Originally posted by Gator97
As I understand S30V has some advantages over BG-42:
<UL>
<LI>Corrosion Resistance;
<LI>Wear Resistance;
<LI>Toughness;
</UL>
Hey, Gator....thanks for teaching me how to use bullets! Here goes some marginally appropriate use of my new found skill:
<LI> The biggest benefit is that S30V will be notably tougher than BG-42.
<LI> Greater toughness means CRK can run S30V at same hardness of Rc60 and have a tougher blade (more resistant to chipping out at edge)
<LI> Or, they can run S30V a point or even two higher on Rc scale to 61 or 62 and have a similarly tough knife as with BG-42...maybe still tougher.
<LI> Higher hardness means better abrasive/slicing edge retention, more resistance to edge roll, and more difficulty in resharpening (those go hand in hand). Doesn't matter to me, I use diamond stones anyway.
<LI> In theory, CRK could grind the edges even thinner with a tougher base material, to get even better slicing performance, but I think they have the Sebbie hollow ground thin enough anyway.
Other possible attributes of S30V vs. BG-42 and possibilities:
<LI> CPM steels have the potential for a finer grain structure simply because they are created with a process that ensures well mixed alloying elements and lower crystalline growth than, say, D2 for sure, and any other ingot steel (most all of them). Fine grain structure buys you toughess to some degree, and also allows a similarly great or better potential for a super-polished hair-jumpin edge. Fine grain structure may help in sharpenability somewhat also. Makes it easier for a stone to abrade away material (like smaller aggregate in concrete vs. big chunks of rock).
<LI> If S30V is more corrosion resistant than BG-42, well, that is self evident as to why that is good, especially since the mostly titanium Sebbie has a very corrosion resistant handle to start with.
<LI> S30V has more Vanadium than BG-42, which helps refine (make smaller) the grain structure given proper heat treat, but at these elevated levels (4%) it adds abrasion resistance due to Vanadium Carbide creation (Vanadium Carbides run Rc 82-87), and that buys you wear resistance at the edge. That means better edge holding on abrasive materials (rope, cardboard, pig hair), given the hardness is the same as BG-42. Sal Glesser mentioned in another thread that S30V was right with 440V in terms of edge holding on the Catra edge testing machine, and about 25% below S90V in edge holding. This is excellent performance, especially since 440V has some brittleness problems if run too high on Rc scale.
Do a search on S30V and you'll find some good early threads with content from the makers (Hossum, RJ Martin, Phil Wilson, Simonich, Scott Cook, Sal Glesser) that are experimenting w/ S30V already.
