a technical sense and a general sense. Technically, strength refers to that ability to resist rolling or deformation, while toughness refers to the ability to resist chipping, cracking and breaking.

In general, hardness (Rc) is a good proxy for strength. And in general, for any given steel, toughness goes up as Rc goes down. Heat teat can have a large effect, either supporting or offsetting.

The other big factor is going to be geometry. Thick blades and obtuse geometry will make the blade much tougher in a general sense -- harder to break.

S30V itself, is a pretty good powder steel. Kind of medium toughness and capable of very good strength. Strider, in my experience, usually errs on the side of obtuse geometry, and its heat treat is pretty good.

The tradeoff with knives that are super tough and super thick is that you lose slicing performance.