New BK76!!!

91bravo said:
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Well, did you use the damn thing yet? I mean, it's been a whole day.....slacker.:p
 
GeofS said:
Kristi from KA-BAR got in touch with me today. As always, she was very helpful. Should be another week before I get mine.
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There's this thing UPS does now where they hand off to the USPS for last-mile delivery. Thing is... I don't have USPS delivery to my house, and therefore I have a PO Box (not the other way around). So when I order something from UPS (or FedEx) I expect it AT THE HOUSE, and this goes into my planning vs. having to get to the Post Office during their business hours (1/4mi away, but it's a timing thing). And the boxes are dropped off en-masse so there's no way for the PO to say: "Sorry, no mail route for that address, keep it on the truck".
 
daizee said:
There's this thing UPS does now where they hand off to the USPS for last-mile delivery. Thing is... I don't have USPS delivery to my house, and therefore I have a PO Box (not the other way around). So when I order something from UPS (or FedEx) I expect it AT THE HOUSE, and this goes into my planning vs. having to get to the Post Office during their business hours (1/4mi away, but it's a timing thing). And the boxes are dropped off en-masse so there's no way for the PO to say: "Sorry, no mail route for that address, keep it on the truck".
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Frustrating.

What I didn’t know, and didn’t see advertised, is if you order a certain dollar amount from KA-BAR they ship with UPS requiring an in-person signature.
 
I see the KaBar site lists the hardness at 60-62. I'd be curious to see some crude or precise tests results if anyone has any hardness chisels or a Rockwell tester.
 
Trying to figure out how to justify buying a knife that I already have with just a different steel for three times the price... Anybody get to do any comparison tests? I've read a bit about magnacut. Anybody have any experience with it in a different knife to anticipate what the biggest benefits would be?
 
DanDanthedirtyoldman said:
Trying to figure out how to justify buying a knife that I already have with just a different steel for three times the price... Anybody get to do any comparison tests? I've read a bit about magnacut. Anybody have any experience with it in a different knife to anticipate what the biggest benefits would be?
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Considering Spyderco now uses Magnacut in their salt series, a huge benefit would be for use in any wet environment whether fresh or salt water. Also, with meal prep. Not to say that you can’t use 1095 there, but you need to be vigilant with it.
 
DanDanthedirtyoldman said:
Trying to figure out how to justify buying a knife that I already have with just a different steel for three times the price... Anybody get to do any comparison tests? I've read a bit about magnacut. Anybody have any experience with it in a different knife to anticipate what the biggest benefits would be?
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Obviously the price is higher than simply materials upcharges since this is a State&Union small-batch run.
But yeah...

I have made several knives out of Magnacut. I like it pretty well. It's REALLY well-balanced for a stainless and very stain resistant. I did have a minor chip in one blade early on but the problem hasn't resurfaced. I'm keeping an eye on it. I'm using the material for underwater robot knives, rigging knives, paring knives, etc. Expect to be doing kepharts and hunters soon too. So I do think it's a serious upgrade in the SS world, whereas I wasn't terribly impressed with S35VN and S30V over CPM154 for the price. But Magnacut IS expensive.

Is Magnacut the right steel for a BK16-alike? Hmm. Honestly, it's probably as tough at 62Rc as 1095CV is at 58Rc, but that's in a lab. In practice, stainless blades will fail by snapping when a carbon steel would likely fail by taking a permanent bend. Does that matter in practice? *shrug*

If you want the TOUGHEST stainless steel in your outdoors knife, AEB-L (Nitro-V a close second) is your friend. From a performance point of view it would be hard to distinguish it from 1084 in any category except rust resistance. But Magnacut will eat AEB-L's lunch in wet environments and for edge retention at the same hardness.
Interestingly, Magnacut has a very narrow peak toughness range, so pretty much you want it to be 61.5-63Rc no matter what, which may change choices. That high hardness WILL be more challenging to sharpen - important to know it's mostly the hardness and not the alloy itself that causes that experience (though the alloy and applications force certain hardness choices!).

