Is CTS-BD1 really an upgrade for the voyager?

shootist16

shootist16

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I read somewhere that the voyager was moving from AUS-8 to CTS-BD1. Is this an upgrade, downgrade, or lateral move? I would love to see a sprint run of voyagers with a better steel.
 
Aus8 by Cold Steel is good, holds decent edge and takes abuse.Would like to see cold steel upgrade to Vg1 again or some of tool steels like d2 or cts-xhp
 
A Voyager in XHP would cause the same problem for Cold Steel's sales of Recons as they do now with both having AUS8.

The reality is that there are few reasons to buy a Recon 1 over a Voyager in the same size when they both use the same blade steel.

By making a clear distinction between them, with BD-1 on the Voyager and XHP on the Recon, they can offer the Voyager at about the same price point as they do now, and have a point of difference for the Recon that justifies charging more for them. The XHP Recons will probably be about three times the price they are now, which will still be a fairly cheap XHP blade.

I intend to get the XHP AK-47 when it comes out.

We know that Cold Steel invest in decent heat treatment for their steels, so there probably won't be a huge difference between BD-1 and AUS8. They may be switching to Carpenter steels to reduce their Japanese operations. From what I've heard Japanese costs are going up, making it more economical to use American steels.
 
I have found the stain resistance on CTS-BD1 to be much better than AUS-8A.

The edge-holding is about the same though, and needs to be touched up the same too.
 
In my limited experience the main difference seems to be in stain resistance and how they dull. BD1 seems to keep a really hair splitting edge for longer than most, but progresses quickly to dull after it loses that. AUS8 seems to lose that initial high sharpness fairly quickly, but settle into a decent working edge for longer than BD1. I don't have solid testing to back it up, that's just the impression I've gotten through use.
 
Sal Glesser (Spyderco) said that BD1 was one of his favorite all around steels, if I remember correctly. It is an upgrade, IMO.
 
DocT said:
Sal Glesser (Spyderco) said that BD1 was one of his favorite all around steels, if I remember correctly. It is an upgrade, IMO.
Click to expand...

I certainly agree with Sal on that. I consider BD1 to be an upgrade from AUS8 for many reasons including corrosion resistance. The Manix 2 Lightweight by Spyderco in CTS-BD1 is the best user knife I own.
 
BD1 is an excellent all around steel. It is an identical steel to Gin-1 (G2) which is Japanese and was very popular in the 1990's.
I have a few Spyderco and Benchmade knives in Gin-1.
 
Gin 1 ( silver paper steel) was the highest quality stainless available to Spyderco in Japan when he began his enterprise making knives. They had to call it G2 for a while but went back to Gin 1. The steel has a bit higher carbon content than Aus 8. Not enough difference to do back flips but possibly better wear resistance but not much. Differing heat treats can change the attributes more than .15% extra steel but the potential is there.

CTS ( Carpenter who now owns Latrobe and Crucible as well) makes excellent, clean steels and it will be consistent from batch to batch. It's not XHP but it's not bad either. I've had many Gin 1 knives and to be honest it was the first stainless steel I had respect for back in the era they released the Endura. It made great serrations and took a nice edge easy enough. If you are used to D2 or S30V wear resistance you might notice a difference but if you are used to 8A you might not notice much. Things all depend on heat treat and grinds.

Joe
 
They should be available next year, within a few months after they show them at the 2015 SHOT Show.

Hopefully they will be marked with the steel type on the blade, like they have done with the O1 carbon steel fixed blades and the CTS-XHP Recon 1s are.
 
i have both aus 8 large clip point and cts bd1. with my experience cts bd1 is a upgrade holds edge longer and is very stain resistant and its made in the good old usa not to say aus8 is bad in any way shape or form just not as good thats all both good steels for the average cold steel owner
 
IMO one thing to consider is that they may also be moving away from using Japanese steel to start using more American steel i.e. BD1/XHP/3V or other countries like 4116/D2
BD1 is probably still new to CS and im sure in time they will improve BD1 like how they did AUS8
 
I've always been impressed by Cold Steel's treatment of AUS8, judging by my Voyagers. That little bit of vanadium makes a positive difference in edge holding. Easy to sharpen, too. I'm even more impressed though by CTS-XHP in my American Lawman and Recon 1. Great steel as CS treats it, and I love the high thin blade geometry... both are superb slicers. (Still love Carbon V, too: Elk Skinner, Twistmasters, SRK, Master Hunter.) Lynn Thompson knows how to heat treat steel IMHO:thumbup:.
 
It's an upgrade, IMO. I don't like AUS8A. When sharpening it's easy to apex the edge but if too large a burr is formed it can be very floppy and difficult to remove. Also it's not very stain resistant.
 
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