S125V Steel in folding knife?

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rexromic

rexromic

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Thinking about getting a folding knife in S125V blade steel,anyone with more info about ,performance,good,bad,any chipping issues?
Thanks.
 
I recently took delivery of a limited run Fantoni HB01 with an S125V blade. I'm such a lightweight user that I really can't offer you much help in the way of blade performance. This blade came hair popping sharp and has stayed that way with the small amount of cardboard, tape, string, and wood I've played with. The knife is extremely well made, in my opinion.

If you do some research, you can find quite a bit of information about S125V. There are some fairly strong opinions in both directions about it. It is supposed to be fairly difficult to work with as far as grinding, etc., and is not inexpensive. I won't offer my opinion about S125V because I'm such a light user (except to say I like it so far). The steel is supposed to be very tough and wear resistant. Opinions/individual testing seem to vary a bit about the appropriateness of these powder steels for different blade applications. All I can say is match the appropriate steel, grind, and heat treat to your intended use. I had to try it because I'm such an addict. Mike
 
Thanks Mike.My intended use would be light edc as well.Will do
more research about the steel but Iam thinking to get the knife it is
so tempting so I have to try to use it.Cheers.
 
If the knife you're looking at has a nice grind and a good heat treat, I don't think you'll be disappointed. Mike
 
I don't know that I would call S125V a tough steel, not in the traditional sense anyway. I'd call 3V and A2 tough.
 
Was looking at Ferrum Forge Specter knife,looks really good,it is 3.25" blade length ,should be a great edc.
 
S125V can be chippy at high hardness and thin edges. The Fantoni was at around rc 62 and not where I'd consider too high, nor was it too thin. I don't know about the Ferrum Forge knife though. It is VERY wear resistant and has a very high carbide fraction so it will never be tough like some of the tougher stainless steels, example Elmax, S30V, S35Vn, etc, much less the very tough carbon and alloy steels like 3V, A2, etc. Not in the same class or anywhere near. More like ingot 440C tough which isn't up to the modern powder stainless steels.

Keep the angle at 35degrees or more, don't make it too thin , and make sure it gets a good heat treat and temper(s) and it will do fine especially with a 3-400 grit sharpening.

I prefer A11 class ( 10V/K294, etc.) as it's about as wear resistant and much less chippy at higher hardness's. Look at the results on rope Jim Ankerson gets with that class steel. It's nothing short of wonderful performance wise and capable of much better geometries.

Joe
 
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