For the curious, relative costs TODAY (from one of our esteemed vendors) for a 12"x1.5" of ~1/8" thick material look like:

AEB-L: $11.50
1084 & 1095: $13.25
Nitro-V: $13.84
154-CM: 22.14
CPM-154: $30.28
Magnacut: $33.73

Prices have moved around a bit, which is interesting. 1084 use to be tied for cheapest with AEB-L.
The 10% difference between CPM-154 and Magnacut seems trivial, but Magnacut is perpetually out of stock.
S35VN is like a buck more than CPM-154. Taking the 154 alloy from the regular smelting process to the PM process is like a ~40% price jump.
 
daizee said:
Obviously the price is higher than simply materials upcharges since this is a State&Union small-batch run.
But yeah...

I have made several knives out of Magnacut. I like it pretty well. It's REALLY well-balanced for a stainless and very stain resistant. I did have a minor chip in one blade early on but the problem hasn't resurfaced. I'm keeping an eye on it. I'm using the material for underwater robot knives, rigging knives, paring knives, etc. Expect to be doing kepharts and hunters soon too. So I do think it's a serious upgrade in the SS world, whereas I wasn't terribly impressed with S35VN and S30V over CPM154 for the price. But Magnacut IS expensive.

Is Magnacut the right steel for a BK16-alike? Hmm. Honestly, it's probably as tough at 62Rc as 1095CV is at 58Rc, but that's in a lab. In practice, stainless blades will fail by snapping when a carbon steel would likely fail by taking a permanent bend. Does that matter in practice? *shrug*

If you want the TOUGHEST stainless steel in your outdoors knife, AEB-L (Nitro-V a close second) is your friend. From a performance point of view it would be hard to distinguish it from 1084 in any category except rust resistance. But Magnacut will eat AEB-L's lunch in wet environments and for edge retention at the same hardness.
Interestingly, Magnacut has a very narrow peak toughness range, so pretty much you want it to be 61.5-63Rc no matter what, which may change choices. That high hardness WILL be more challenging to sharpen - important to know it's mostly the hardness and not the alloy itself that causes that experience (though the alloy and applications force certain hardness choices!).

For the curious, relative costs TODAY (from one of our esteemed vendors) for a 12"x1.5" of ~1/8" thick material look like:

AEB-L: $11.50
1084 & 1095: $13.25
Nitro-V: $13.84
154-CM: 22.14
CPM-154: $30.28
Magnacut: $33.73

Prices have moved around a bit, which is interesting. 1084 use to be tied for cheapest with AEB-L.
The 10% difference between CPM-154 and Magnacut seems trivial, but Magnacut is perpetually out of stock.
S35VN is like a buck more than CPM-154. Taking the 154 alloy from the regular smelting process to the PM process is like a ~40% price jump.
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Thanks for being such a great steel nerd! Can't wait to see someone do some side by side field testing 🧐
 
Rather than spend an hour watching the so called experts on the YouTube’s let me just ask my Brothers. I know diddly squat about Magnacut or super steels in general. But I do know that it’s a harder steel than 1095. Would it still be safe to baton with the 76 like I do with the 16. Kindling maker.
 
I never had the 16..... I stopped at 15.

The real beauty of MC is the ability to have strong thin edges. Just assuming that the 16 isn't all that thin bte?
Or am I wrong?

If I were grinding them they'd be like .012" :D
 
Crag the Brewer said:
I never had the 16..... I stopped at 15.

The real beauty of MC is the ability to have strong thin edges. Just assuming that the 16 isn't all that thin bte?
Or am I wrong?

If I were grinding them they'd be like .012" :D
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I think that's a bit thin for MC. 1084 and AEB-L on the other hand...
 
daizee said:
I think that's a bit thin for MC. 1084 and AEB-L on the other hand...
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Maybe? I haven't played with it Yet....
I was believing, maybe falsely that it's a lot like cruwear, character wise...which I'm pretty familiar with. I like That really thin.

1084 can handle wispy edges? Wow.....Idk that. Thsnks, good info
 
Crag the Brewer said:
Maybe? I haven't played with it Yet....
I was believing, maybe falsely that it's a lot like cruwear, character wise...which I'm pretty familiar with. I like That really thin.

