Increasing Commonality of AEB-L and Nitro-V, Why?

Honestly, I like the stuff and I’m not complaining more people are using it. I have a RMJ Utsidihi in Nitro V. I reprofiled the edge and the thing is screaming sharp. The steel sharpens/touches up fast and holds a keen edge. I’m no longer in the trades so I don’t see a need for ridiculous edge retention.
The Utsidihi and a S35VN Sebenza have checked all of the boxes on sub 4” blades for me.
 
1, To understand this, one has to first understand that CATRA "edge retention", or manilla rope cutting, or any "edge-retention" test with nothing but soft, abrasive material, are not for testing how well a knife holds its edge in real use. It's only for testing the wear resistance of a certain steel / heat treatment.

a, Wear is only one of the four factors that dulls an edge, the other three being chip, roll, and rust. Which means a higher toughness steel w/ inferior wear resistance will last longer than a lower toughness steel w/ superior wear resistance in a lot of case scenarios, especially for fixed blades that mean to cut / chop hard, solid stuff, like wood.
b, In CATRA tests, edge geometry actually plays a bigger role than the wear resistance of the blade material. A finer edge of less-wear-resist steel will stay sharper for longer than a thicker edge of more-wear-resist steel.

AEB-L's superior toughness means it can support a finer edge without breaking, which means in real use, it has the compounded advantage of both a, and b, and will possibly stay sharper for longer than a PM "super" steel.

2, Harder "super" steel with higher wear-resistance are typically harder to sharpen at home, and practically impossible to sharpen well in the field. A lot of people actually prefer knife edges that are very quick and easy to sharpen in the field, which makes AEB-L a superior choice for them.
 
I have owned customs in cpm154. I also have customs in AEBL.

Run at 60-61 rc AEBL is not far off of edge retention of cpm154.

It is considerably tougher. And much easier to sharpen. It is the combo of ease of sharpening and still decent edge retention combined with the toughness.


It is a lot of the things I love about 52100 and spring steels with rust resistance and better edge retention.
 
UNBLF said:
1, To understand this, one has to first understand that CATRA "edge retention", or manilla rope cutting, or any "edge-retention" test with nothing but soft, abrasive material, are not for testing how well a knife holds its edge in real use. It's only for testing the wear resistance of a certain steel / heat treatment.

a, Wear is only one of the four factors that dulls an edge, the other three being chip, roll, and rust. Which means a higher toughness steel w/ inferior wear resistance will last longer than a lower toughness steel w/ superior wear resistance in a lot of case scenarios, especially for fixed blades that mean to cut / chop hard, solid stuff, like wood.
b, In CATRA tests, edge geometry actually plays a bigger role than the wear resistance of the blade material. A finer edge of less-wear-resist steel will stay sharper for longer than a thicker edge of more-wear-resist steel.

AEB-L's superior toughness means it can support a finer edge without breaking, which means in real use, it has the compounded advantage of both a, and b, and will possibly stay sharper for longer than a PM "super" steel.

2, Harder "super" steel with higher wear-resistance are typically harder to sharpen at home, and practically impossible to sharpen well in the field. A lot of people actually prefer knife edges that are very quick and easy to sharpen in the field, which makes AEB-L a superior choice for them.
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Bigfattyt said:
I have owned customs in cpm154. I also have customs in AEBL.

Run at 60-61 rc AEBL is not far off of edge retention of cpm154.

It is considerably tougher. And much easier to sharpen. It is the combo of ease of sharpening and still decent edge retention combined with the toughness.


It is a lot of the things I love about 52100 and spring steels with rust resistance and better edge retention.
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Running AEB-L at 62-63 RC really makes it pop. I've made and sold many, many, many, knives from AEB-L at this hardness. Really the only stainless I use. To put some of this into real world stuff. I often sell my knives at ropings, rodeos etc as most of my customers are cowboy types. So thats where my customers are. The wife and I at the last show we did back in August:

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Having done a bunch of these shows and being a rancher myself, I can instantly tell whether the potential customer is a cowboy or a hunter. A hunter always asks how well does it hold an edge? The cowboy, always says how easy is it to resharpen? Whats the difference? If ya got 250 calves to process before lunch, on average half are gonna be bull calves that need cuttin'.

