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reswright
3851
Oct 21, 2020
Three Sandvik TwoSuns: TS 207 14C28N/G-10, TS 240 14C28N/Ti, and TS 117 14C28N/Ti/CF

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TwoSun used to put out two kinds of knife -- D2 folders and supersteel folders with stuff like S90V and M390. Both kinds, they made out of material like CF and 6-4 titanium as well as G-10.They still sell all those, but have started adding something that I really like -- 14C28N knives made with the good stuff. Some people find this weird and/or clueless, because knives are also transactions and it doesn't necessarily make sense to them that you'd buy a luxed up knife made with an inexpensive steel. I love it, though. 14C28N, like AEB-L, doesn't cost much. It, like AEB-L, is just inexpensive but kickass knife steel. And if you're going 'sure, if they're so good why haven't the makers figured that out and started charging more for it' lol I hear you but you gotta realize a couple things. One is that the wholesale cost of a steel really isn't determined by the knife industry or its habits -- it's determined by the expense to produce that alloy, plus the overall demand curve for the alloy. Well, 14C28N is inexpensive to produce. It doesn't have rare alloy material -- really, it doesn't have much alloying material at all, let alone expensive material like niobium or vanadium or tungsten, and it's easy to smelt and forge and mill. Another thing is that, to the extent that demand shapes prices, and you'd therefore expect the price for 14C28N to creep up over time because people buy knives made out of it, you have to understand that the knife industry purchases tiny amounts of steel when compared to construction firms, automobile manufacturers, the aerospace industry, firms like that. Overall 'demand' curving of steel pricing is set by the buying habits of those bigger buyers who have rather different needs and concerns than knifemakers and much more impact on the industry, and knife makers sort of have to come to the table and work with whatever's on it. Their purchasing habits are a drop in the bucket. All that comes together to mean that you can have a cheap, but still REALLY good knife steel, and 14C Sandvik is a great example. It's cheap enough that budget models can include it, and that's why some people raise an eyebrow at a knife that includes it alongside expensive material like carbon fiber or titanium. Those are people who are used to evaluating knives as deals, not as knives -- they forget that 14C28N is good enough that it gets used in custom work. With a professional heat treat you can get 14C Sandvik north of 60 HRC, it takes a pretty keen edge, and custom knife makers know what's what. It lets them give people more knife for the price. So -- like I said -- I love this trend of TwoSuns using 14C Sandvik, and hope it continues. Onto the knives:
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They're roughly the same size -- about 8 inches open, blades between 3 1/2 and 4 inches long. The G-10 tanto on top with the compound hollow grind and the heavily relieved G-10 scales is the TS 207 designed by someone who goes by the moniker of Rattle Snake. I've picked up one of Mr. Snake's slipjoints before but this is the first locking knife I've had of his. And he's done a good job with it. These are going for $50-60 at the place one finds Two Suns being auctioned online.
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Dig that blade. The knife in the middle with the Art Deco/Art Nouveau thing going on is the TS 240, one of Night Morning Design's latest:
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This, and the similarly styled nessmuk/barlow flipper NMD did, really are some next-level work. Compared to their earlier, very angular and somewhat avant-garde designs, you can see all the craft they've added to their game and it's pretty impressive honestly. The smallest knife of the three is the TS 117 -- a Max Tkachuk design, somewhat of a throwback in looks, called the GrandPa:
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Until you open it, that is:
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BANG. That's one mean-ass looking grandpa. Both this and the NMD design are going in the $70 range currently. There you go, Drop. Three more from TwoSun, who are slowly but surely getting noticed by the knife world (in that they're getting impossible to ignore).
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