1084 can handle wispy edges? Wow.....Idk that. Thsnks, good info
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you should play with one of Daizee's 62 rc 1084 blades -- they're pretty sweet for edge retention/durability and tougher than expected
 
Tanker 1/66 said:
Rather than spend an hour watching the so called experts on the YouTube’s let me just ask my Brothers. I know diddly squat about Magnacut or super steels in general. But I do know that it’s a harder steel than 1095. Would it still be safe to baton with the 76 like I do with the 16. Kindling maker.
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I’d be a bit reluctant to baton with it because of the price. That said, from Larrin Thomas’, Magnacut’s creator, blog:

https://knifesteelnerds.com/2021/03/25/cpm-magnacut/

Check out the 28th and 29th paragraphs, this really caught my eye in the 30th paragraph…

“Shawn compared a knife head-to-head with an ESEE 6, a knife known for its excellent toughness, made in 1095 steel. In chopping and batoning of wood both knives performed well with no loss in sharpness. The big difference came in the nail chop test where the 1095 had significant deformation; a typical resharpening was unable to take the edge back. Significant edge repair is necessary. However, the MagnaCut knife had only minor edge damage and was back to shaving sharp quickly.”

Larrin Larrin Becker knives are know for being able to take a lot of abuse such as batoning. Should we avoid that type of use with the BK76?
 
GeofS said:
I’d be a bit reluctant to baton with it because of the price. That said, from Larrin Thomas’, Magnacut’s creator, blog:

https://knifesteelnerds.com/2021/03/25/cpm-magnacut/

Check out the 28th and 29th paragraphs, this really caught my eye in the 30th paragraph…

“Shawn compared a knife head-to-head with an ESEE 6, a knife known for its excellent toughness, made in 1095 steel. In chopping and batoning of wood both knives performed well with no loss in sharpness. The big difference came in the nail chop test where the 1095 had significant deformation; a typical resharpening was unable to take the edge back. Significant edge repair is necessary. However, the MagnaCut knife had only minor edge damage and was back to shaving sharp quickly.”

Larrin Larrin Becker knives are know for being able to take a lot of abuse such as batoning. Should we avoid that type of use with the BK76?
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Thanks GeofS
 
GeofS said:
I’d be a bit reluctant to baton with it because of the price. That said, from Larrin Thomas’, Magnacut’s creator, blog:

https://knifesteelnerds.com/2021/03/25/cpm-magnacut/

Check out the 28th and 29th paragraphs, this really caught my eye in the 30th paragraph…

“Shawn compared a knife head-to-head with an ESEE 6, a knife known for its excellent toughness, made in 1095 steel. In chopping and batoning of wood both knives performed well with no loss in sharpness. The big difference came in the nail chop test where the 1095 had significant deformation; a typical resharpening was unable to take the edge back. Significant edge repair is necessary. However, the MagnaCut knife had only minor edge damage and was back to shaving sharp quickly.”

Larrin Larrin Becker knives are know for being able to take a lot of abuse such as batoning. Should we avoid that type of use with the BK76?
Click to expand...

Nathan Carothers has a good video demo comparing the stock Magnacut HT to something else - maybe his own?

Here's the thing: 1095 is not as tough as you think. We run it thick, obtuse, and "soft" for hard-use knives. 1084 has exactly the right amount of carbon (~0.84%) to go completely into solution without forming large carbides, which are the weak point in most alloys. AEB-L has like 0.65% to allow enough chromium into the mix to hit the minimum necessary to be considered "stainless" without causing large chromium carbides (without expensive Powdered Metallurgy!). Both alloys can achieve high hardness which can make up for loss of wear-resisting carbides.


Magnacut optimizes for a better balance of toughness vs. wear resistance/carbide volume compared to other high-alloy stainless steels, and because carbide volume is lower, its toughness is higher which allows higher hardness, compensating for a loss of carbides.

It can't touch 1084 and AEB-L for toughness point-for-Rockwell-point, but it stands well above most stainless alloys as an all-arounder.

While TANSTAAFL, we (Larrin) CAN optimize within constraints.
 
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