The "Ask Nathan a Question" Thread

I by no means am answering for Nathan here, but when you see a CPK come on the secondary market, with some value as a collectible, it never sells at a premium to what would be the price for a user. Watching the secondary market sales would indicate that the vast majority of his knives are sold to people who use them. I think there are only a handful of people who are primarily collectors. This is shorter than I would like but I have to go!
 
Bronze Age Man said:
Nathan before I pose my question: I have observed your exemplary blade design & production (sheathes excepted). I have a basic understanding of the satisfaction you must feel in the creation of 'the form' and it's very warm reception and exceptional performance.
I see your blades not so much distributed, as injected into the veins of appreciative junkies. I have sold a state of the art tool I designed for 15 years and it gets used in thousands of pharmacies dozens of times a day. Not a collectible! (except my sister has one).

So my question is: Do you experience frustration that so many of your blades are locked up, their achieved 'ownership high' replacing their usefulness? Do you long to produce a 'Model T' blade in such numbers that it competes with the mainstream and achieves widespread usage? I am a user of many tools; not a collector but I can appreciate a desire to collect. I just can't stop myself using them!

The collective eco-system of this forum loves you just the way you are and with good reason. How do you see the future? OK that's two questions..........
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That's a philosophical question so I'll answer it with an observation: I think that places like Goldman Sachs and other investment banks that engage in high speed trading, speculation and other non-productive zero sum "work" that generate an awful lot of wealth for some people without actually making much real and useful product are a problem in our society, not because they're skimming from us all, but because they scalp the best and brightest minds that possess real intellect and ability and direct them towards frivolous and non productive work rather than applying their talents towards something genuinely useful. <--- that's a waste of potential and it's a pet peeve of mine.

First and foremost, I have to provide for my family, so I am very grateful for the collectors who appreciate my work and accumulate it as well as the users who buy it and put it to work. But it is my desire to make a real and useful tool rather than sink many hours into polishing very expensive art pieces that has led me to focus on user grade work rather than mostly collectors pieces. I do enjoy making collector's pieces, but it remains the icing on the cake, and not the cake itself.

How do I see the future? hopefully there continues to be a market for quality cutting tools and I can continue to serve that need.



edit to add: and if that doesn't work out I can always do erotic lawn art...
 
Nathan thanks for the reply. Yes investment bankers, and several others I can think of!

There is always a market for quality! Edged tools have been the mainstay of man producing real stuff for a long time but lasers have cut into that!

Your 'user grade' blades collected ratio seems unknown but acquisition is clearly in the hands of a serious minority.
On this site 5 blades a year change hands on the exchange, so little letting go happens; all up for sale seem unused.
Best Regards.
 
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Good morning Nathan. I have a question on the Delta 3V that I thought I'd ask here. I'm still trying to get my mind wrapped around the results I'm seeing, and would like to make sure I'm describing it in proper terminology.

So going from the bolded in this quote:

Nathan the Machinist said:
Between Delta and the previous tweak, the corrosion resistance is the same, the abrasive wear resistance is the same, the gross toughness (resistance to breaking) is the same, the primary difference is in edge stability, particularly resistance to damage in rough use, which results in better edge retention and more tolerance to accidently hitting a rock or a tough knot etc.
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When I used the D3V field knife on a couple of bucks back-to-back, gutting, skinning, and breaking through the joints with a lot of bone contact, this current version of the field knife held up/performed better/finished sharper than anything else I've used up to this point. Is this then what you've described in the bolded text as 'edge stability?' I've thought of this as wear resistance in the past, but am now wondering if I should really be using the term edge stability rather than wear resistance, what with the rough use I give it against bone. And maybe I'm just splitting hairs here, but do want to properly label said hairs if so.

So, for the use I'm describing and the results I'm seeing, is the terminology correct if I say that I am seeing an increase in edge retention due to the gain in edge stability from last revision 3V to Delta 3V?

Thanks in advance...

Dave
 
Hard Knocks said:
Good morning Nathan. I have a question on the Delta 3V that I thought I'd ask here. I'm still trying to get my mind wrapped around the results I'm seeing, and would like to make sure I'm describing it in proper terminology.

So going from the bolded in this quote:




When I used the D3V field knife on a couple of bucks back-to-back, gutting, skinning, and breaking through the joints with a lot of bone contact, this current version of the field knife held up/performed better/finished sharper than anything else I've used up to this point. Is this then what you've described in the bolded text as 'edge stability?' I've thought of this as wear resistance in the past, but am now wondering if I should really be using the term edge stability rather than wear resistance, what with the rough use I give it against bone. And maybe I'm just splitting hairs here, but do want to properly label said hairs if so.

So, for the use I'm describing and the results I'm seeing, is the terminology correct if I say that I am seeing an increase in edge retention due to the gain in edge stability from last revision 3V to Delta 3V?

Thanks in advance...

Dave
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Yes, that's accurate.

There isn't much we can do to change the abrasive wear resistance of a steel, it's largely built into the chemistry. But there is a lot we can do to effect the edge retention. This boils down to the fact that for most users, knives don't go dull from just abrasive wear, the majority of loss of sharpness is often from micro chipping and roll. You see, you can have all the abrasion resistant carbides and even high hardness steel that you want, but if the matrix won't support those carbides or tolerate that hardness in a particular geometry you're going to lose that edge. Literally lose it, as in ---> it will fold over and flake off. We're getting an improvement in edge retention by increasing edge stability.
 
Hard knocks, hopefully I'll get a chance to use my field knife on a couple elk this coming weekend. I'll get some good pics, and give some feed back if we're successful. I'm curious to see how this knife holds up on elk. To me it's the ultimate test. Nate, I'll give some more feedback here if your interested. Thanks
 
Definitely elk will be a harder test. I'll look forward to your thoughts and wish you an extra dose of luck for a successful hunt :thumbup:
 
Hi Nathan, what coating is used for the screws? I'm trying to figure out what's the best way to strip the paint on the heads (for estetic reasons).
 
ni1s said:
Hi Nathan, what coating is used for the screws? I'm trying to figure out what's the best way to strip the paint on the heads (for estetic reasons).
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The screws are 18-8 stainless with black oxide coating. it is not paint and can not be stripped by solvent.
 
shqxk said:
What is the different between delta 3V and 3V that HT with Roman Landes theory?
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My work with 3V was based upon work I'd done with D2 nearly ten years ago. At the core, it attempts to address shortcomings with edge stability by avoiding the secondary hardening hump and addressing retained austenite through other mechanisms. Roman, Dan and I all went down that path separately.

I don't know all the differences and similarities because I don't really know exactly what Roman is doing. He's a smart guy and I think most of his suggestions are probably very good.

A little over a year ago we (Dan, Guy and I) noticed an issue with the low temperature tweak with some lots of 3V. The problem boiled down to the material condition, but while investigating it we decided to fully investigate the effects of several variables on edge stability, their effect on each other, and to confirm or verify some assumptions we'd had coming into it. The end result was fine tuning several specific variables and we found that the process both worked better and was more consistent when we added a couple steps. There are a few areas where we've changed the way a few steps are done that required some changes at Peter's in order to duplicate them.

So, to answer your question, I'm not sure of the similarities between my process and Roman's, but I do know there are some changes between the current tweak (called the delta protocol) and the previous revisions.
 
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