Sharp Science Article

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

The article in the October 2006 Blade magazine has some errors in it. The info on the percentages in CPM steels is wrong.
CPM S30V does not have 30% Vanadium,it has 4.0% V. D-2 has 11.5% Cr and 10V has 9.75% V. ( there is more Cr in D-2 than V in 10V,the V-carbides are ,however,much harder than Cr-carbides)
( Following the articles info you would deduce that CPM S120V has 120% vanadium content !!!)
Stacy

 

[GibsonFan]

It's pretty disturbing if a respected mag like that got the content of a well-known steel completely wrong Were the editors on vacation or what?!?

 

[Don Robinson]

The article in the October 2006 Blade magazine has some errors in it. The info on the percentages in CPM steels is wrong.
CPM S30V does not have 30% Vanadium,it has 4.0% V. D-2 has 11.5% Cr and 10V has 9.75% V. ( there is more Cr in D-2 than V in 10V,the V-carbides are ,however,much harder than Cr-carbides)
( Following the articles info you would deduce that CPM S120V has 120% vanadium content !!!)
Stacy

Hi, Stacy. If I read the article correctly he said that S30V had 30% of the ADDED elements, not counting the iron content.

I noticed several misconceptions and bad information in some of the articles.

Some writers for the mags are certainly mistaken about lots of things.

In one of the articles the writer suggested putting an edge back on a high alloy stainless blade with a stone or ceramic stick. No mention of a diamond lap or hone. He complained about the time it would take.

I'll bet I can sharpen a S30V blade several times faster than he can sharpen a high carbon alloy with his stone. Using a diamond stick.

 

[Don Robinson]

While I'm at it, I might as well mention that another article showed several pictures of bending a blade 90 degrees.

The writer called it bending 180 degrees several times.

 

[GibsonFan]

Dang, that's just sad. There's lots of people on this forum who could write more-informed articles than that.

 

[Kevin R. Cashen]

In defense of the magazine (yes I actually did type that ), they did include an article by Tim Zowada, and I believe he is working on another. And Don, I believe you have missquoted the other article, it says the blade "flexed" to 180, I never saw the word "bend" used .

 

[Mark Williams]

They even let guys write articles that still heat treat with a torch .

Just funnin'

 

[Don Robinson]

In defense of the magazine (yes I actually did type that ), they did include an article by Tim Zowada, and I believe he is working on another. And Don, I believe you have missquoted the other article, it says the blade "flexed" to 180, I never saw the word "bend" used .

You're right, Kevin.But they showed pictures of the blade being "flexed" to 90 degrees, not to 180 degrees. Another picture in the same article shows a blade bent to 90 degrees.

 

[Kevin R. Cashen]

...Another picture in the same article shows a blade bent to 90 degrees.

My point exactly...

...Back to the topic at hand ,

the very words “ease of sharpening” has always set off a red flag with me as meaning a softer blade, and with the introduction of diamond hones it has become even less of an issue. Just this weekend I got a copy of “Messerklingen und Stahl (Knifeblades and steel), by Roman Landes. I have had limited conversations with Roman before (language barrier) but his book is wonderful. He covers this very topic in depth and goes into how carbides in various steels affect knife edges and how they will cut. Roman agrees entirely with me about much of the hype in the knife business and gets right to the knitty gritty quite well in his book, and that is only from the 25% of it that I can extrapolate into English. I would recommend this book, we need more writing like it here in the U.S.