What is your experience with Fehrman knives, such as the COLD FURY???

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FliGuyRyan

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Dec 2, 2005
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As I've mentioned before, my best friend's uncles are the makers of Fehrman knives of http://www.fehrmanknives.com/knives.htm

Do any of you fellow forumites have any experience with any of their blades, especially the Cold Fury - pictured below? If so, what are your opinions, and likes and dislikes. I was thinking about picking one up, and this is an ignorent question, but could you carry this concealed like around the shin/calf area of the leg?

Also, the steel that the blade is made of, the CPM-3V... is that similar to S30V?

ColdFury.jpg


Thanks again!
Cleary
 
I'm not the expert, but 3V isn't stainless, in fact, I've heard it's pretty bad about rusting if you're not careful. BUT it is strong, probably the strongest you can get without buying INFI. (provided it's properly heated treated, of course.)
 
are you thinking about carrying it inverted strapped to your leg? or where you have to pull up the pant leg to gain access? I am sure you could find some secure kydex for it.
 
Well... I have very little experience in larger fixed blades, and I want to carry a boot-knife. I assume that the Cold Fury is a little large for that purpose, but I was just curious to see if you smart people would have any suggestions or experience with this knife... or knives of similar size being carried.

Cleary
 
well, I have a Busse SJTac and I have a custom leather dangler belt sheath ordered. I personally think that size knife is a tad too large for a boot knife. the Fehrman is almost a foot long.
 
FliGuyRyan said:
Also, the steel that the blade is made of, the CPM-3V... is that similar to S30V?
Click to expand...

No, 3V is a high carbon, high toughness steel similar to the A series steels with better wear resistance. S30V is a very high wear resistant stainless steel.

-Cliff
 
So... the 3V is comparable with the INFI from Busse? If that's the case... why aren't more people using it? I've seen the Fehrman Knives shop, and it's pretty impressive as they have a lot of high-end machinery to make their knives consistant and to very high spec. I had the opportunity to have my arm hair shaved, ha, and it did a very nice job.

I kinda wish they made the Cold Fury with serrations though... ah well.

Cleary
 
Saying that S3V is similar to INFI is just the way to start a barfight. So without doing a comparison: Just as Cliff said, S3V is a powder carbon steel, with very high toughness at high hardness. According to Ed Schempp it has "only" about half the toughness of a shock steel, about 70 on the charpy scale (which is still a very high toughness), but it does so at a whopping 63Rc (according to Crucible, it reaches that only at 60 Rc) while the shock steel would be a lot softer at its max. toughness . At the same time it has about 7 times the wear resistance as a shock steel.
On the other hand, it has a wear resistance that is between 154CM and S30V but twice to three times the toughness of S30V.

It is a relatively new steel. I don't know why it is used more often. Maybe it hasn't been adopted yet or it is iffy to heat treat?
 
FliGuyRyan said:
So... the 3V is comparable with the INFI from Busse?
Click to expand...

Not in the two knives I have seen. The Ed Schott custom was very shock resistant, I subjected it to heavy hits with a framing hamer with the edge against a chrome vanadium screwdriver shank, but had problems with bending, the tip deflected very easily for its cross section. The Ferhman Extreme Judgement had problems with chipping and the edge took fractures readily. The edge also deflected around a knot, but it was very thin in edge thickness. 3V looks really good on paper though.

HoB said:
According to Ed Schempp it has "only" about half the toughness of a shock steel, about 70 on the charpy scale (which is still a very high toughness), but it does so at a whopping 63Rc (according to Crucible, it reaches that only at 60 Rc) while the shock steel would be a lot softer at its max. toughness .
Click to expand...

The shock steels have their peak toughness values close to their as-quenched hardness, they peak around the same place 3V does which is 58 HRC. You can typically also effect the hardness several points by oil/air and room/cryo quench.

I don't know why it is used more often.
Click to expand...

