What Kinds of Knives Is CPM154 used for?

Mo2 said:
Looks amazing but cpm154 is not the same as 154cm. I mean it sorta is. But it's the powdered steel version of it. It's properties get better. Man that thing looks amazing
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Whoops, my old age is showing again, apparently. I mis-remembered that knife as being 154 cm, not cpm, over S90V. Either way it sure is pretty, even if it's not a good example of 154 cm when polished.
 
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bearfacedkiller said:
One source of confusion between 154CM and CPM154 is that quite a few makers have identified their steel as CPM154CM which does not exist. I do not know where that started but it seems to have caused some confusion.
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It is confusing to me too. New Jersey Steel Baron may have started the confusion, because this is how they list their product. They have been saying "CPM 154CM" for at least a few years.
 
redsquid2 said:
It is confusing to me too. New Jersey Steel Baron may have started the confusion, because this is how they list their product. They have been saying "CPM 154CM" for at least a few years.
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I guess my question would automatically be which is it? Off the top of my head, I own a couple knives in CPM 154 (a folder and small Dozier fixed blade) and one I believe in 154 CM (maybe two). Been very pleased with the CPM 154 to the point that I would choose it over many of the super steels for smaller knives. You can get it incredibly sharp if you want to and it seems to hold an edge well with use. I don't scientifically test knives, I just use them and form impressions rather than hard facts. The impressions are pretty much "facts" for me, but not if posting here on BF.
 
It's one of my favorite steels. Many people have called it "balanced", and that's exactly how it will behave. Takes an edge similar to a carbon steel, and very easily. Doesn't give the edge up easily. Tough enough for anything a non-chopping knife would do. And probably won't stain unless you use it on a sea-faring vessel.
 
madcap_magician said:
ATS-34 if I recall correctly. Back in the day off 2004-ish, it was the standard steel for high-end production knives and S30V was the usurping hotness.
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ATS-34 goes back a little further back to the late 1990's.Benchmade could have been using it back then but I remember in that timeframe Camillus,REKAT,and EDI(Edge Design Incorporated) were using ATS-34 heavily.Buck Knives picked it up around 2001-2003 and then in 2005/2006 roughly is when 154CM began to fill it's place.
 
Frotier76 said:
ATS-34 goes back a little further back to the late 1990's.Benchmade could have been using it back then but I remember in that timeframe Camillus,REKAT,and EDI(Edge Design Incorporated) were using ATS-34 heavily.Buck Knives picked it up around 2001-2003 and then in 2005/2006 roughly is when 154CM began to fill it's place.
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If I recall correctly, that was also to do with difficulty getting ATS-34 from Japan, so people started using the American-made equivalent.
 
its all about heat treatment , properly heat treated excellent steel ,
some companies keeping it on softer side for production knives , I personally dont like it .
 
redsquid2 said:
It is confusing to me too. New Jersey Steel Baron may have started the confusion, because this is how they list their product. They have been saying "CPM 154CM" for at least a few years.
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154 CM is the cast version. CPM 154 and CPM 154CM are the same thing. CPM 154CM is the more appropriate way of saying it, because the CM stands for (Carbon/Chromium and Molybdenum) and the 154 stands for (1% Carbon + 14% Chromium and 4%Molybdenum = 15-4CM)
Then of course CPM is Crucible's powder metallurgy products.
That is my theory anyway, might be different, not sure.
 
ATJ999 said:
154 CM is the cast version. CPM 154 and CPM 154CM are the same thing. CPM 154CM is the more appropriate way of saying it, because the CM stands for (Carbon/Chromium and Molybdenum) and the 154 stands for (1% Carbon + 14% Chromium and 4%Molybdenum = 15-4CM)
Then of course CPM is Crucible's powder metallurgy products.
That is my theory anyway, might be different, not sure.
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Ehh, I wouldn't get too caught up in translating steel names and numbers, they don't all translate to what the steel composition is, they are sometimes just purely names/ designations used by the steel mill that makes the product.


For instance Hitachi ats-34 is the same as 154cm, but what the heck does ats 34 stand for? Haha idk.

Also Damasteels RWL34 is the same as Crucibles CPM154

Except that RWL stands for "Robert W. Loveless" a legendary knife maker who is responsible for making the steel (154cm/ats34) so popular and named in his honor. Cool stuff.