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I don't care what your knife is made from, in this situation its gonna need touching up. A cowboy is looking for the knife he can bring back to hair splitting by stropping on his chaps, the top of the truck window, a coffee mug etc and he's back to work. Hunter wants to get his whole kill done without stopping. AEB-L will accomplish and does both of these things. I use it for my own leather knives too and these guys might cut for eight hours at a time:

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This is literally one tool that is never put away. It just lives on the work bench. I expect it to cut through 8/10 oz saddle leather with a single pass. I sharpen them maybe every 6-8 months. But I strop that edge often. Instantly back to hair poppin'. The performance of AEB-L at lower hardnesses drops significantly. 62 to 63 seems to be the sweet spot. In high carbon steels I use 26C3 at 63-64RC. Why? Cause just like AEB-L its tough, holds an edge very well and is very easy to touch up and keep going.
 
AEBL is my favorite of all the steels.

Never really did understand the whole supersteel/crazy hard to sharpen thing when a 20 seconds on a tiny pocket strop negates all of that. But to each his own!
 
Hinderer went with Nitro-V for his redesign of the Fieldtac last year. Everything is pretty dramatically different from its predecessor in a good way, particularly the primary and edge grinds. They are actually knife-like and able to cut well. I don’t know if the steel change had any affect on the design changes though.

On the other end of the size & design spectrum, that Serge Bean is also Nitro-V and I LOVE it. It’s one of my most carried and used knives, very easy to strop the edge back to life.

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I've only had one knife in NitroV (Massdrop Perpetua) and it was a total let down. I broke down maybe 3 boxes and pruned a few very small saplings from a tree in the yard and the edge was toasted after that. I figured it was probably a bad heat treat or maybe got fatigued during sharpening, but it sort of put a skidmark on the steel for me. That being said, I wouldn't let NitroV stop me from buying a knife that I really liked.
 
I own neither steel. I've been eyeing some Nitro V knives to try it out. I don't need another fixed blade (not much camping or hiking going on these days) so that will limit my chance to try AEB-L.

Trying new steels is a good excuse to buy more knives ... right?
 
SwissHeritageCo said:
AEBL is my favorite of all the steels.

Never really did understand the whole supersteel/crazy hard to sharpen thing when a 20 seconds on a tiny pocket strop negates all of that. But to each his own!
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What kind of pocket strop are you using?
 
While I love most high alloy steels, I detest S30v. I've experimented with it since it first came out 10 or so years ago, and with one exception, all the of S30v I've tested was horrible. I'd get better edge retention out of AUS 8A in some instances. I have many old posts in detail on this. Maybe it was because early adopters had problems with the heat treat back then.

A couple of years ago, I came across a couple of Buck knives with Bos's heat treating for S30v. Their edge retention is outstanding. So if your knives hold an edge like Buck, then I understand why people like this steel, but I won't buy any knives in it, unless it's a Buck.

I've recently gotten an LT Wright in AEB-L, and it's been fine so far. No, it doesn't hold an edge like CPM 10V, but it holds an edge for a good long time for the tasks I've been using it for. But looking at previous posts, now I want an ULU, lol.
 
FloridaDreams said:
The 14c28n I have on Civivi's button lock elementum takes an insanely thin edge and is easy to strop back. I dig it.
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I really like the 13c26 and 14c28n in my Kershaw's too. In fact an hour ago I sharpened al older Kershaw OD-1 in 13c26. When I started it wouldn't even hardly cut computer paper. I ran it over the grey ceramic sharpmaker stones (using them flat on the table like a bench stone) for about 10 minutes taking my time, and then just a few swipes against the white ceramic stones and now it's poppin hairs off my arm. It's the first time I've sharpened this knife and I really like the way it sharpened. This is my everyday carry lately for the passed couple months and I'm going to keep carryine it as my main blade. Now I'm looking forward to using it hard so I can sharpen it again.
 
H0kieengineer said:
In my opinion, using AEB-L or Nitro-V is an instant no buy. A folder is inherently not that strong, so using a tough steel is a bit of a waste. I appreciate the super/ultra/mega steels for their either exceptional wear resistance (M4, Rex 45) or stainlessness and high wear resistance (M390, CPM-xxxV steels).

A fixed blade is a different story, but I lean very heavily non-stainless in my preference.
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That toughness would come handy if you want your folder ground thin and heat treated to high hardness. Which I think both of these qualities are more important in a folder than abrasive wear resistance.
 
I love Nitro V in the Field tac. I've tried Aeb-l and 14c28n in several knives and those three are among my favourite steels. Tough, stainless, easy to sharpen and reasonable edge holding. Everything I want. I'm not interested in steel with ultimate edge holding.
 
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