It had a very short period where it was pushed strongly, a few people complained about it such as Ralph who reported deflection problems on the forums, it was quickly consumed by the massive promotion of S30V. 3V isn't new, for a cutlery steel anyway, I reviewed a 3V knife in 1999.

-Cliff
 
So, would you say INFI is "better" although, the Cold Fury isn't used for chopping and such.

Thanks as always,
Cleary
 
Based on what I have seen in regards to chipping resistance yes, I have not done any extended wear tests. Both handle corrosion similar, they resist rust much stronger than steels like L6/O1 and don't tend to pit deeply when soaked.

-Cliff
 
Let's make something clear - it's CMP 3V or 3V, not S3V. S3V does not exist. 3V is not stainless, so no "S". S30V is not a stainless version of 3V.

Like most stainless and CPM steels, 3V requires a careful heat treatment to get decent performance out of it. That's why makers gave it mixed reviews when it was first introduced several years ago. Heat treating a simple carbon steel like O1 or 5160 is much more forgiving.
 
SteelDriver said:
Let's make something clear - it's CMP 3V or 3V, not S3V.
Click to expand...

Ooops, my bad. I was looking at the file name of the data sheet and it is ds3V. The "ds" obviously for data sheet, but my befuddled bain did not realize that. Sorry. :o

5-10 years for a steel I would still call petty new?
 
I have a Fehrman Peacemaker which I use around the house and yard for utility. I am very satisfied with it, although I have not subjected it to any extreme treatment.
 
They might look like Busse's in a small picture, but they are quite different when you hold them together. I have both. My Fehrmans hold an edge a little longer than INFI, a *lot* longer than my knives in S30V. I like the ergonomics, I think the Peacemaker is as close to perfect ergonomics as you can get for a small fixed blade. It is really well done. I don't have a CF, but I do have a First Strike, and have subjected it to a lot of heavy chopping with no problems. The main grind is a little on the thin side for a knife of that size, but so far no problems for me. I'm hoping to get back out into the woods soon and give it the love it deserves. :D

I really like my Fehrmans and my Busses, and plan on expanding my collection of both soon...
 
SteelDriver said:
Like most stainless and CPM steels, 3V requires a careful heat treatment to get decent performance out of it. That's why makers gave it mixed reviews when it was first introduced several years ago. Heat treating a simple carbon steel like O1 or 5160 is much more forgiving.
Click to expand...


Let's get one thing straight. Yes, CPM3V would be optimized by a super careful heat treat, but it's still a great steel, even with an average heat treat. Lemme give you an example.

A few years ago, I decided to grind myself out a Busse looking test knife out of .200 thick CPM3V. I profiled and rough ground it out, and took the blade over to a friend's house, who just happened to have an old Paragon oven. We did our best to follow Crucible's heat treat specs, but had no way to do the things that Paul Bos does with this Argon quenched, enclosed atmosphered ovens. So, this blade of mine got the proper preheat, soak at temp and a simple air cooling, with the blade being cut out of the foil as fast as possible(not that fast, actually). Then, Crucible calls for a triple temper at 950 degrees or so, for 2 hours each temper. Well, that takes about a half day, and we didn't have that. So, this blade only got two tempers, before I had to drive on home with it. No cryo, of course.

Once I got home, I attempted to do a little finish grinding on it. A fairly new ceramic 50 grit belt would barely take the heat color off it. I finish ground it thinner( a lot thinner than your average Busse) and wasn't happy with my grinding, so I got pissed off and threw it point first down, hard, onto the concrete floor in my shop. It left a slight gray mark on the tip(no damage) and took a nice sized chunk out of the floor. Then, I took this blade outside and chopped into the cedar framing of the rosebed and violently twisted the blade as I pulled it out of the wood. No damage. Amazed and curious, I mailed the blade to Bailey Bradshaw, who Rockwell tested it. Bailey said the blade Rockwelled at 62-63! I don't know about you folks, but I consider that pretty damn good performance, considering the not so optimum heat treat.
 
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