But yeah, they don't all have meaning to there names.
 
madcap_magician said:
If I recall correctly, that was also to do with difficulty getting ATS-34 from Japan, so people started using the American-made equivalent.
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Well the original intention of why USA knife manufacturing picked up ATS-34 by Hitachi was because 154CM was being poorly made for decades where Japan had it right in the vacuum smelting process.Now at my family's hardware store we carried a small stock of REKAT.Some people didn't want to buy ATS-34 because it wasn't American steel..others find Japan to be innovative and it was a must have for them.Cost? I could see that.I could also see 154CM before it was cleaned up getting put on USA made knives just to satisfy others.But then that rumor came about of ATS-34 being an 'inconsistent' steel with 154CM being brought back into the market.

Now I can't speak for 154CM because I've never used it...only ATS-34...but no complaints on the performance.With that being said there has to be a reason Crucible cranked out CPM 154.Maybe they couldn't achieve the results of Hitachi's ATS-34 except being designed through particle metallurgy.
 
DeadboxHero said:
Ehh, I wouldn't get too caught up in translating steel names and numbers, they don't all translate to what the steel composition is, they are sometimes just purely names/ designations used by the steel mill that makes the product.


For instance Hitachi ats-34 is the same as 154cm, but what the heck does ats 34 stand for? Haha idk.

Also Damasteels RWL34 is the same as Crucibles CPM154

Except that RWL stands for "Robert W. Loveless" a legendary knife maker who is responsible for making the steel (154cm/ats34) so popular and named in his honor. Cool stuff.

But yeah, they don't all have meaning to there names.
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Oh, I know. Most don't, but most Crucible's CPM steels names say something about their composition. Point being, CPM 154 and CPM 154CM are the same steel. Never looked into how they got ATS-34, good steel though. This family of steel is a good all around steel.
 
Frotier76 said:
Well the original intention of why USA knife manufacturing picked up ATS-34 by Hitachi was because 154CM was being poorly made for decades where Japan had it right in the vacuum smelting process.Now at my family's hardware store we carried a small stock of REKAT.Some people didn't want to buy ATS-34 because it wasn't American steel..others find Japan to be innovative and it was a must have for them.Cost? I could see that.I could also see 154CM before it was cleaned up getting put on USA made knives just to satisfy others.But then that rumor came about of ATS-34 being an 'inconsistent' steel with 154CM being brought back into the market.
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That's sort of how I remember it too.

Anyway, 154cm/ATS-34 has been around since the early 70's on the custom scene. The first factory knives with it I believe were the Al Mar Air Weight series, which are actually pretty nice knives that date to the late 80's -

images
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Benchmade was second I want to say, then Spyderco, and a small company called Koncept. This all happened in the very early 90's, within months of each other.
 
DeadboxHero said:
Ehh, I wouldn't get too caught up in translating steel names and numbers, they don't all translate to what the steel composition is, they are sometimes just purely names/ designations used by the steel mill that makes the product.


For instance Hitachi ats-34 is the same as 154cm, but what the heck does ats 34 stand for? Haha idk.

Also Damasteels RWL34 is the same as Crucibles CPM154

Except that RWL stands for "Robert W. Loveless" a legendary knife maker who is responsible for making the steel (154cm/ats34) so popular and named in his honor. Cool stuff.

But yeah, they don't all have meaning to there names.
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ATS - Alloy Tool Steel
34 - the internal "model" number of this type of alloy tool steel.
 
Carpenter Tool Steel eXtreme High Performance.

Mods: I am deeply sorry for contributing to the derailing of this thread, and I hope that you will overlook my egregious display of transgressive behavior this time. Perhaps on the grounds that I am making a contribution to the general knowledge of this community?

Thank you. I do not intend to make your lives any more difficult; it just somehow happens. Metaphorically, I have been working on cutting out my tongue so that I offend no more.
 
Steel performance is always more extreme when you abbreviate it as X instead of E in an acronym :p Thank you RLDubbya RLDubbya for the contribution
 
RLDubbya said:
Carpenter Tool Steel eXtreme High Performance.

Mods: I am deeply sorry for contributing to the derailing of this thread, and I hope that you will overlook my egregious display of transgressive behavior this time. Perhaps on the grounds that I am making a contribution to the general knowledge of this community?

Thank you. I do not intend to make your lives any more difficult; it just somehow happens. Metaphorically, I have been working on cutting out my tongue so that I offend no more.
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Hahaha YES
 
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