New Steel – Crucible S45VN

Larrin

Larrin

Joined
Jan 17, 2004
Messages
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Crucible and Niagara have just announced a new stainless powder metallurgy steel – S45VN. I was able to get a bar of it early to do a range of experiments on it including hardness, corrosion resistance, and toughness. I have a recommendation on how to best heat treat it too. How does it compare to the existing stainless knife steels? https://knifesteelnerds.com/2019/11/01/crucible-s45vn-steel/
 
Thanks for the post! I really enjoy your articles. The differences shown in
this steel seem subtle to me...but perhaps the "new" effect will drive sales!
 
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not much out there on this steel yet, was just looking to study up on it maybe a week ago. thanks for posting, Sir. good read and I'm interested to try some out when it hits production knives....see who does it right.....
 
jbmonkey said:
not much out there on this steel yet, was just looking to study up on it maybe a week ago. thanks for posting, Sir. good read and I'm interested to try some out when it hits production knives....see who does it right.....
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A week ago the steel was not announced and there was nothing online about it.
 
Looks like a decent incremental improvement, though not one that was strictly necessary in practical terms. Arguably most people using S30V and S35VN knives aren't even using them much in settings where their wear resistance gets much of a chance to shine, and those that do a lot of highly abrasive cutting often are inattentive enough in their methods of use that they impact or drag the edge across materials that damage any edge, rendering the advantages mostly moot. It's a very small subset of experienced knife users in specific situational contexts that will glean any tangible advantages from the steel optimization. But cool that they've done this, regardless.
 
I agree with 42blades,

crucible SHOULD have started with 3v as a base, and made it more corrosion resistant instead of s35vn
if they could do that while maintaining other properties of 3v... now that would be useful & desired

s35vn didn't need more corrosion resistance, 3v could actually use it (imho of course)

(edited to add: I really hope that is what Larrin Larrin is upto with his as-yet undisclosed secret steel project; )
 
dirc said:
I agree with 42blades,

crucible SHOULD have started with 3v as a base, and made it more corrosion resistant instead of s35vn
if they could do that while maintaining other properties of 3v... now that would be useful & desired

s35vn didn't need more corrosion resistance, 3v could actually use it (imho of course)

(edited to add: I really hope that is what Larrin Larrin is upto with his as-yet undisclosed secret steel project; )
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There are many steel design possibilities remaining. Hopefully we will have a chance to get a couple of them made.
 
dirc said:
I agree with 42blades,

crucible SHOULD have started with 3v as a base, and made it more corrosion resistant instead of s35vn
if they could do that while maintaining other properties of 3v... now that would be useful & desired

s35vn didn't need more corrosion resistance, 3v could actually use it (imho of course)

(edited to add: I really hope that is what Larrin Larrin is upto with his as-yet undisclosed secret steel project; )
Click to expand...

Well, the reason why 3V is so tough because it has moderate amount of chromium. By increasing Cr, Mo, Co and any others element that aid on corrosion resistance, the toughness will likely to goes down.

Actually S35VN is pretty much a closest thing to corrosion resistance version of 3V already.

(I know some people will say s35vn has higher edge retention due to higher carbide% but from my experience 3V will cut significantly longer)
 
oh goodie ... another "latest and greatest" that will have "people" throwing money at just for "bragging rights" and then lie about how it performs in a vain attempt to "justify" getting a knife with that blade steel.

Truth of the matter is most folks (even knife nuts like us) would be/are served just fine with 10xx, 440A or 420HC or even 420J and 4116 with a good heat treat, for most (if not all) of their cutting tasks.

Sorry to be so cynical, but look how many millions of people world wide are happy with and served well by whatever blade steel and heat treat used by firms like Victorinox, Opinel, and Mora is.

"Super Steels" are not needed by most knife users on this rock, and I would not be surprised if most around the world use their knives a heck of a lot harder than most in the USA would even think of.
 
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afishhunter said:
oh goodie ... another "latest and greatest" that will have "people" throwing money at just for "bragging rights" and then lie about how it performs in a vain attempt to "justify" getting a knife with that blade steel.

Truth of the matter is most folks (even knife nuts like us) would be/are served just fine with 10xx, 440A or 420HC or even 420J and 4114 with a good heat treat, for most (if not all) of their cutting tasks.

Sorry to be so cynical, but look how many millions of people world wide are happy with and served well by whatever blade steel and heat treat used by firms like Victorinox, Opinel, and Mora is.

"Super Steels" are not needed by most knife users on this rock, and I would not be surprised if most around the world use their knives a heck of a lot harder than most in the USA would even think of.
Click to expand...
I recommend you read this: https://knifesteelnerds.com/2018/10/01/super-steels-vs-regular-knife-steels/
 
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