Rockwell Testing Results

I found another Wilson 3JR machine I have access to, and after verifying it’s accuracy with a knife of known hardness, I started recording other results. Here’s where they’ll be:

Spyderco Native SPY27: 59 HRC

Spyderco Little Native S30V: 62 HRC

Pro-Tech Godson 154CM: 59 HRC

Benchmade Saddle Mountain Skinner S90V: 59 HRC

if you have a victorinox paring knife. it would be great to verify the hardness. in my videos i've said around 56, but these are presumptions that might be wrong, based on the swiss army knives. for all we know this could be updated. i'll do some research

yes, so all online material from all shops rates them as 56rc as specified from the company.

I don’t know if I can test one because I need parallel surfaces to use the machine. The other testing device can check basically anywhere and doesn’t need parallel surfaces, it’s just a probe that you touch to the steel, but I don’t know how to use that so I have to get lucky and see a metallurgist in that lab before they leave for the day. But I’ll definitely add one of those knives to my cart next time I get some stuff, it’d be nice to have around regardless.

A coworker’s Benchmade Mini Barrage in 154CM: 60 HRC

A razor blade (presumably AEB-L or 13C26) : 62 HRC (save the razor blades, guys, they’re worthy of a quick re-sharpening)

Cold Steel Kudu Lite in 5CR15MoV: 54.5 HRC (this is an $8 Chinese knife)

The Spyderco Native 5 LW in SPY27 was checked again three times and was 60 HRC

The Benchmade hunting knife in S90V was also checked again three times and was again 59 HRC

Al Mar Eagle Classic in AUS-8A: 59.5 HRC (exactly the same as the Eagle Ultralight previously tested)

Ryan,
Nice. I'll take anything over 55HRC. Just sometimes with the lower HRC knives you need to use the muddy stones and a hard stone to apex, usually using a micro-bevel and then back beveling, just like Cliff Stamp did with his 3-Step/Plateau sharpening.

Spyderco Native Chief in CTS-XHP: 60 HRC

The Chief, the Native 5, and the Eagle Ultralight and Classic are all 59.5 to 60 HRC, which should mean that the carbide type and volume are the primary differences in abrasive wear resistance. The hardness is basically the same, so that would have a minimal influence on observable differences. The SPY27 and XHP will have about 35% to 40% more abrasive wear resistance than the AUS-8 in the Al Mar knives.

S30V at 62 HRC (in the Little Native and the Shaman) as well as XHP at 63 HRC in the Chapparal, will all have somewhat higher wear resistance than the two Spyderco knives mentioned above. Maybe 10% to 15% which isn’t enough to be easily noticed. The main observable differences here would be the reduced burr formation and slightly better edge stability, hypothetically.

And the Benchmade hunter in S90V, even at 59 HRC, will have about 40% to 50% more abrasive wear resistance than these. Even at the lower hardness level it simply has a lot higher vanadium carbide volume, so with a coarse edge it will remain able to cut stuff like cardboard (or meat, skin, etc. during animal processing) for quite a while longer than the other knives I have.

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All that having been said, abrasive wear resistance is just one metric and doesn’t necessarily mean “more edge retention”, as I’m sure we all know. I really like the Al Mar AUS-8 for example because it takes very little time and effort to grind or sharpen, it’s at least decently corrosion resistant, and when the edge is overloaded it tends to take less damage than other stainless knives at a similar hardness.

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I think I’m gonna have to try one of Spyderco’s US knives in BD1-N, it should be very similar to the AUS-8 in carbide volume and possibly a point or two harder.

i have to say that the steel i am most interested in seeing more about will be magnacut.
i see that Spyderco are doing a native salt in the steel.

The magnacut steel does possess some interesting properties. Very fine grain and carbide structure, high enough carbide percentage to provide a big increase in wear resistance over something like O1, but it’s still tough enough to take pretty thin geometry and acute angles.

i really wish more companies would just start using more AEBL, but heat-treated well, and placed in the 60-62 rc region
its not the most stainless, but its certainly capable of incredibly fine edges.

id love a CRK Sebenza in AEBL, and thinner

I agree, dude. I’ve been thinking of that razor blade I tested. 62 HRC. A company like Spyderco could definitely do it right in terms of HT and geometry, and the knives would be excellent. I think once people realize just how easy it is to get it very sharp and how little damage it takes at low angles, a lot of people would like it.

We're working on making an AEB-L Mule team.

sal

Sweet. ????

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sal
We're working on making an AEB-L Mule team.

sal

That would be fantastic Sal,

From my experience doing batch heat-treating of AEBL with fluidized bed furnances was that i ended up getting the company to use large 1" thick steel plates clamping the blades together stacked 6 height sandwiching 100-200 at a time in my case. the reason for this was just lifting the standard cages from one furnace to another for the quench was warping a number of blades at 2mm thick.
the giant sandwich made the entire process faster and seamless with less warping.. with a cryo as well this was still happily getting 60-62rc on the blades.

what i would like is that something like the delica, or endura could happily be ground like a real kitchen knife down to 0.010 or less and 12dps and still be very durable. i grind my aebl knives thinner than that considerably with good results.

the only downside i have found to AEBL is that while it is fairly rust resistant in a normal environment. with a poor finish, it really will rust badly in a salt water environment.. but it also cleans up easily

Added to the above, i really liked where Spyderco went with the Nilakka zero grind. i just think that it was the wrong steel for the grind. AEBL would have been sublime as a true zero grind... but i think on a delica or endura it would be great.

sal,
A Mule team knife in AEB-L would be awesome!

The Cold Steel 4 Max Scout, AUS-10, is at 60 HRC.

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Ryan Nafe
The Cold Steel 4 Max Scout, AUS-10, is at 60 HRC.

Well thats right where it should be. one day im thinking of getting one of Demko shark locks to see how it goes. the knife itself looks too big and bulky for my normal uses, but it could be a nice one to use for a while and give away to a local

Yeah I mean for what it’s worth, the older Cold Steel AUS-8 was typically 57 or 58, so the increase to 60 is fairly substantial. You might try a Voyager, they’re cheap but pretty decent. I have one of the older ones with AUS-8A in the XL size.

Ryan,
I was thinking about getting a Cold Steel Voyager with a Tanto blade. The price on them is pretty good.

They’re really solid. One of the only Cold Steel designs that actually holds true to their old business model of inexpensive but durable and useful knives. I really hate that they moved to expensive knives with high-carbide stainless.

Voyager is popular, but not for me. i have particular tastes in how a knife looks and the handle shapes.

demko ad20

this is clean enough in its lines that i could get behind it. unfortunately im not interested in D2. the k110 he is using is one i made a lot of knives out of.. and its a very good steel. but without a powergrinder to reprofile im just too lazy. haha.

Fair enough, and the shark lock looks interesting for sure.

D2 can definitely be hard to grind but it’s still not quite as bad as the high vanadium steels. A basic coarse Crystolon from Norton is more than enough and would also be much faster than a diamond plate. If you wanted to, you could order the knife and a coarse Crystolon for about $20. For only $20 it’s pretty inexpensive for lowering the edge angle on a knife or two occasionally.

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Also cheap, hard stones like that in my experience work very fast if you use very high pressure, they don't dish at all and if the pressure is high enough they don't glaze either (hard bond like an India stone, but Silicon Carbide abrasive on this example), I recently thinned out my XHP chaparral, it took at most 20 minutes, I tried before with my coarse crystolon and it wasn't that effective removing stock.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 03/07/2022 09:37AM by Millscale.