bodog
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- Dec 15, 2013
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Let me preface this test and review by saying that Luong La of Bluntcut Metalworks is a gentleman. He's asked nothing from me but honesty and neutrality concerning this review. I feel privileged that he's asked me to test one of his knives. This test was initiated because of my test and review of a Zero Tolerance 0180 fixed blade knife made with the really great steel Vanadis 4 Extra.
Once I posted the review of the ZT 0180 Luong and I communicated via email and within a week he had a knife sent to me made of regular old 52100 from Aldo Bruno of New Jersey Steel Baron. I haven't used any 52100 before so I was excited and a little apprehensive about this task. I want to remain as neutral as possible and report the good, bad, and ugly while not giving any disrespect or disservice to any party involved while also giving deference to any prospective buyer of the aforementioned suppliers.
Luong has talked about his ability to make common steels such as 52100 and D2 much better via superior heat treatment. He says it's via super quenching the steel which results in an ultra fine grain that is not common via normal heat treatment regimens. He purports that this super quenching gives superior toughness and strength and an increase in edge retention of the steel. I honestly cannot attest to that. I can only report what I see and the final results compared to other products produced.
I recently tested a Zero Tolerance 0180 made of the new and relatively unknown Vanadis 4 Extra. This steel is extremely close to Crucible's 4V. If you want to research the two steels you can if you want. The bottom line is that both are purported to be close to 3V In toughness and close to M4 in wear resistance. Now any of you steel junkies should know that's a tall order for any steel. Well, after I tested Vanadis 4E processed by Zero Tolerance I can say I was extremely impressed. I mean, very, very impressed.
Anyone who's been on Blade Forums for more than a year can probably remember some of my rants and raves about ZT and their products. When I say I am impressed by a Zero Tolerance knife that means that some serious negative bias has been overcome. Well, it's true, I was very, very impressed by the Zero Tolerance 0180 and especially Vanadis 4E. I really don't know if ZT is the reason I was impressed or Bohler Uddelholm who produces Vanadis 4E should be commended or both. What I do know is that ZT spec'ed their 0180 with V4E at 62 HRC +/- 1. That's a pretty high hardness for a rough use knife and the results can be seen in my testing thread of the ZT 0180.
Luong La of Blunt Metalworks has produced a knife for me to test that is very similar to the ZT 0180. I don't have calipers or postal scales or any other precision equipment to make exact comparisons. I just have my eyes and hands to see and feel any differences.
He sent the knife and I wasn't planning to make a direct comparison to any other knife. When I received it I couldn't help but notice it's very close measurements to the ZT 0180. Well, I can compare these, I thought. The spine is close to the same. The width of the blade behind the edge is close. The edge angle is close. The lengths of the blade and handles are close. The handle dimensions and shapes are close. The hardness of the steels are close. This should make for a fair battle between two knives. One from a very well known knife maker who produces hard use knives in bulk using the latest and greatest steels and technologies and one from a small independent maker using tried and true quality steels with some important and kind of obscure tweaks to their heat treatments.
The ZT 0180, of course, is using Vanadis 4E. The handles are made from thick slabs of black G10. It's an outstanding knife for those who want an all purpose utility knife capable of hard use, fine work, and everything in between. It performs those duties well. It normally costs about 220 bucks on the street though I was able to get one brand new for about 130 bucks brand new in box. It includes a mediocre sheath that does not perform all that well with the specific knife it was paired with. The sheath pairing was disappointing, to say the least.
Luong sent me a test knife to match up head to head with the ZT 0180. I did not expect a fully functional knife. I expected a half knife that I could wail on and show what his heat treatment could do to a known steel and nothing else.
Well, when I received it I was pleasantly surprised that I was holding a knife that, on first impressions, was absolutely something I would carry everyday. It came with a kydex sheath that fit very well and I've already used with a degree of satisfaction. It does not rattle and sits securely in the sheath and still leaves the knife easily extractable.
