- Joined
- Feb 9, 2012
- Messages
- 902
Well, it's Monday again. That means Mrs. VegasBlade is at work, and I am left to my Mad Scientist Workshop.....er, I mean the garage. So off to Home Depot I went for some 3/8" manilla rope. It's cut test Monday.
This weeks contestants were the Military is M390 vs my M4 Military. I thought this one would be close. In fact, I was surprised at the outcome myself.
As many of you know, my test is a pure cutting test. Not a toughness, just standard "which will slice longer". This is the perimeters of this test. I took both Millies down to a 17* per side, 34* inclusive edge. This was done on my new Wicked Edge. I sharpened both to 600 grit on the WE. This angle and grit makes for a NASTY slicer. It cuts well and LONG. I make a series of cuts through the rope then I test if the edge will cleanly slice paper. When the edge won't cleanly slice paper, that steel is done. The benefit of a clean slice goes to the steel. If it catches or hangs up, I slice paper again. If it catches again, it's over. That steel's corner throws in the towel.
This test went a while. Both of these steels are very much "Super Steels", and at 17* per side, they could slice. In the end it was ......wait for it...... M390, by a decent margin. The M4 went 400 slices through the rope before it was done. The M390 was still clean at 460. It could have gone more, but at almost 900 cuts, I was tired of slicing. I thought it would be closer. My guess is that the 20% chromium in the M390, mixed in with the 4% Vanadium combined to make a seriously wear resistant, durable steel. I thought the Tungsten, Moly, and Vanadium of the M4 would maybe combine to win. Alas, it was not happening.
So, in my tests thus far it was M4 over Cruwear, S30V over Cruwear, and M390 over M4. Maybe next week I'll do CPM D2 vs Cruwear.
As always, thoughts are welcome.
This weeks contestants were the Military is M390 vs my M4 Military. I thought this one would be close. In fact, I was surprised at the outcome myself.
As many of you know, my test is a pure cutting test. Not a toughness, just standard "which will slice longer". This is the perimeters of this test. I took both Millies down to a 17* per side, 34* inclusive edge. This was done on my new Wicked Edge. I sharpened both to 600 grit on the WE. This angle and grit makes for a NASTY slicer. It cuts well and LONG. I make a series of cuts through the rope then I test if the edge will cleanly slice paper. When the edge won't cleanly slice paper, that steel is done. The benefit of a clean slice goes to the steel. If it catches or hangs up, I slice paper again. If it catches again, it's over. That steel's corner throws in the towel.
This test went a while. Both of these steels are very much "Super Steels", and at 17* per side, they could slice. In the end it was ......wait for it...... M390, by a decent margin. The M4 went 400 slices through the rope before it was done. The M390 was still clean at 460. It could have gone more, but at almost 900 cuts, I was tired of slicing. I thought it would be closer. My guess is that the 20% chromium in the M390, mixed in with the 4% Vanadium combined to make a seriously wear resistant, durable steel. I thought the Tungsten, Moly, and Vanadium of the M4 would maybe combine to win. Alas, it was not happening.
So, in my tests thus far it was M4 over Cruwear, S30V over Cruwear, and M390 over M4. Maybe next week I'll do CPM D2 vs Cruwear.
As always, thoughts are welcome.
