San Mai III Real Steel!

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FTR-14c said:
Although I have had no problems with VG1. Based on past experience with CS and not knowing enough about the limits of their steel keeps me from having the faith I have in Fallkniven San Mia.
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By the way, I think your faith in Fallkniven's laminate is entirely justified. It's a great and consistent product. Cold Steel's laminate, I don't really know about.
 
marcinek said:
I may be wrong, but there's no such thing as Fallkniven San Mai. They use a laminate, but San Mai is Cold Steel's proprietary name for their laminate. It's like saying "Case's Carbon V."
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You are partially correct, San Mai III is a trademark. Fallkniven, Kershaw, and others call it "laminated". SOG does call it San Mai without the III though.

I have used and abused CS's SM3 with no problems or complaints. YMMV
 
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marcinek said:
By the way, I think your faith in Fallkniven's laminate is entirely justified. It's a great and consistent product. Cold Steel's laminate, I don't really know about.
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I'm very cautious in giving CS their props. We all know it's LT more than the product that freaks us out. But when I see them slamming those knives through car hoods and bending them way over with cheater bars, I have to say WOW. :eek:

I know the retort is that they break them doing it but so what? If my knife can take that kind of abuse on tape - and even if it breaks - I'm never gonna use it that hard. :confused:

They have the sharpest darn folders I've ever purchased including a couple of customs. I have 2 CS knives left a large Voyager (older) and a new triad Recon-1 and I really like them. :D

I have to agree that San Mai - to me - seems like a trick to sandwich cheaper steels with some decent stuff and sell it at a premium. Can anyone shed some light on that? And what about that meatcycle, what's up with that?

I'm babbling sorry.
 
res1cue said:
You are partially correct, San Mai III is a trademark. Fallkniven, Kershaw, and others call it "laminated". SOG does call it San Mai without the III though.

I have used and abused CS's SM3 with no problems or complaints. YMMV
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I've heard very good things about the trailmaster SM3, limb chopper!
 
MrTroubleSnake said:
I've heard very good things about the trailmaster SM3, limb chopper!
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Don't have the trailmaster in san mai 3, but I do have the recon scout in SM3 and it has chopped quite a few limbs!

Tree limbs that is ;)

Cziv. I can't say that I can really detect a difference, but it sure doesn't detract from performance. I know that there is a predisposition to view cold steel knives as gimmicky, and that's fine, to each their own. But the laminated steel concept has been used by many different "respectable" companies including Kershaw and Fallkniven. I find it hard to think of fallkniven particularly as "gimmicky". If anything the concept I don't understand is the jigsaw pattern Kershaw uses with something like D2 for the edge, and 154CM for the spine. Why not just use 440A for the spine? won't make a difference for the edge :confused:
 
res1cue said:
You are partially correct, San Mai III is a trademark. Fallkniven, Kershaw, and others call it "laminated". SOG does call it San Mai without the III though.

I have used and abused CS's SM3 with no problems or complaints. YMMV
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Interesting. Thanks! Is San Mai III CS's trademark? What about "San Mai"? Is that SOGs trademark?

And all names aside, the steels in Fallkniven's laminate and different than the steels in CS's laminate, correct?

(And of course CS has "badass" in it. :D)
 
marcinek said:
I may be wrong, but there's no such thing as Fallkniven San Mai. They use a laminate, but San Mai is Cold Steel's proprietary name for their laminate. It's like saying "Case's Carbon V."
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My bad, its just VG10 thanks.
 
marcinek said:
Interesting. Thanks! Is San Mai III CS's trademark? What about "San Mai"? Is that SOGs trademark?

And all names aside, the steels in Fallkniven's laminate and different than the steels in CS's laminate, correct?

(And of course CS has "badass" in it. :D)
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I think (and I may be wrong) that SM3 is a trademark, but san mai is a generic term (I see no little "tm" after when SOG uses it) for laminated steel. Also San Mai III isn't really defined. It used to be AUS8 in the center, but now it is VG1 since 03.

I believe both Fallkniven and SOG uses VG10, but SOG does something funky with their VG10 heat treat.. either that or I got 3 lemons in a row.
 
res1cue said:
Don't have the trailmaster in san mai 3, but I do have the recon scout in SM3 and it has chopped quite a few limbs!

Tree limbs that is ;)

Cziv. I can't say that I can really detect a difference, but it sure doesn't detract from performance. I know that there is a predisposition to view cold steel knives as gimmicky, and that's fine, to each their own. But the laminated steel concept has been used by many different "respectable" companies including Kershaw and Fallkniven. I find it hard to think of fallkniven particularly as "gimmicky". If anything the concept I don't understand is the jigsaw pattern Kershaw uses with something like D2 for the edge, and 154CM for the spine. Why not just use 440A for the spine? won't make a difference for the edge :confused:
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For a 7 inch blade the recon scout is a friggin monster!
 
San Mai is a term for laminated steel. That's it.

VG-1 core laminate and VG-10 core laminate are produced by the same company.

VG-1 is tougher than VG-10, VG-10 is more abrasion resistant than VG-1.
 
What AUS 8 knife did you trade for the San Mai III one? Or did I miss it somewhere in the thread?
 
I've heard very good things about the trailmaster SM3, limb chopper!
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x50.jpg


this limbs showed some tooth's :D


(nothing that sharpening wont fix)
 
MrTroubleSnake said:
For a 7 inch blade the recon scout is a friggin monster!
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It sure is :thumbup:

Its my go to outdoors/camp knife. I think the trailmaster is just a bit too long. The balance on the recon scout is much better.

BTW mrtroublesnake, if you like the recon tanto, try out the master tanto sometime. It has much better balance in my opinion (I find the recon tanto a bit tip-heavy and a bit too long. 6 inches is perfect)
 
FTR-14c said:
Although I have had no problems with VG1. Based on past experience with CS and not knowing enough about the limits of their steel keeps me from having the faith I have in Fallkniven San Mia. I would welcome any information on VG1 that may give me more piece of mind. thanks
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VG-1 is good steel....like VG-10. I doubt you be able to tell any difference between the two. I'm not a Cold Steel fan or hater but....I'm happy with every knife I've had from them with VG-1.
 
res1cue said:
It sure is :thumbup:

Its my go to outdoors/camp knife. I think the trailmaster is just a bit too long. The balance on the recon scout is much better.

BTW mrtroublesnake, if you like the recon tanto, try out the master tanto sometime. It has much better balance in my opinion (I find the recon tanto a bit tip-heavy and a bit too long. 6 inches is perfect)
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Honestly, after trading my aus8 recon tanto for this san mai recon tanto, i was looking into the master tanto. Thats pretty weird you mentioned it. That steel pommel looks nasty! If you own a master tanto would you please upload some pics, that'd be awesome! 6inches seems perfect to me as well.(Grow Up Guys):D
 
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