Steel Junky's - need opinions

SeanH said:
Sal,

Were you considering this to be a North American exclusive? If not, would you (or could I) mention this idea on the British Blades forum? It may help swell the ranks a bit...

Sean
Click to expand...

Hi Sean, If you could mention it, maybe with a link, that would be great. I'll be meeting with the "blokes" at British blades next week in Leeds. Might make good conversation.

It's not limited to North America.

I would prefer to begin with a knife we could make in Golden, so the exotic Japanese steels would be out for the first run. Most of those Japanese Powdered metals require "authorized" heat treaters in Japan.

We could do any of Crucibles' current steels. Probably any of Sandvik's (I met with them at SHOT). BG, any of the tool steels, other?

sal
 
Please inform the Dutch crowd in Amsterdam too, Sal :D . I'm interested, and I guess some other Dutchies as well.

See if we can convince Spydutch to use a PE for a change... :)
 
Sal Glesser said:
I would prefer to begin with a knife we could make in Golden, so the exotic Japanese steels would be out for the first run. Most of those Japanese Powdered metals require "authorized" heat treaters in Japan.

We could do any of Crucibles' current steels. Probably any of Sandvik's (I met with them at SHOT). BG, any of the tool steels, other?

sal
Click to expand...

Not being educated in even the basics of the properties and uses of different steels, I got quickly confused while slogging through the specification sheets of the steels that Crucible produces.

So to get me started on the right path;
They talk of "wear resistance" and "impact toughness" as almost mutually exclusive terms. The more you have of one the less you have of the other. My guess is that these should be balanced, but I haven't a clue what that balance should be. Could someone explain "wear resistance" and "impact toughness" in the context of a small fixed blade knife and how they may affect the features we value in a good knife?

Thanks,
Sean
 
I am certainly interested. I like the idea of cord wrapping the handle ourselves and sourcing our own sheaths.

Count me in!:thumbup:
 
I'm very new to trying to learn about steels. What choices do you have available from Golden?

Guessing: BG-42, S125V, S30V, 440C? Am I close? I would think that 440C would not be a good choice because it has been around the longest, right?

Sorry for the dumb question...
 
How about M4? It seems to be picking up some steam with the cutting comp fokes.
 
It will be interesting to hear your thoughts expanded a little on this at Leeds, Sal.

I will be in for the series :)
 
M4, S125V (if they ever get the processes worked out), 52100 or anything else that you are interested in testing. I would like to see simple leaf blade as it is a bit more useful for my day to day tasks than the wharnie. Thanks, Sal!
 
Jur said:
Hi Sal - I'm in. What ever steel we start with, fine with me.
Jur.:)
Click to expand...

Same here, I'm in and any steel will do. Even though I don't consider myself a 'steel junkie' I do consider myself a 'testing junkie'!:D

Wouter
 
Xunil over at British Blades had some thoughts that I thought the group here may find interesting as well:
Xunil said:
Re: Steel Junky's - need opinions
Quote me if you want to Craft Geek , I don't mind at all.

I'm even more worried about the possibility of the test pieces being "un-ground" for individuals to put their own edge on.

That really does limit the entire project to those who can sharpen well (and I mean really well) and those who can't. And it throws even more potential variables into the mix to contaminate any useful data.

To clarify, some steels can be ground thinner without sacrificing edge strength and durability due to the characteristics of that particular metal. This is why edge geometry plays such an important role.

I'm not just talking about Scandi grind for this task or convex grind for that task. I'm talking angles, thickness at the edge and so on.

A lot of makers grind all steels the same way, to the same thicknesses and angles.

All well and good, up to a point.

By doing this they sacrifice a lot of the potential benefits certain alloys bring to the table.

Bob Dozier makes notoriously sharp knives. Part of his secret is that he grinds them thinner than many makers and makes sure his buyers understand they are buying a knife and not a crowbar. His knives really are scarily sharp and they last well in use and are easily resharpened.

That's because he's built in features that a good knife needs (an efficient, very sharp, easily maintained edge) with suitable materials.

S30V is a prime example of steel you can go a lot thinner on than you normally would. Its ability to cut like the Devil and shrug off torsion makes it superb steel when ground like this.

Don't get me wrong, 400 knives all ground the same out of 4 different steels would be an interesting comparison project for large scale testing and feedback, but you could hardly draw any conclusions from the evidence collected because the knives shouldn't be ground all the same if certain steels are used.

But then, what do I know ?
:)
Click to expand...
 
If the price is right (rough ballpark, nothing specific) i'd be interested as well

how about having two choices for what Mule(s) are available, have specific steels requestable, but also a "Surprise Me" category, where Spyderco chooses the steel for the customer

I'd be in the Surprise Me camp.....

(Please be H-1, please be H-1..... ;) )

as long as i'm being completely crazy, how about a S30V/H-1 Damasteel? ;)
 
The whole point of me suggesting the blades ship without an edge is so people, with varying sharpening skills (but still capable), can make a very real determination of how each steel sharpens, and do it immediately. The edge stability was also why I said as much, because we like to sharpen our own way, and for certain tasks. If we can sharpen, then we can resharpen. We can adjust angles and finishes, and then compare how each steel performed with such changes. If people don't sharpen their own knives and always send them back to Spyderco for edge restoration, then simply evaluating each knife with a Spyderco edge would be fine. But then you miss out on a lot of info important to a lot of people. But it really depends on how wide a field of people Sal wants to involve in this; people who can't sharpen well at all aren't going to be a source of info on the 'ease of sharpening' category. Of course, nothing is stopping anyone from resharpening a factory fresh edge, but I thought it would also be a cost saving measure for Sal to skip this step and let us do it on our own.

edit-I dunno, to me, I kinda sound a little rough in this post. I don't mean to be, just want to explain my suggestion a bit more. :D
 
hardheart said:
The whole point of me suggesting the blades ship without an edge is so people, with varying sharpening skills (but still capable), can make a very real determination of how each steel sharpens, and do it immediately. The edge stability was also why I said as much, because we like to sharpen our own way, and for certain tasks. If we can sharpen, then we can resharpen. We can adjust angles and finishes, and then compare how each steel performed with such changes. If people don't sharpen their own knives and always send them back to Spyderco for edge restoration, then simply evaluating each knife with a Spyderco edge would be fine. But then you miss out on a lot of info important to a lot of people. But it really depends on how wide a field of people Sal wants to involve in this; people who can't sharpen well at all aren't going to be a source of info on the 'ease of sharpening' category. Of course, nothing is stopping anyone from resharpening a factory fresh edge, but I thought it would also be a cost saving measure for Sal to skip this step and let us do it on our own.

edit-I dunno, to me, I kinda sound a little rough in this post. I don't mean to be, just want to explain my suggestion a bit more. :D
Click to expand...

This is exactly why I would like it unsharpened. Very well put.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top