By way of introduction my name is Dick Barber and worked as a metallurgist for 25 years with Crucible prior to leaving for my current position.
While at Crucible I was involved with directing our alloy development as chairmen of the technical review committee. During that time I attended the Oregon knife collectors meeting in Eugene where I met Chris Reeve who at that time was using BG 42. I asked Chris why he was not using our materials and he told me that if we made something better he would buy it. This conversation was the beginning of a project that I sheparded through our alloy development process to make a better knife steel. During that time Ed Severson and myself conducted inverviews with many other knife makers but Chris was the only one who had access to the early alloys which were made. In fact material for the first heat of S30V we made in the research lab was given to Chris to work with. From that material he made 4 knives, one was given to me, one to Ed Severson, Chris kept one and Scott Cook who ground the blades kept the fourth. Those knives were tested and compared to other materials and several suggestions were made for improvement in the alloy. From that point a second set of materials were melted and tested in the lab. From that came the origional CPM S30V as well as the later CPM S35VN. As a reward for his interest and feedback on the product Chris was the first maker who had access to commercial quantities of the alloy. Some have said in many posts that Chris had no involvement in the development process. I can say that if you were not there then you should not comment on what did or did not happen. I can say as one who was there that were it not for Chris and his persistance in pushing me there would not have been a CPM S30V or the alloys that followed.
While at Crucible I was involved with directing our alloy development as chairmen of the technical review committee. During that time I attended the Oregon knife collectors meeting in Eugene where I met Chris Reeve who at that time was using BG 42. I asked Chris why he was not using our materials and he told me that if we made something better he would buy it. This conversation was the beginning of a project that I sheparded through our alloy development process to make a better knife steel. During that time Ed Severson and myself conducted inverviews with many other knife makers but Chris was the only one who had access to the early alloys which were made. In fact material for the first heat of S30V we made in the research lab was given to Chris to work with. From that material he made 4 knives, one was given to me, one to Ed Severson, Chris kept one and Scott Cook who ground the blades kept the fourth. Those knives were tested and compared to other materials and several suggestions were made for improvement in the alloy. From that point a second set of materials were melted and tested in the lab. From that came the origional CPM S30V as well as the later CPM S35VN. As a reward for his interest and feedback on the product Chris was the first maker who had access to commercial quantities of the alloy. Some have said in many posts that Chris had no involvement in the development process. I can say that if you were not there then you should not comment on what did or did not happen. I can say as one who was there that were it not for Chris and his persistance in pushing me there would not have been a CPM S30V or the alloys that followed.
