Toughness Tests of CPM-154

Larrin

Larrin

Joined
Jan 17, 2004
Messages
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I've been looking at the SK blades Smoke Jumper. I need another Buck 110 and never had CPM 154 before.

So it will baton rock right?
 
I've been impressed with CPM-154 and 154 CM as all around EDC steels
The edge holding has always been so-so for me but it definitely holds an edge for a respectable amount of time
The balance of stain resistance, toughness, and decent edge holding make this a great steel.
 
Korean Hog said:
I've been impressed with CPM-154 and 154 CM as all around EDC steels
The edge holding has always been so-so for me but it definitely holds an edge for a respectable amount of time
The balance of stain resistance, toughness, and decent edge holding make this a great steel.
Click to expand...
CM154 in my Emerson sucks but CPM154 is a different thing.
 
Alberta Ed said:
CM154 in my Emerson sucks but CPM154 is a different thing.
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Shoot...Emerson knives was one of the examples I was thinking about when praising 154CM.
I haven't had any problems with it. Their steel doesn't blow me away like Spyderco's S110v but Emerson's steel does what it was intended to do.
The only other example I have is a Burnely Kwaiken compact and its steel performed the same or similar to Emerson's.
Decent edge holding, very easy to sharpen, and quite tough for a stainless steel with respectable wear and corrosion resistance.
Definitely not the best steel out there, but I'd say it's a far cry from "sucks"o_O

I really don't want to derail this thread from the OP into an EKI debate, so I think we could chock this conversation up to a noticeable performance increase
in CPM 154 vs. 154 CM and others reading this that don't know, should definitely make mental note that CPM 154 and 154CM are NOT the same thing
and given a choice between the two, CPM 154 will likely be the better choice.
 
Yup, 154CM is an entirely different animal. I carried Benchmades 154CM for almost 13 yrs and it was always dull and chipped easily. :(
Id love to give CPM-154 a try sometime.
 
very interesting that you had such a high result on toughness for the original cpm-154 sample

since you did the test, but didn't say explicitly, what was the carbon%? I'm hoping it showed a small drop (to explain it?)
thanks
 
Thanks again for posting this.

I have found CPM 154 in my Smoke Jumper to be easy to grind and sharpen, even easier than S30v that I have from Spyderco and Buck.

Good stuff.
 
dirc said:
very interesting that you had such a high result on toughness for the original cpm-154 sample

since you did the test, but didn't say explicitly, what was the carbon%? I'm hoping it showed a small drop (to explain it?)
thanks
Click to expand...
XRF can't measure carbon content.
 
Form this latest test, seems like M390 still reign supreme as the best overall stainless for folder and small to medium knife.

The package of high hardness, high wear, great corrosion resistance and moderate toughness is still not found in others steel... Maybe Vanax is the close second?
 
shqxk said:
Form this latest test, seems like M390 still reign supreme as the best overall stainless for folder and small to medium knife.

The package of high hardness, high wear, great corrosion resistance and moderate toughness is still not found in others steel... Maybe Vanax is the close second?
Click to expand...
Early edge retention experiments on Vanax have not been particularly impressive so we will see. Still need to try more heat treatments on M390 to see if that condition benefited from retained austenite.
 
No one runs it hard though

shqxk said:
Form this latest test, seems like M390 still reign supreme as the best overall stainless for folder and small to medium knife.

The package of high hardness, high wear, great corrosion resistance and moderate toughness is still not found in others steel... Maybe Vanax is the close second?
Click to expand...
 
shqxk said:
Form this latest test, seems like M390 still reign supreme as the best overall stainless for folder and small to medium knife.

The package of high hardness, high wear, great corrosion resistance and moderate toughness is still not found in others steel... Maybe Vanax is the close second?
Click to expand...

LOL, I'd say M390 runs a close second, and only because it has a tiny bit more edge-wear resistance. Vanax is less likely to chip or break, which is a nice feature for thin blade geometry. It's so fine grained that it's easier to sharpen and takes a better edge. Plus, it has even better stain resistance.

I'm now using a @bluntcut gyuto in 0.6 inch Vanax blade stock with full distal taper and an edge thickness around 0.005-0.007 inches (hard to measure at this level of thin). Luong HT'd it to 61 Rc, which, as Bear says, it not super hard, but with this geometry, it cuts so well that it's near perfect.

I did break off a very, very tiny bit of the tip, but only because the tip is so thin and so sharp that it sticks into the end-grain cutting board when I use it. Great steel. This Vanax blade supports super thin geometry and takes about 15 seconds to resharpen.

What I got out of this thread is that heat treat performance is difficult to measure; even scientific testing gets varied results. And that's been my experience in general. Some knives perform incredibly well, while others from the same company and the same model fall short.
 
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