ordered my first modern folder in two and a half years!

[goodeyesniper]

Aogami Super Blue Spyderco Delica 4 sprint run. Well, pre ordered to be exact, not sure when it will actually hit shelves but it was scheduled for this month....

I acquired a small collection of folders before accidentally finding my "one knife to rule them all" in the sprint run Spyderco Military with cpm m4 steel. This thing kicked basically every other knife out of my pocket for the last ~2.5 years since I've had it. I was tempted by many knives since then, super steel sprint runs, classy BMs, custom friction folders, etc. but I never pulled the trigger because I knew they would just sit on my desk mostly unused, with the Military taking up all the carry time, and I only buy knives to be users.

Because of a knee injury and finding a new job, I have been looking for something a hair smaller than the Military, as I no longer need one quite so large. I've gone back and forth over the smaller spyderco models, mini grip, leek, slip joint, etc, but haven't been able to settle until now.

As a huge fan of Murray Carter, who used this steel quite a bit, this instantly sparked my attention. It is a steel that was truly designed to be a blade steel, unlike the slew of tool steels being thrown into knives currently (my favorite knife included ) and I'm pretty excited for it.

I think after seeing what the factory edge geometry is good for I might bring it down to less than ten degrees per side with a high finish and see what this fine grained steel is capable of.

 

[JBoone]

Just googled it. This one will have a laminated blade with stainless on the outside? What are your favorite atttributes of this steel? I am considering one.

 

[goodeyesniper]

yes, it will be laminated. it is a high carbon steel that will stain/rust quite easily, so they laminate it with a stainless to keep most of the blade shiny and clean looking... rust has never been an issue for me, I would be quite comfortable if it was pure Super Blue steel, but it's nice being stainless at the pivot I guess.

this knife is popular in high end Japanese knives, mostly chef style knives. It is high carbon, very fine grained, with just enough alloying elements to let it be kept very hard (I believe in the 61 to 64 hrc range)and give some smaller carbides. what this means is it can be sharpened to a very low angle, with a very thin edge with a very high polish for push cutting, and both stay stable and have good wear resistance. Basically anything you'd want in a chef knife minus rust resistance...

What this means for a pocket knife depends on the user and what he does with it. Modern tool steels will blow it away in keeping a working edge while cutting cardboard and other abrasives. This is generally because of big, hard carbides and high hardness. When it comes to getting very thin edges with low angles these carbides can cause an unstable edge to form. So theoretically you could thin this knife way down and get a nicer razor edge than something like m390. For the average production knife edge geometry and thirty to forty inclusive edge angle you might not notice much of a difference other than it being easier to sharpen, but notas wear resistant as other "super steels".

That is all mostly regurgitated stuff I have read, and very general/not complete info. I can't state anything concrete without using it myself.

 

[JBoone]

thanks!