Thread: Show me your knives

Originally Posted by Tahr

Nice to see you back making knives. I sent one of your knives to a friend in Japan and it became a little bit famous processing Sika on youtube. Have you tried any of the CPM steels? Cheers.

Thanks again for sending that one over, from that vid I had a guy from the USA want one but wasn't doing much with them at the time. Haven't tried the CPM steels. Have used D2, Bohler N695 (440C equivalent) and Uddeholm Elmax (like 440C but with 3% Vanadium). I don't like heat treating these steels as they need to be austenized at 1000+C, which is hard on my gear. Plus I think they really need to be done in vacuum or under inert gas. The Elmax ones I did a while ago, wrapped in stainless steel foil, needed to be austenized for 45min at 1100C, which is the upper limit of my furnace and burnt out the thermocouple (Eeek!). I could farm out the heat treat of such steels but that comes with its own set of problems...

As an aside re: the Elmax knives I made, my personal one, which tests at RC57, doesn't seem to hold an edge that well. Could be at 1100C and 45 min there was more decarburization in the thinner bevels compared to the spine (I have to hardness test at the spine flats).

The performance "we" are getting with the L6 plus the fact I can do my own heat treating and hardness QC means I will stick with that (and similar) steel for a while. Cheers, D.