Nate does Magnacut

91bravo said:
So, what I gathered from that video, is that D3V beat out Magnacut in that nail chopping test. Did I get that right?
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Although Nate mentioned that the grind angles are a little different, that was the general impression I got; i.e. Magnacut with Nate's heat treat has amazing performance for a stainless steel, but still won't match the extreme toughness of D3V.
 
bluemax_1 said:
Although Nate mentioned that the grind angles are a little different, that was the general impression I got; i.e. Magnacut with Nate's heat treat has amazing performance for a stainless steel, but still won't match the extreme toughness of D3V.
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D3V is amazing to me. Easy as hell to sharpen, holds an edge forever and has low chipability.
 
I recently sharpened two knives in Magnacut at 63 HRC and one in D3V that I believe is 60-61. This was over the course of two days using a WE guided system set to the same 18dps angle. I didn't do any toughness tests, but it's striking how the Magnacut just wants to take a screaming sharp edge. It's quite satisfying to sharpen.
 
Richard338 said:
I recently sharpened two knives in Magnacut at 63 HRC and one in D3V that I believe is 60-61. This was over the course of two days using a WE guided system set to the same 18dps angle. I didn't do any toughness tests, but it's striking how the Magnacut just wants to take a screaming sharp edge. It's quite satisfying to sharpen.
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I'm not sure the hardness on my spyderco mule .. but had the same experience felt like it almost wanted to sharpen like 154 in the way it took an edge

I also really really really enjoy D3V to 400 on venev diamonds then 6 micron diamond basswood strop, followed by light touch on 1 micron on leather!
 
The Medium Chopper that Jeannie used on Knife or Death sustained very minimal damage, a few small chips/dings in the belly of the blade. A sharpening session or two, made those chips completely disappear. I have used that knife to chop Oak, Sweetgum and Hickory over the years and the edge has no damage to it.
 
Richard338 said:
I recently sharpened two knives in Magnacut at 63 HRC and one in D3V that I believe is 60-61. This was over the course of two days using a WE guided system set to the same 18dps angle. I didn't do any toughness tests, but it's striking how the Magnacut just wants to take a screaming sharp edge. It's quite satisfying to sharpen.
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I've been impressed with how magnacut takes an edge. It gets so sharp! What has really surprised me is how tough it is, even at high hrc. It tends to roll instead of chip.
Let's just say I wasn't being smart and used a magnacut blade (61-62 hrc) to pry with. I wasn't paying attention and the edge was levered against carbide steel. I checked the blade after and what I thought were a few decent chips turned out to be rolls that sharpened out perfectly.
It's an impressive steel in my opinion. Probably one of my favorites.
 
carnifex knifeworks said:
I've been impressed with how magnacut takes an edge. It gets so sharp! What has really surprised me is how tough it is, even at high hrc. It tends to roll instead of chip.
Let's just say I wasn't being smart and used a magnacut blade (61-62 hrc) to pry with. I wasn't paying attention and the edge was levered against carbide steel. I checked the blade after and what I thought were a few decent chips turned out to be rolls that sharpened out perfectly.
It's an impressive steel in my opinion. Probably one of my favorites.
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I like Magnacut, but I'm a M390/20CV fan for my folders. I don't need them to be as tough as Magnacut and they hold an edge better.
 
tokerblue said:
I like Magnacut, but I'm a M390/20CV fan for my folders. I don't need them to be as tough as Magnacut and they hold an edge better.
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I'm a fan of m390, but I find that magnacut is a lot tougher and holds a finer edge. If the m390 is treated to 62 hrc it's got an advantage in edge retention, but I was surprised it wasn't by a larger margin. Outpost 76 on youtube has a good video on this using two Koenig Arius folders (one in m390 and one in magnacut). It's a pretty good example because of the similar edge geometry and hrc.

Sadly, most of the 20cv and m390 I've run into isn't hardened to the extent needed to squeeze out the extra performance and edge retention. That's just been my experience though. It's still a fantastic steel, but I find myself enjoying magnacut more.

I'm excited to see what Nathan does with it!
 
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20CV is very sensitive to quench rate and doesn't scale up into high volume production very well. I expect that most mass produced knives in it have a suboptimal microstructure.

Don't make the common mistake of confusing abrasive wear resistance with actual edge retention in real use. I would be very surprised if your 20CV blade stays sharp as well as properly heat treated Magnacut.

