magnacut toughness in a long fixed blade.

Rockwelledge75 said:
For those that have experience with Magnacut[...], in a long blade of say 12 to 16 inches is a thickness of .156 sufficient for a robust enough spine or bevel to give it enough toughness or resilience against shock when cutting into hardwood?
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Yes. Skip cryo.
 
fullswing said:
I'd love to revive this thread, did the machete in Magnacut ever get tested? Thanks to all contributors of this thread btw, tons of useful information for a sword enthusiast interested in super steels.
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Unfortunately the deal I made with my knife maker that was going to make my machete fell through, I was left hanging with a piece of magnacut that has yet to be turned into the amazing design I had for it. Maybe one day it'll still get made, I haven't gotten rid of the steel yet, I'm just waiting for that perfect person to come along and make blade!

Thanks for your interest, as I've stated before if and when it gets made I will be sure to post pics and discuss performce!
 
dtcls100 said:
While the charts do show 5160 as having slightly higher toughness than 3v at 59.5 hrc, different heat treatments can make a difference. Moreover, the differential hardening that Dawson swords are given, with a hardened edge but softer shock absorbing spine, further accentuates their toughness. In any event, any toughness differences at such a high level of toughness for both steels is really insignificant as opposed to such a percentage difference between low toughness steels. While very tough, 5160 has extremely low corrosion resistance (not affected by geometry) and very low edge retention, while 3v is actually pretty good in both categories and far superior to 5160. CPM-3v has small vanadium carbides so it is not difficult to sharpen. 5160 may be easier to sharpen, at the cost of having to sharpen much more frequently, which is significant when dealing with a long blade as opposed to a 3 inch kniife. You do not want to sharpen a sword on a rock! The balance of qualities heavily favors 3v over 5160 with 5160’s only real advantage being cost. However, the cost of the steel in a sword is typically a minor factor.
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Differential hardening only works with simple alloy steel. There are no properly way to differtential hardening steel like Magnacut or 3V.

Differential tempering also not an option, tempering these kind of steel higher than certain temperature range will lower both toughness and hardness due to tempering carbide precipitating.
 
Rockwelledge75 said:
Unfortunately the deal I made with my knife maker that was going to make my machete fell through, I was left hanging with a piece of magnacut that has yet to be turned into the amazing design I had for it. Maybe one day it'll still get made, I haven't gotten rid of the steel yet, I'm just waiting for that perfect person to come along and make blade!

Thanks for your interest, as I've stated before if and when it gets made I will be sure to post pics and discuss performce!
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Perhaps I can help if you send me an email to introduce yourself and the project.
 
David Mary said:
Perhaps I can help if you send me an email to introduce yourself and the project.
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Will do, I'll try to shoot you an email this weekend. Are you located in the US? I got to gather up various design details as there was alot to this project. I'll be in touch soon, Thanks!
 
So just an update for those that have been following this thread for this long and want to know where the project is at. Basically I continue to keep hitting snag with the handle overtime I talk to a potential maker. Originally this handle was meant to be a stacked design made with rings of varying materials but the thickness of my steel wasn't good enough for a tang that would be that narrow, so I sent the steel back and got a thicker piece but my original maker was swamped with work and couldn't take it on for that and other things going on after everything was said and done with.

David Mary informed me that there's a way to get a similar look with scales and I was very interested and going to see where this goes assuming he's still up for the task, not sure yet if he is or not.

Never had a problem with scales it's just most don't seem to know how to give them that rounded appearance, apparently you just have to sand them, I'm assuming from a block of G10 or simiar matriral but I think alot of knife makers just want to buy scales already made to shape and size, not sure.

If anyone here would like to comment with additional advice or discuss ideas about the handle I'm open to hearing them. rounded off scales with some filed in grooves in them actually sounds pretty cool to me so I'm probably going to go with that if no one wants to make the stacked handled design, but I'm cool with both options, the tang should be strong enough now that I'm working with 3/16th inch steel to accommodate most handle designs.
 
post a pic of your design if you care to share? curious to see the approach...
 
I tried using imgBB but doesn't appear to be working, if you know of another image hosting site that works with this forum let me know.
 
Good morning R Rockwelledge75 . I don't talk business on Sundays, and I was busy Saturday. But yes, there are too many things I would want to change about the design to make the build work in my shop, and I don't want you to have to settle for something other than your original vision. So I will let another maker take this project on. Good luck.
 
David Mary said:
Good morning R Rockwelledge75 . I don't talk business on Sundays, and I was busy Saturday. But yes, there are too many things I would want to change about the design to make the build work in my shop, and I don't want you to have to settle for something other than your original vision. So I will let another maker take this project on. Good luck.
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No problem, and thanks for your consideration of my project.
 
Guys I'm probably going to start a new thread soon and call it Magnacut Campsword/ extralong Bowie because honestly that's more of what this is than a true Machete and I just didn't know what to call it in the beginning (though it still does have some small elements of machete in it, as I've said from the beginning it's a unique design) , plus this particular thread was more about discussing the toughness of the steel in a long blade and not so much about the project it self and my design.

