K888 vs CPM 1V: High toughness at high hardness?

DeadboxHero

DeadboxHero

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Good data about K888 vs CPM 1V for us to discuss here.

While folks enjoy steels designed for high toughness at low hardness we haven't seen a lot of materials in the wild designed for high toughness at higher hardness

Now that data is in what are your thoughts and conclusions about these materials in the video?

Curious to hear from the Bladeforms homies.

Personally I was excited enough to purchase a bar of CPM 1V from Alpha Knife Supply Alpha Knife Supply
 
DeadboxHero said:
More importantly, does it take Glock mags?
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My other question is.. would it still talk to me if I'm mean to it?

In reality Im quite intrigued. the only matrix steel Ive had is Hitachi's YXR7 which proved to be amazing @ 65C in the way it was ground. Only problem I had, it didn't vibrate as much as I had hoped...
 
badmatt said:
My other question is.. would it still talk to me if I'm mean to it?

In reality Im quite intrigued. the only matrix steel Ive had is Hitachi's YXR7 which proved to be amazing @ 65C in the way it was ground. Only problem I had, it didn't vibrate as much as I had hoped...
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I'm curious as well but there isn't a lot of matrix steels to play with on the market for knife buyers or steel buyers to make the knives with.

I have some Caldie which is a matrix of CPM 4V without the primary carbides.

However, CPM 1V looks more exciting since it's more homogeneous with less grain growth at higher hardness.
 
Wear resistance is low, but at 64 hrc, with the toughness it has, it should be able to take a nice low edge angle and still perform pretty well.
 
I’ve had a chance to own and use a few knives in 1V - Gossman’s. I can’t offer a comparison to K888. I have compared 1V to 3V, 4V, S7, Z Tuff and CD1 though. 1V is probably tougher than most people would ever need. The 1V knives I’ve tried had edge retention similar to 01 or maybe A2. I can’t speak much on wear resistance as the knives I had were primarily choppers. I did notice that I couldn’t get 1V to patina, even after cutting raw meat and fruit for months.
 
Larrin said:
I think people just generally aren’t interested in steels they haven’t heard of which aren’t available in any factory knives.
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We need some basis for comparison. When I see a new Spyderco Mule coming out I start reading about it to figure out how its steel compares to steels that I already have. (I've noticed that if some aspect of a steel is mentioned as "similar to D2..." then that will kill demand for the knife. If it starts being compared to other steels known to have high performance then demand will be very high.)
 
I added 1V to my chart. Very interesting, I didn't think such high hardness and toughness could be achieved together. I wonder if the toughness would increase linearly as you go softer, but I have to agree that the utility of higher toughness than that for a knife or sword is questionable. 3V is already nearly indestructible when done right.

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I’m currently testing 1v. Butchered one hog so far. And I’m extremely impressed. Kinda playing with the heat treat currently.
And since I drew a wilderness elk tag, the plan is to build myself a nice heavy duty hunter! I may update when I have more results!

My opinion of knife steels is definitely out of the norm from everyone here. Then again I also spend more time in the back country than most people. So I have a tendency to really put my work to the test!!
 
rodriguezryan14 said:
I’m currently testing 1v. Butchered one hog so far. And I’m extremely impressed. Kinda playing with the heat treat currently.
And since I drew a wilderness elk tag, the plan is to build myself a nice heavy duty hunter! I may update when I have more results!

My opinion of knife steels is definitely out of the norm from everyone here. Then again I also spend more time in the back country than most people. So I have a tendency to really put my work to the test!!
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How do you like it compared to the Other steels you, I, and others talk about?
:D
 
Dan Farr was working with CPM-1V as early as 2005, I think. It was one of the alloy suggestions from Crucible as a possible improvement over simple forging steels before he and Crucible worked on the development of CruForgeV. My memory on this could be way off, but I’m pretty sure he took at least one knife made in it on his hunting safari in Africa. Although he said it held a better edge in the sandy, gritty, soil-caked hides of the game he took there in comparison to simple steels like 1084, 52100, etc, it wasn’t enough for him to not pursue CruForgeV.
 
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