Supracor

Supracor is a powdermetalurgical "steel":
3.75%C, .5%Mn, .9%Si, 24.5%Cr, 9%V, 3.1%Mo, rest (58%) is Fe. Made somewhere in USA.
My friend D.Wilhelmy (dwilhelmy@t-online.de)
just made me a knife out of it, 4" hunter,
loveless style. Expensive, waiting time a year or so.
The material is of interest: I tried to "whittle" an ATS-55 blade, it DOES cut that steel. HRc said to be 67, wear resistance 87% of solide tungsten carbide(WC-Co8).
Very corrosion proof, "toughness" somewhat like CPM-S90. Machining only by diamond tools. Unless you buy belts by the mile.
In the "soft" state HRc is still 42 and wear resistance 50% of "solid carbide".
Happy sharpening

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D.T. UTZINGER

 

[Bronco]

Thanks for the report, Zut. This stuff sounds almost too good to be true on paper. Could it be that there is a challenger to CPM-10V's throne? (though it sounds like 10V may still possess superior toughness) Please continue the testing and keep us appraised of your findings.

(The backlash against "Spec Sheet Commandos" on this one should be incredible.

)


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Semper Fi

-Bill

 

Hi Bronco, yes I shall inform on whatever I'll find out. Unfortunately I do not have any CPM-10V for comparison, only the "same" knife in CPM-S90 (also made by Wilhelmy, he is kind of specialized in "CPM's") now about 2 years old. Cuts whatever I cut and stays sharp. Didn't have to sharpen it yet.
BTW: the knives are too expensive/nice for "destructive" testing.
(They do not "shave", they cut!)

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D.T. UTZINGER

 

[Wulf]

I wonder, is this steel excessively brittle when hardened to 67? That's always kind of hard to test without breaking the knife though...

 

Hi Wulf, on purpose I gave the composition and had the word "steel" within brackets. Probably best to call this an iron based "superalloy". So ordinary relationship hardness/brittleness do not apply (fully).
Furthermore beeing created by a type of "powdermetallurgy" the grain structure is VERY different from a "carbon steel".
On the other hand, yes, all stainless "things" tend to be more brittle than non stainless ones (except hi nickel alloys which are very tough but non hardenable by classical means => maraging steels & so).

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D.T. UTZINGER

[This message has been edited by ZUT&ZUT (edited 12-06-2000).]