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Aaronkb
71
Aug 23, 2019
Drop: “Nitro-V can be heat-treated to a greater working hardness” Also Drop: “HRc 57-59” Greater working hardness than what exactly? Or are you saying it can be, but y’all choose not to? I’m confused, why do y’all keep treating knife enthusiasts like we’re stupid?
(Edited)
Cl1ff
37
Aug 23, 2019
AaronkbThat’s within the acceptable range for Nitro-V. It’s on the low side, but not too low. Though I would like to see it a bit higher. 59-61 maybe?
Aaronkb
71
Aug 26, 2019
Cl1ffAgain, if that is normal hardness for that steel... what on earth are they comparing it to when they say it can be treated “harder” than other steels? Also where are you getting your knowledge of normal hardness for Nitro-V, has any other knife used it before?
Cl1ff
37
Aug 26, 2019
AaronkbNitro-V isn’t very common, but it’s not unheard of. I can only think of a few off the top of my head. Information about most steals is pretty widely available with a google search. For Nitro-V, it’s most common to find it at an hrc between 58 and 61. But it has been pushed higher with good results apparently. Something like 63 or 64 I believe. However, 57 to 59 hrc is still higher than a lot of “older” or “lesser” steels. For the most part, when you see a company stating that their steel is able to reach a high hardness, it’s just marketing. The same thing is often said for other steels. For instance, this is often stated for steels like vg-10 and s30v. Aeb-L steel is very easily described as a stainless 52100 with slightly better performance overall than 52100. 52100 is well known for having great edge stability and general performance. It’s highly sought after in some of the sprint runs that Spyderco makes. Nitro-V is an upgraded version of aeb-l. Peter Kohler of Dark Timber Knives is using it on an upcoming drop of models. He’s an incredible maker and is using Nitro-V for a reason. I believe he is running them at roughly the same hrc. Although I would have to double check. That run of a couple hundred knives will likely sell out in minutes or seconds. Unfortunately, I won’t be able get in on the drop unless some miracle happens. I don’t think Drop is doing anything wrong with steel. Just playing it a little safe. You’ll still be likely to see great performance out of their Nitro-V, despite my aforementioned preference of seeing the target hrc bumped up 1 or 2 points.
(Edited)
Aaronkb
71
Aug 27, 2019
Cl1ffWow, that was actually a lot of great information. Thank you 👍
sir_puffs_alot
59
Aug 31, 2019
Aaronkbthe old version was 61 hrc.....i had it tested
reswright
3850
Sep 3, 2019
Cl1ffI dig this. I've been thinking of picking up a Nitro V blade for a while now. I know master knife makers can coax some impressive results out of Nitro V -- but they're also picking their own blade geometries and grinds and hone angles, and they are using production techniques that do not happen to scale any higher than the number of master knifemakers you happen to have on hand. One of many reasons why master work can sell for five figure prices. The production knife manufacturer has to use a production system that fits within the economic tyranny of their market price, which is usually in the low three figures, which means that the guy who is grinding the blades is possibly thinking about other things while he does it and using relatively inexpensive tooling. so I'm curious as to what the actual issue is that they were running into, in a steel nerd sort of way. Something everyone remembers but never says is that there's sometimes a reason not to push the heat treat as high as it'll conceivably go. Hardness is a big factor but it isn't the ne plus ultra of steel. OTOH for all I know they were like 'ok we'll do the deal but it only works if we give you 80% of the heat treatment' 'Done' but there's something to be said about a knife that still has some spring to the steel, depending on how you use it.
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