- Joined
- Apr 10, 2000
- Messages
- 3,794
Hi All,
Received total of 5 blades. All extreme cutters. Haven't even sharpened all of them yet. But whatever I have tested, it's just spectacular.
Of those 5, 4 were rehardened by Phil Wilson. 2 Benchmade Nimravi, 154CM and M2, 710 M2 and Kershaw Shallot 110V. Phil also rehardened another 710 M2 blade for me, which I have been using since 04/09.
The last one, wasn't a regrind, it is a custom blade, rather an experiment, very thin and hard(62HRC) CPM 3V blade form Phil.
Both folder blades were reground by Tom Krein.
Mimravus 154CM was reground by Phil Wilson, yes he does it!
Nimravus M2 was not altered except for the HT, which I now regret, and I'll be sending it back to Phil Wilson for the regrind. Seeing what a reground 154CM blade can do, I want M2 Nimravus with the same blade geometry.
Nimravus:
154CMblade, which I recoated with boron carbide back then, when bodycote was still accepting custom orders. I thought it was M2, but turned out to be 154CM, Phil found that out and spent quite some time tinkering with HT. Came out 62HRC. That actually is probably overhardened for 154CM, but I still wanted it at that level. No plans for chopping or prying with it. Phil asked if I wanted regrind, since we were trying to optimize the blade for pure cutting performance. I agreed.
I was cautious initially, since I didn't know how would it behave. So, the edge I ground was 15 per side. High polish, 100K edge. Went through several whetstones(500, 500, 1200, 3000, 5000, 10000) and microabrasive charged strops. I've had around 350" cardboard left after testing 3V blade. Compared to original Nimravus which is pretty good cutter by itself, reground Nimravus is more like a laser. If I was to guess, since I don't know how to measure force when cutting cardboard, it's at least 2 times less effort physically.
There were no chips from cardboard cutting, so I picked up some dried wood and whittled for about 5 mins. No chipping again. Then I did what Phil used to do for testing his blades, stick the blade into the wood and pry pieces out. Approx 5-7mm deep incisions, prying, no chipping again. I did few shallow cuts for prying again, to test may be if it was just the very edge embedded in the wood it'd chip, nothing. As Norwegian knifemaker F. Haakonsen said, if it doesn't chip on wood whittling then it's good
Finally I cut the RG6 coaxial cable (the newer, thicker type they use for cable tv). and that did chip the blade in one place, around 1mm long.
I made a loop and pulled knife and cable in opposite directions. Took quite some effort to get through the cable, several layers of copper, aluminum and whatever else shielding. I'm pretty sure if I cut the same cable on the hard surface, just by pushing down on it, the blade wouldn't chip. I'll test that next weekend I guess.
All in all, I think that is exceptionally good result, for 154CM at 62HRC it's really, really good - for light cutting
Folders:
Top one was my EDC, 64.5HRC, original blade geometry, ~20 deg. total edge. Bottom, M2 steel, 64HRC, Tom Krein regrind. I've cept the serrations, but the blade has been thinned down considerably. Sharpened it yesterday, all the way to 100K. ~ 24deg total edge. I never had to sharpen EDC M2 since april, once I did touchup on 10K stone and the rest was just stropping on 0.25mic leather strop. I really forgot how much wear resistant M2 is at 64HRC.
Cutting ability or the regrind is significantly better compared to the top blade. I have to test how will it hold up with rough use, but for light stuff improvement is very good. Second photo shows blades from the edge side, top id the original edge, bottom is the regrind. You can see it's considerably thinner, well the spines are the same thickness obviously.
That's the 62 HRC, 1.15mm thick blade I asked Phil to make. Even though he's knives are generally thin, he wasn't very sure about that one, but I really wanted to see how it'd perform. Once I got the blade and checked it out, I wasn't so sure myself if it was a good idea to make it that thin, the blade had a flex, and it came out longer due to my conversion error. Well, after cutting with it I am glad it's 1.15 mm thick. Nothing in my 200+ knife inventory cuts with that efficiency. Phil himself was quite impressed with its cutting ability. I gave it the same sharpening treatment, as 154CM Nimravus, 15 deg per side, 100K polished edge. After ~400" cardboard it lost hair whittling ability, but as far as shaving goes in either direction, it was still effortless. Cutting free hanging newsprint was also not a challenge. I did few minutes of wood whittling/prying, no chipping. In the end, at 62HRC 3V makes very good light cutter. It's relatively finer grained steel and takes very keen edge.
Last one, Kershaw Shallot S110V. Rehardened by Phil Wilson, 64HRC (original 59HRC). Regrind by Tom Krein. Didn't sharpen it yet. It's not gonna be easy, both Richard J and Tom Krein had hard time polishing and regrinding it. It's more wear resistant than M2 and at 64HRC M2 was quite hard...