Luong quoted the knife as being about .020 inches behind the edge set at about 16 degrees per side. He did say that the knife was hand sharpened then finished on a Shapton 5k stone, eyeballed at about 15 or 16 degrees per side. When I put the knife on my generic edge pro I found that the edge was about 22 degrees per side at the tip narrowing to about 15 degrees per side near the ricasso with a slight convex grind because of the hand sharpening. It could easily shave hairs off my arm and was definitely toothy enough to grab and push and draw cut newspaper. I was a little sad that I had to modify the edge so that I could put this knife and the ZT 0180 would be on the same playing field. The edge as it came was well done for its stated purpose and was ready to roll and it wouldn't normally need any modification at all. The only reason I messed with it was to give as close to an even playing ground as possible. The upcoming tests are going to have inherent variables as it stands. I can at least try to make it closer by having the edge angles close. But that wasn't quite good enough for me. Luong wants to see if his heat treatment is better. That means that I needed to take the edge down a little from the ZT 0180. I had the 0180 at an even 16, almost 17, degrees per side with no microbevel finished up to 14 thousand grit. For Luong's steel to be declared as better it needed to actually be better so I am now finishing it at an even 15 degrees per side up to the same 14 thousand grit. If Luong's 52100 comes out on top then it will be because it's an obviously better steel and heat treatment rather than some variable like thicker edge angle or whatever.
Luong's handle is a beautiful (seriously) gabon ebony with the right amount of dark chocolate grains running through it. For you wood junkies you know that gabon ebony is a treat. It's not the least expensive wood on the market. For a test knife it's definitely a high grade addition. Upon first inspection the knife filled my hand extremely well and was immediately much more comfortable than the ZT 0180. If I had to compare this knife's fit and finish to something then I'd compare it to Bob Dozier's or Daniel Winkler's knives. Now remember, this is a test knife whipped up in a couple of days by Luong. There is a mild distal taper in the tang and the gabon ebony handles are thick. These are not scrap pieces of wood. Luong is coming out of his corner swinging hard. I will post the steel performance results within the next day or two but for now here are some pictures of the knife compared to other common knives including the ZT 0180. I'm looking forward to seeing the results myself.
Once I posted the review of the ZT 0180 Luong and I communicated via email and within a week he had a knife sent to me made of regular old 52100 from Aldo Bruno of New Jersey Steel Baron. I haven't used any 52100 before so I was excited and a little apprehensive about this task. I want to remain as neutral as possible and report the good, bad, and ugly while not giving any disrespect or disservice to any party involved while also giving deference to any prospective buyer of the aforementioned suppliers.
Luong has talked about his ability to make common steels such as 52100 and D2 much better via superior heat treatment. He says it's via super quenching the steel which results in an ultra fine grain that is not common via normal heat treatment regimens. He purports that this super quenching gives superior toughness and strength and an increase in edge retention of the steel. I honestly cannot attest to that. I can only report what I see and the final results compared to other products produced.
I recently tested a Zero Tolerance 0180 made of the new and relatively unknown Vanadis 4 Extra. This steel is extremely close to Crucible's 4V. If you want to research the two steels you can if you want. The bottom line is that both are purported to be close to 3V In toughness and close to M4 in wear resistance. Now any of you steel junkies should know that's a tall order for any steel. Well, after I tested Vanadis 4E processed by Zero Tolerance I can say I was extremely impressed. I mean, very, very impressed.
Anyone who's been on Blade Forums for more than a year can probably remember some of my rants and raves about ZT and their products. When I say I am impressed by a Zero Tolerance knife that means that some serious negative bias has been overcome. Well, it's true, I was very, very impressed by the Zero Tolerance 0180 and especially Vanadis 4E. I really don't know if ZT is the reason I was impressed or Bohler Uddelholm who produces Vanadis 4E should be commended or both. What I do know is that ZT spec'ed their 0180 with V4E at 62 HRC +/- 1. That's a pretty high hardness for a rough use knife and the results can be seen in my testing thread of the ZT 0180.
