Looking for steel test in Blade or KI made in 1997-99

[Gaston444]

Hello, I'm looking for an extensive steel test comparison test that would have been in "Blade" or "Knives Illustrated" magazine in the 1997-99 period. The test included INFI and two early CPM "powder" steel to be used in knife blades, 3V and another.

The most interesting characteristic of this test was that all the blades tested were "mules" made specifically for the test by a custom maker, to tightly controlled temper, edge angle and surface finishes.

Any help in locating this article would be greatly appreciated.

Gaston

 

[The Mastiff]

Gaston, I haven't been able to find it the way you describe the test in that time range and I'm decent at researching. My guess is you are remembering the steel as 440C when it was 440 V ( now called S60 but then called 440V or T440V). This is a vanadium/higher carbon version alloy that to me doesn't resemble 440C but they sold it as an upgrade to 440C back then.

It was hot stuff and new to the market and it got a lot of press when Spyderco introduced it back then.

It has wear resistance performance like you described though it was eventually changed in Spyderco's offerings not because more wear resistance was found but because other attributes made more sense for a production knife. The 440V was introduced at one hardness and then Spyderco ended up lowering the hardness of their 440V offerings to get better edge strength. S30V was the replacement mostly and it did better in toughness and edge strength though slightly lowered abrasive wear and corrosion resistance performance. Later Spyderco came out with ZDP, and S90V which was a true upgrade over 440V in the "super premium, or "super" steel categories which the term itself came into popular use around the same time.

I recall all kinds of articles that included 440V back then though I don't know of any test that had mules built for the test until the Dozier made ones in 2010 in KI.

Have you tried the publisher? If you explain that you are researching for an article ( here) they might look up the tests published at that time frame.

Or, try different search terms and research it. Basic problem solving techniques can make short work of this for you.

Joe

 

[The Mastiff]

Wayne Goddard published some results using mules of a sort. His results can be found here.
http://sharpeningmadeeasy.com/edge.htm

Note: I don't hot link or copy and repost others work without permission so don't accuse me of being lazy in only posting a link. It's a protocal thing that may be outdated but maybe so am I.

Joe