Received total of 5 blades. All extreme cutters. Haven't even sharpened all of them yet. But whatever I have tested, it's just spectacular.
Of those 5, 4 were rehardened by Phil Wilson. 2 Benchmade Nimravi, 154CM and M2, 710 M2 and Kershaw Shallot 110V. Phil also rehardened another 710 M2 blade for me, which I have been using since 04/09.
The last one, wasn't a regrind, it is a custom blade, rather an experiment, very thin and hard(62HRC) CPM 3V blade form Phil.
Both folder blades were reground by Tom Krein.
Mimravus 154CM was reground by Phil Wilson, yes he does it!
Nimravus M2 was not altered except for the HT, which I now regret, and I'll be sending it back to Phil Wilson for the regrind. Seeing what a reground 154CM blade can do, I want M2 Nimravus with the same blade geometry.
Nimravus:
154CMblade, which I recoated with boron carbide back then, when bodycote was still accepting custom orders. I thought it was M2, but turned out to be 154CM, Phil found that out and spent quite some time tinkering with HT. Came out 62HRC. That actually is probably overhardened for 154CM, but I still wanted it at that level. No plans for chopping or prying with it. Phil asked if I wanted regrind, since we were trying to optimize the blade for pure cutting performance. I agreed.
I was cautious initially, since I didn't know how would it behave. So, the edge I ground was 15 per side. High polish, 100K edge. Went through several whetstones(500, 500, 1200, 3000, 5000, 10000) and microabrasive charged strops. I've had around 350" cardboard left after testing 3V blade. Compared to original Nimravus which is pretty good cutter by itself, reground Nimravus is more like a laser. If I was to guess, since I don't know how to measure force when cutting cardboard, it's at least 2 times less effort physically.
There were no chips from cardboard cutting, so I picked up some dried wood and whittled for about 5 mins. No chipping again. Then I did what Phil used to do for testing his blades, stick the blade into the wood and pry pieces out. Approx 5-7mm deep incisions, prying, no chipping again. I did few shallow cuts for prying again, to test may be if it was just the very edge embedded in the wood it'd chip, nothing. As Norwegian knifemaker F. Haakonsen said, if it doesn't chip on wood whittling then it's good
Finally I cut the RG6 coaxial cable (the newer, thicker type they use for cable tv). and that did chip the blade in one place, around 1mm long.
I made a loop and pulled knife and cable in opposite directions. Took quite some effort to get through the cable, several layers of copper, aluminum and whatever else shielding. I'm pretty sure if I cut the same cable on the hard surface, just by pushing down on it, the blade wouldn't chip. I'll test that next weekend I guess.
All in all, I think that is exceptionally good result, for 154CM at 62HRC it's really, really good - for light cutting
Folders:
Top one was my EDC, 64.5HRC, original blade geometry, ~20 deg. total edge. Bottom, M2 steel, 64HRC, Tom Krein regrind. I've cept the serrations, but the blade has been thinned down considerably. Sharpened it yesterday, all the way to 100K. ~ 24deg total edge. I never had to sharpen EDC M2 since april, once I did touchup on 10K stone and the rest was just stropping on 0.25mic leather strop. I really forgot how much wear resistant M2 is at 64HRC.
Cutting ability or the regrind is significantly better compared to the top blade. I have to test how will it hold up with rough use, but for light stuff improvement is very good. Second photo shows blades from the edge side, top id the original edge, bottom is the regrind. You can see it's considerably thinner, well the spines are the same thickness obviously.
That's the 62 HRC, 1.15mm thick blade I asked Phil to make. Even though he's knives are generally thin, he wasn't very sure about that one, but I really wanted to see how it'd perform. Once I got the blade and checked it out, I wasn't so sure myself if it was a good idea to make it that thin, the blade had a flex, and it came out longer due to my conversion error. Well, after cutting with it I am glad it's 1.15 mm thick. Nothing in my 200+ knife inventory cuts with that efficiency. Phil himself was quite impressed with its cutting ability. I gave it the same sharpening treatment, as 154CM Nimravus, 15 deg per side, 100K polished edge. After ~400" cardboard it lost hair whittling ability, but as far as shaving goes in either direction, it was still effortless. Cutting free hanging newsprint was also not a challenge. I did few minutes of wood whittling/prying, no chipping. In the end, at 62HRC 3V makes very good light cutter. It's relatively finer grained steel and takes very keen edge.
Last one, Kershaw Shallot S110V. Rehardened by Phil Wilson, 64HRC (original 59HRC). Regrind by Tom Krein. Didn't sharpen it yet. It's not gonna be easy, both Richard J and Tom Krein had hard time polishing and regrinding it. It's more wear resistant than M2 and at 64HRC M2 was quite hard...
Long time no talk. Good to "see" U again.
You should be able to get it up to 66 HRC, IIRC.