I do worry that some common post heat treat grinding processes and dry sharpening techniques will burn the very heat sensitive Magnacut and sully it's reputation. We will see.
 
Nathan the Machinist said:
20CV is very sensitive to quench rate and doesn't scale up into high volume production very well. I expect that most mass produced knives in it have a suboptimal microstructure.

Don't make the common mistake of confusing abrasive wear resistance with actual edge retention in real use. I would be very surprised if your 20CV blade stays sharp as well as properly heat treated Magnacut.

I do worry that some common post heat treat grinding processes and dry sharpening techniques will burn the very heat sensitive Magnacut and sully it's reputation. We will see.
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Question since you mention Magnacut being very heat sensitive- should it be sharpened basically like D3V then?
 
beeinak said:
Question since you mention Magnacut being very heat sensitive- should it be sharpened basically like D3V then?
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Yes, but for different reasons. D3V doesn't soften too bad. Magnacut will often simply temper back because it often uses very low tempering temperatures and can lose hardness easily.
 
Nathan the Machinist said:
20CV is very sensitive to quench rate and doesn't scale up into high volume production very well. I expect that most mass produced knives in it have a suboptimal microstructure.

Don't make the common mistake of confusing abrasive wear resistance with actual edge retention in real use. I would be very surprised if your 20CV blade stays sharp as well as properly heat treated Magnacut.

I do worry that some common post heat treat grinding processes and dry sharpening techniques will burn the very heat sensitive Magnacut and sully it's reputation. We will see.
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Good to know what the actual issue is with production m390/20cv. I wasn't aware it was the quench rate.

Larrin really created something great with magnacut. I've found that I'm able to sharpen magnacut to create a more acute edge geometry. It pretty well levels the field for edge retention in regards to m390/20cv, in my limited experience. I wouldn't have learned about any of this without Larrin's contributions and the generous way he shares his knowledge. I'm definitely indebted to him.

That's what sent me down the rabbit hole where I stumbled across CPK too! I'm just sad I didn't know about these fantastic tools sooner!
 
I have used my 62.5-63 HRC Magnacut with 10 dps secondary grind and 15dps micro bevel to carve some meat. I have accidentally carved the fork as well :) :) :) I must say the meat was quite tasty and I was way too excited to get more slices, so I was not only careless to hit the fork but I continue to do backward and forward motions on the fork. I thought I would have a considerable damage but not, MagnaCut hold well. Of course there was a a few tiny flat spots but was only visible when look closely with a flashlight and barely noticeable with a finger nail test. Naturally not shaving sharp anymore but still can slice through an regular print paper.

Conclusion: MagnaCut is good, but not for chopping nails if that's what you do with your knives.
 
The first preliminary round of heat treat at Peter's didn't duplicate our results. This isn't unexpected, the same thing happened when we were developing the Delta protocol (it took a few tries), but it does mean we're not going to be shipping the Magnacut blades as soon as we had hoped. We got good results but not perfect and we're going to wait until it's right. Sorry (not sorry) for the delay. It's a new alloy and it will be ready when it's ready.
 
Nathan the Machinist said:
The first preliminary round of heat treat at Peter's didn't duplicate our results. This isn't unexpected, the same thing happened when we were developing the Delta protocol (it took a few tries), but it does mean we're not going to be shipping the Magnacut blades as soon as we had hoped. We got good results but not perfect and we're going to wait until it's right. Sorry (not sorry) for the delay. It's a new alloy and it will be ready when it's ready.
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Worth it 👌🏼
 
murat1983 said:
I have used my 62.5-63 HRC Magnacut with 10 dps secondary grind and 15dps micro bevel to carve some meat. I have accidentally carved the fork as well :) :) :) I must say the meat was quite tasty and I was way too excited to get more slices, so I was not only careless to hit the fork but I continue to do backward and forward motions on the fork. I thought I would have a considerable damage but not, MagnaCut hold well. Of course there was a a few tiny flat spots but was only visible when look closely with a flashlight and barely noticeable with a finger nail test. Naturally not shaving sharp anymore but still can slice through an regular print paper.

Conclusion: MagnaCut is good, but not for chopping nails if that's what you do with your knives.
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Eating steak is not for the faint of heart, you may want to upgrade to delta 3v next time, just Incase of another fork incident.
 
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