School me on CV

B

Bad Monkey

Joined
Jul 2, 2010
Messages
149
So i've recently been looking at the Case Yellow Medium Stockman in CV, now in my job i insist on CV for most if not all of my tools....Screwdrivers, Spanners, Sockets, Ratchets etc....but how does it translate in the knife world?

I have SS and Carbon bladed knifes but nothing in CV, how does it compare to SS and Carbon with relation to edge retention and sharpening?

Thanks for any input guys.

Craig.
 
Case CV sharpens up very nicely and holds and edge pretty well. Case's mirror polish also makes it look amazing out of the box and if you use it for food it will develop a nice patina. I only own case knives in CV.
 
The discussion of CV vs. SS is one that has been covered many times.

The preferred steel for the majority of folks here in Case knives is the CV.
Those that have done comparison testing, say that the CV seems to hold an edge a little longer than SS. The big difference is that the CV will develop a patina, which for most folks really adds a nice touch to the looks of the knife.
According to Case, their Tru Sharp SS has a high Carbon content.

For everyday use, I don't think many would notice a huge difference in performance.
I know its not considered CV, but the older Schrades have 1095 carbon steel blades which are terrific.
 
According to some documents sent to me, current CV is 1085 with a bit of Chromium and a bit of Vanadium.
In the amounts used in CV, Chromium acts to give a more even heat treat and Vanadium acts as a grain refiner.

I have found that, in side-by-side comparison to Case Tru-Sharp, CV holds an edge a bit better. I cannot tell the difference in ease of sharpening.

I have not run side by side comparisons of CV against other alloys, but if I had to guess, I'd say that CV holds an edge a bit less well than Buck 420HC.
 
knarfeng said:
I have not run side by side comparisons of CV against other alloys, but if I had to guess, I'd say that CV holds an edge a bit less well than Buck 420HC.
Click to expand...

Frank, do you know the Rockwell of the current CV blades? If I remember correctly, Buck's 420HC runs about 57, and actually has more carbon than Case's CV, which only runs 55-56 HRc.
 
knarfeng said:
... if I had to guess, I'd say that CV holds an edge a bit less well than Buck 420HC.
Click to expand...

We've had a few people on here over the years do cutting tests on various materials, including our very own Jackknife, I believe, and they found Buck's 420HC to have better edge retention then Case's CV. I did a cutting test one time on some old, beat up memory foam I had that I had to cut up and throw away. The Buck steel did indeed stay sharp and cut well longer then the CV. I guess it's true what I've read on these forums for so long. It's not necessarily the steel, but the heat treatment, that determines good edge retention.
 
black mamba said:
Frank, do you know the Rockwell of the current CV blades? If I remember correctly, Buck's 420HC runs about 57, and actually has more carbon than Case's CV, which only runs 55-56 HRc.
Click to expand...

The Case spec you cite fits with the one data point I have for CV . I measured the hardness of a Case CV sodbuster and it was 54. However, that number has been called into question because of Case anneals the tangs of their blades and the tang is the only part of the Sodbuster blade whose geometry meets the requirements for making a measurement. I know that blades which have to be bent to fit (such as a stockman) have to be annealed so they can be bent. It is unclear to me that the blade of a Sodbuster would be annealed. The tang of my Camillus stockman main blade measured 42 at the tang, so I know that it was annealed. I would think, but do not know, that if the Sodbuster blade had been annealed, it would have measured lower than 54.

Buck's spec for 420HC hardess is 58±1. I have measured 3 Buck 420HC blades. Each measured 59 HRC.
 
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