So for all those still following me and interested in things like pictures and design details or anyone that may want to offer their services in completing all or some of the things going into this please follow me in the new thread I make.

Thanks for all your interest in my project, this will be the last time I report in this until it gets made and I have feedback to report on as it relates to toughness and perfomance.
 
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So I decided to revive this thread because I know many were curious to know how magnacut would perform in a machete or bolo style blade, and that's what I'm going to be testing over the next 4 to 5 days so stay tuned.

Just a few things to get this started so there's no confusion going forward and you guys know exactly what I'm working with.

1. what I had made was not exactly a bolo, it probably resembles a bolo more than anything else but if people are to get ultra nitpicky and tear apart the design they'll probably be able to technically call it out to not exactly fit the standard definition, but once again it's body was heavily inspired by certain types of bolos so that is what it's more closely going to resemble, but if you don't want to call it that I don't really care, fact of the matter i designed this based off of many different types of blades, bolos, bowies, there's small parts of it that were inspired by Japanese blades such as ninjagos and kukris ectect, it's not any one thing persay, but rather a hybrid of many things, but if it must have a name I guess you could call it a camp sword since these things literally come in all shapes and sizes, seriously there is no right or wrong way to make a camp sword, so if you don't want to call it a bolo just call it a camp sword, or you can call it by the nickname I've given it, The Devastator, or the nickname my maker called it "The Madmax"

And no, before anyone asks, I did not "copy this from a video game, I did the work, looked at several different blades and came up with a hybrid design and it just so happens to look "scifi" or "dystopian fantasy", but hey fantasy blades look cool so if you think it looks fantasy like then it's really just a compliment to me because for me functionality came first when I made this design and looks came second, so if it looks that cool I'm happy because trust me this is no wall hanger, I already got word from my maker Richard that this thing cuts as good as his best blades he's ever made on the few small tests he's done, so just keep that in mind.

2. So this blade is 15 and 3/4ths inches long, it's made from Magnacut at an hrc of 62.5. I opted to give it a partial ridgeline for added strength and a tad more weight because I intended this to be just as much of a camp chopper as it is a more standard bolo or machete type blade for brush work. (see above for the purpose built hybrid design)

3. people often criticized me for using magnacut over AEB-l, but once again, this serves a purpose which is 2 fold, one it'll have a more wear resistant edge which comes it handy if and when I slice through things like cardboard, and this blade does slice nearly as good as it chops, (once again see above, it's a hybrid) two, I wanted the most scratch resistant surface possible, I've owned many survival knives, katanas, machetes, they all get scratched up, even my custom made 3v katana which was heat treated to 61.5hrc over a long enough time got scratches on it, I was tiered of all my blades having this happen to them so I went with a more wear resistant steel, had it heat treated to what's considered to be as high as it can go while still having a good balance of toughness and had a stonewash finish done on it. So I hope that this finally answers all the critics of this from a year or two ago. it's still a tough steel, Magnacut is not far behind AEB-l at all in toughness, it's a hell of a lot more wear resistant and it does have a partial ridgeline which should add some more toughness.

Now that we got the story and some of the more technical details out of the way, I'll just offer a disclaimer, make your machete, bolo or whatever other long fixed blade however you want, if you don't think magnacut is tough enough at 62.5 hrc add a ridgeline like I did or only heat treat it to 61hrc or make the spine thicker, I'm only telling you what I did, at the end of the day we all have to come up with what's best for us.

With that being said I hope you guys enjoy some of the future photos I will post here in the next few day, and it helps everyone understand just how far this new and unique super steel can be pushed!
 
https://imgur.com/a/D1s2qqB
https://imgur.com/a/yaIdQRq
https://imgur.com/a/TswU1OQ


Testing went amazing, this thing slices! without applying much pressure at all it was easily going through cardboard even when in many spots there was tape as well.

Overall very impressed, it's nearly razor sharp and it's profile lends to it's incredible ability to just glide through cardboard like nothing.

next up bamboo, stay tuned!
 
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Rockwelledge75 said:
https://imgur.com/a/D1s2qqB
https://imgur.com/a/iry4OLC
https://imgur.com/a/yaIdQRq
https://imgur.com/a/TswU1OQ
https://imgur.com/a/S9G5fTK

Testing went amazing, this thing slices! without applying much pressure at all it was easily going through cardboard even when in many spots there was tape as well. also tested before and after sharpness on paper and it didn't appear to be much of a difference after everything was said and done.

Overall very impressed, it's nearly razor sharp and it's profile lends to it's incredible ability to just glide through cardboard like nothing.

next up bamboo, stay tuned!
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Do you have a pic of the blade itself ?
 
Even though I personally disagree with almost everything.....

I think it's Super Awesome that you have the conviction and perseverance to have it made the way You wanted.... For that, good job, I think that's Great!!!!

I hope it's everything you wanted it to be and more.....
I know it's Fun having a blade made to your specs
Good times, ahead... :)
 
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