The "Ask Nathan a Question" Thread

David Mary said:
Nathan the Machinist Nathan the Machinist can your machines work with Suretouch? After handling the DEK1 in micarta I can't help but wonder what one in Suretouch would be like. If the machines can handle the rubber layers, I think you might really like this material. Cheers!
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We've cut it before. Hell we've machined rubber. The machines will cut it ok but I'm not in love with the finish and texture I get milling it. I want to get back into ebonite again. That stuff pushes a lot of buttons for me.
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Ebonite handle. That's antique ebonite and it is quite wonderful. I'm not in love with the current production from Japan as well. I'm trying to find an American manufacturer to make it for me. I was talking to someone at Gates but I think I'm too small fry. It's a work in progress...
 
Nathan the Machinist said:
We've cut it before. Hell we've machined rubber. The machines will cut it ok but I'm not in love with the finish and texture I get milling it. I want to get back into ebonite again. That stuff pushes a lot of buttons for me.
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Ebonite handle. That's antique ebonite and it is quite wonderful. I'm not in love with the current production from Japan as well. I'm trying to find an American manufacturer to make it for me. I was talking to someone at Gates but I think I'm too small fry. It's a work in progress...
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YES, yes in so many ways! My ebonite handled EDC2 is my favorite scale handles ever in the entire freaking world. Freaking awesome stuff.
 
trevitrace said:
Are there going to be a couple few cruwear basic fk's available at some point down the road? Thought I remember reading that somewhere.
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Yes. We're doing heat treat development on that alloy using that pattern as a mule. If we have any good ones left over, I'll sell them here.
 
Nathan, can I pick your brains regarding 4v...i know you have plenty of real life experience...using 4v in bladesports blades etc.
Does 4v "naturally" have good fine edge stability? Even with industry standard heat treatment?
Or is it the case of the tweaks in ht to bring out the best of it....would you recommend cryo? Secondary hardening hump? What is the best rockwell hardness to bring the best out of this steel.
Sorry for so many questions...just very interested in your opinion.
 
MichalZ said:
Nathan, can I pick your brains regarding 4v...i know you have plenty of real life experience...using 4v in bladesports blades etc.
Does 4v "naturally" have good fine edge stability? Even with industry standard heat treatment?
Or is it the case of the tweaks in ht to bring out the best of it....would you recommend cryo? Secondary hardening hump? What is the best rockwell hardness to bring the best out of this steel.
Sorry for so many questions...just very interested in your opinion.
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It's not terrible with the industry standard heat treat but not fantastic. It benefits more from a low temperature tweak than 3V does. So, hard no on the secondary hardening hump, and yes you need cryo. Applied before any snap tempers. It's not worth messing with if you don't use cryo.

No need to do extensive heat treat development on this alloy yourself, Peter's has a good low temp tweak for it as a turn key option.

The rockwell hardness that I'm using is between 63 and 65. Remember that number is just a number. You can achieve that number very easily and still have poor results.

This is a complex steel with fantastic performance potential.
 
MichalZ said:
Thank you Nathan, are you planning any 4v knives in a future....even distant one?
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I love the material, but my customers don't seem to. The last time I made 4V knives they didn't sell well. Perhaps because they rust. It looks like Magnacut is pretty close on some of the properties and it is highly stainless, so I expect I'll be using a lot of that in the future. But some of my favorites such as D2 and 4V are too niche for most people.
 
Nathan the Machinist said:
I love the material, but my customers don't seem to. The last time I made 4V knives they didn't sell well. Perhaps because they rust. It looks like Magnacut is pretty close on some of the properties and it is highly stainless, so I expect I'll be using a lot of that in the future. But some of my favorites such as D2 and 4V are too niche for most people.
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Would you take on custom projects in the future…. As long as we are willing to wait for delivery… or too much messing around with machinery for one off items?
 
ronnie hood said:
Would you take on custom projects in the future…. As long as we are willing to wait for delivery… or too much messing around with machinery for one off items?
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I do one offs but the delivery time frame is usually over a year and the knives are four figure pieces. It's much more affordable to get in on a standard offering.
 
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