Luong La of Blunt Metalworks has produced a knife for me to test that is very similar to the ZT 0180. I don't have calipers or postal scales or any other precision equipment to make exact comparisons. I just have my eyes and hands to see and feel any differences.
He sent the knife and I wasn't planning to make a direct comparison to any other knife. When I received it I couldn't help but notice it's very close measurements to the ZT 0180. Well, I can compare these, I thought. The spine is close to the same. The width of the blade behind the edge is close. The edge angle is close. The lengths of the blade and handles are close. The handle dimensions and shapes are close. The hardness of the steels are close. This should make for a fair battle between two knives. One from a very well known knife maker who produces hard use knives in bulk using the latest and greatest steels and technologies and one from a small independent maker using tried and true quality steels with some important and kind of obscure tweaks to their heat treatments.
The ZT 0180, of course, is using Vanadis 4E. The handles are made from thick slabs of black G10. It's an outstanding knife for those who want an all purpose utility knife capable of hard use, fine work, and everything in between. It performs those duties well. It normally costs about 220 bucks on the street though I was able to get one brand new for about 130 bucks brand new in box. It includes a mediocre sheath that does not perform all that well with the specific knife it was paired with. The sheath pairing was disappointing, to say the least.
Luong sent me a test knife to match up head to head with the ZT 0180. I did not expect a fully functional knife. I expected a half knife that I could wail on and show what his heat treatment could do to a known steel and nothing else.
Well, when I received it I was pleasantly surprised that I was holding a knife that, on first impressions, was absolutely something I would carry everyday. It came with a kydex sheath that fit very well and I've already used with a degree of satisfaction. It does not rattle and sits securely in the sheath and still leaves the knife easily extractable.
Luong quoted the knife as being about .020 inches behind the edge set at about 16 degrees per side. He did say that the knife was hand sharpened then finished on a Shapton 5k stone, eyeballed at about 15 or 16 degrees per side. When I put the knife on my generic edge pro I found that the edge was about 22 degrees per side at the tip narrowing to about 15 degrees per side near the ricasso with a slight convex grind because of the hand sharpening. It could easily shave hairs off my arm and was definitely toothy enough to grab and push and draw cut newspaper. I was a little sad that I had to modify the edge so that I could put this knife and the ZT 0180 would be on the same playing field. The edge as it came was well done for its stated purpose and was ready to roll and it wouldn't normally need any modification at all. The only reason I messed with it was to give as close to an even playing ground as possible. The upcoming tests are going to have inherent variables as it stands. I can at least try to make it closer by having the edge angles close. But that wasn't quite good enough for me. Luong wants to see if his heat treatment is better. That means that I needed to take the edge down a little from the ZT 0180. I had the 0180 at an even 16, almost 17, degrees per side with no microbevel finished up to 14 thousand grit. For Luong's steel to be declared as better it needed to actually be better so I am now finishing it at an even 15 degrees per side up to the same 14 thousand grit. If Luong's 52100 comes out on top then it will be because it's an obviously better steel and heat treatment rather than some variable like thicker edge angle or whatever.
Luong's handle is a beautiful (seriously) gabon ebony with the right amount of dark chocolate grains running through it. For you wood junkies you know that gabon ebony is a treat. It's not the least expensive wood on the market. For a test knife it's definitely a high grade addition. Upon first inspection the knife filled my hand extremely well and was immediately much more comfortable than the ZT 0180. If I had to compare this knife's fit and finish to something then I'd compare it to Bob Dozier's or Daniel Winkler's knives. Now remember, this is a test knife whipped up in a couple of days by Luong. There is a mild distal taper in the tang and the gabon ebony handles are thick. These are not scrap pieces of wood. Luong is coming out of his corner swinging hard. I will post the steel performance results within the next day or two but for now here are some pictures of the knife compared to other common knives including the ZT 0180. I'm looking forward to seeing the results myself.
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