S!K 4.7 Sample Blade Reviews

Fine, you can have sleep and coffee. But I better get one of those party hats! ;) :D
 
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Here's a tidbit while waiting.

One thing that has challenged every knife I've owned is carving wood that has sand or dirt embedded in it. I thought I'd try that and see how the secret steel handles it. I made a tent stake, dirtied it up in a version of earth and then resharpened it. I did this three separate times with dry sandy dirt, dry dirt under grass and wet muddy dirt.

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The steel did well. After a quick swipe on my pants, I did not see any damage. Testing the edge with a thin wood shaving and edge of paper there were catches in a few spots but just barely. I made some feathers with slices and push cuts. Performance does not appear to be affected!

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Again, I limited the strokes to 3 per side on a 25 degree guided ceramic rod. Fixed it. The fact that there was no performance degradation and how easy it is to fix, I am liking this steel. It's still early but it's promising.
 
So since we now know it is Cruforge V, which I have no experience with........do you think it will be a bit easier to field sharpen than your 5.1 in 3V?

Ifellonscissors said:
A party hat with glitter!!!!
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Yes! I mean if you're going to do a party hat it has to be done up right!
 
Quick update on 4.7 Cruforge V. I took it out today for 3 hours. It rained a little and I was cutting thorn bushes, small branches, ferns and stinging nettle (suck it, stinging nettle!!). I wiped the blade periodically to keep most of the water and plant moisture at bay. I got home, sat for maybe 30 minutes and then pulled out the blade to wash it. Much to my surprise there were lots of spots on the bare steel. Lots.

I don't know much about Cruforge V but I've read that it can rust. But in 4-ish hours??? I have SR-101 and I've read it can rust as well. I've never had issues with the SR-101. This is my first experience with Cruforge V so I wasn't sure what to expect. It might just mean a little different maintenance procedure and I'm ok with that.

Does anyone have any insight?
 
Ifellonscissors said:
Quick update on 4.7 Cruforge V. I took it out today for 3 hours. It rained a little and I was cutting thorn bushes, small branches, ferns and stinging nettle (suck it, stinging nettle!!). I wiped the blade periodically to keep most of the water and plant moisture at bay. I got home, sat for maybe 30 minutes and then pulled out the blade to wash it. Much to my surprise there were lots of spots on the bare steel. Lots.

I don't know much about Cruforge V but I've read that it can rust. But in 4-ish hours??? I have SR-101 and I've read it can rust as well. I've never had issues with the SR-101. This is my first experience with Cruforge V so I wasn't sure what to expect. It might just mean a little different maintenance procedure and I'm ok with that.

Does anyone have any insight?
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"Seattle-ish" was another reason you got on the list actually. We know the moisture can be brutal over there. This definitely is NOT stainess. The uncoated blade changed colors just by setting it near the kitchen.
 
Ifellonscissors said:
Quick update on 4.7 Cruforge V. I took it out today for 3 hours. It rained a little and I was cutting thorn bushes, small branches, ferns and stinging nettle (suck it, stinging nettle!!). I wiped the blade periodically to keep most of the water and plant moisture at bay. I got home, sat for maybe 30 minutes and then pulled out the blade to wash it. Much to my surprise there were lots of spots on the bare steel. Lots.

I don't know much about Cruforge V but I've read that it can rust. But in 4-ish hours??? I have SR-101 and I've read it can rust as well. I've never had issues with the SR-101. This is my first experience with Cruforge V so I wasn't sure what to expect. It might just mean a little different maintenance procedure and I'm ok with that.

Does anyone have any insight?
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Yeah, steels like this can discolor and even rust very quickly. The reason is that they have almost no alloy in the steel, so they have no corrosion resistance at all. That was the reason for the coating, although some folks like to strip and patina their blades. The steel is tough, takes a hair popping edge and holds it well but it has all the corrosion resistance of a chunk of iron. That is the downside of more simple steels like 10XX anything, O1, 5160, 52100 and so on. A lot of people keep a toughcloth or something similar around to wipe the blade down.
 
SURVIVE! said:
Yeah, steels like this can discolor and even rust very quickly. The reason is that they have almost no alloy in the steel, so they have no corrosion resistance at all. That was the reason for the coating, although some folks like to strip and patina their blades. The steel is tough, takes a hair popping edge and holds it well but it has all the corrosion resistance of a chunk of iron. That is the downside of more simple steels like 10XX anything, O1, 5160, 52100 and so on. A lot of people keep a toughcloth or something similar around to wipe the blade down.
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There is nothing wrong with a simple steel especially if it's been heat treated properly with a good grind. The work I have done with my 4.7 cruforge v has left me impressed but then so has your 20cv and 3v. I oil all my knives so rust isn't much of an issue for me. Probably habit from my guns. I prefer blued steel and fine walnut in my rifles and shotguns. They may be tools but I tend to take care of everything I own.
 
I'm going to try a patina but I'm not sure how successful that will be on the cutting edge. I was just surprised that it happened that fast! I would have expected over night but not in the short time it took. I'll be adjusting the maintenance!

Thanks for the responses!
 
Scissors, I'm not sure about Cruforge V, but I have had the cutting edge of sr101 act the same way. I think different environments make a huge difference, as some folks have no problem at all. But I had the edge rust on a long break down of a bull elk some years ago when I was too tired to even care about it. We did have several inches of snow on the ground and blade was laying in the snow at times. I caught it back at camp, not a big deal really as it came out with a sharpening anyway. And for some reason sr101 seems to take some protection after it gets a light coat of rust and forms a patina. I don't understand that, unless it's some kind of chemical change like gun bluing going on there. I'd like to know if Cruforge V will act similar. It sounds as if it wouldn't take much to force a patina.
 
I'll try it and let you know. I'm not sure if I'll need to repeat the patina after every few sharpening sessions. Seems like I would have to as I'd be removing patina-ed material. It will be interesting to find out!
 
I saw on another thread that you've got experience with sr101. Sorry to give you info you probably already have. Would you say the Cruforge V is showing spots more readily than sr101 then?

A light swipe of cold blue after sharpening might work for you. I've done that with sr101 and it's pretty effective (solves the drag issue of the coating and the rust issue if oiled). I have heard that bluing is not recommended if you plan any food prep, though. I wasn't worried about that on my 711 :)
 
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