Any updates on Nitro V performance?

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Grayzer86

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I did a search on Nitro V but so far all I have found is info about the composition, HT, and makers who said they had some coming in. What I am wondering is if anyone has gotten to a point now where they have finished a knife from it and if they had any feedback. The Canadian supplier I use just bright some in and I was interested in maybe giving it a shot. Up here the price is about $7 CAD more per foot for 1/8x1.5. I have been fairly happy with the AEB-L I have been using, and wondered if you guys thought this would be a worthwhile improvement. I have quite a bit of thin AEB-L still for kitchen knives so I would be looking at 1/8 for hunters, just as a reference of intended use. I have also been using some CPM154, and being that the this NitroV is about $14 per foot cheaper up here, I was curious if it would be a viable trade off.

I fully understand that steel isn't the place to save money, I'm just wondering if anyone has comment on how good the steel is and if it would be a worthwhile buy. Thanks guys.
 
I haven't used it yet. I just picked some up recently. I was having lunch with Aldo a few days ago and we discussed the Nitro-V. Supposedly it has all the goodness of AEB-L but with added wear resistance thanks to the nitrogen. Makes sense. Not the real world experience you asked for but if you like AEB-L, Nitro-V should be all that and a bag of chips.
 
You mean added corrosion resistance? I didn't think nitrogen did anything for wear resistance.
 
There is added Vanadium as well, I believe that is where the added wear resistance comes from
 
avs3323 said:
There is added Vanadium as well, I believe that is where the added wear resistance comes from
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Not really enough vanadium to aid in wear resistance. It's only 0.079%....which will aid in fine grain...but not wear resistance.
 
It is kind of confusing since AEBL is already quite stain resistant. I remember something about most of the carbon in aebl being free ...thus you get higher than expected wear resistance for a steel with only .06 carbon.

Does the nitrogen somehow affect that as well? I cant for the life of me remember correct terminology...
 
AEB-L has a carbon level roughly at the eutectoid point , so the 13% Cr is free to give excellent corrosion resistance. The carbides formed are very small and are of the K2 (Cr7C3...I think it is, rather than the Cr23C6) kind. Nitrogen is said to behave like carbon in steel in that it can increase the hardness and it CAN increase the wear resistance. But with only .11% Nitrogen, I don't think it will offer much at all (if any) wear resistance...but I am honestly not sure about that. I think it will allow a little higher hardness over AEB-L and be slightly tougher and slightly more corrosion resistant, but at the expense of some wear resistance. An odd addition, IMHO. Maybe Devin Thomas and Robert C can help enlighten us what exactly .11% Nitrogen does for an AEB-L/13C26 steel, but I think primarily the goal with Nitro V is slightly higher hardness and slightly higher corrosion resistance.
 
I might have used the wrong terminology. I could've sworn he said wear resistance. I'll check. Just got off the phone with Aldo. Toughness is what he says it adds. Sorry for the confusion.
 
Thank you for the explanation Stuart. I do have a a batch of Nitro-V I am still putting together. Some outdoor knives as well as small and large kitchen. I am going to be sending these to Peters inside the next month. Let me know If any of you guys would be interested in helping testing or have ideas on heat treating, tempering temsp, etc. might be fun to do a pass around of sorts.
 
Hey, I know this is an old thread, but does anyone know anything more by now?
I'm not likely to buy anything soon, but I am curious.
If cpm 3v was 10, and 440c was 1,
What would 5160 be? 5?
And this nitro v?
I realize strain resistance is an added bemefit.
 
Dogpiss said:
Hey, I know this is an old thread, but does anyone know anything more by now?
I'm not likely to buy anything soon, but I am curious.
If cpm 3v was 10, and 440c was 1,
What would 5160 be? 5?
And this nitro v?
I realize strain resistance is an added bemefit.
Click to expand...
I’ve finished and delivered three if my Culinary knives in Nitro-V and all reports from my customers have been all A+ so far, it’s only been a month, two of the three are owned by private chefs that cook 3 meals a day & snacks for large families/groups...
 
so far the feedback from pro chefs has been really good. They love it.
 
I would expect good feedback from pro chefs with Nitro V, as long as the heat treatment is good. It's so close to AEBL or maybe slightly closer to 14c28n. Those two steels are extremely close in composition, you'd have a hard time telling which was which.

To address your comparison, Dog****, it would be better to clarify exactly what you're trying to compare. I assume edge retention in the kitchen environment. If that is true, then 5160 would probably be close to the bottom of the list. 440C and Nitro V would be close in comparison to each other but better than 5160 (440C may have better all out wear resistance than Nitro V, but wear resistance has limited application in the kitchen). 3V is a great all around steel, maybe slightly above NitroV/440C on your list, but it's so hard to predict without any experience, if which I have none with 3V. 3V won't have the corrosion resistance that 440C and Nitro V have, that may be a concern, although 3V has enough Cr in it to make it somewhat resistant to patina/corrosion, just not full stainless. It's just really hard to list steels without knowing exactly what properties you're looking for. Even when we are talking about one specific parameter (wear resistance or corrosion resistance or "edge stability"), it's difficult to put steels in a perfect order relative to one another.

440C with a good HT is an excellent kitchen knife steel. Very corrosion resistant. So is AEBL/Nitro V. Personally, corrosion resistance is not a concern of mine in a kitchen knife, but it can be in a pro environment with rules/regs to consider. My ideal kitchen knife steel needs to be able to be hard (62-66HRC), and easy to touch up. Steels like AEBL, Nitro V, O1, O7, 52100, W2, 1095, White, Blue, W1, W2 all do well. And of course, the obligatory "the geometry needs to be thin".
 
Yeah, that makes perfect sense samuraistuart.
When I Googled nitro v reviews and such, I got a machete reference before this one.
It's existence only cane to my notice because I saw a combat knife on knife center.
http://www.rmjtactical.com/jungle-combat-production/
So I guess I'm curious about the idea of a "one knife setup". (I'm not gonna go about with anything like that).
My scale is for a knife that puts primarily toughness first, and secondly how well it can keep an edge.
Essentially the knife you take on alone.
Not a kitchen knife.
I'm starting to feel a little silly..
Thanks for your time though.
 
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I find that resistance to acids is a big deal at least in home kitchens. I use a lot of citrus and it can really take the "bite" off a edge. Even with my M4 pocket knife it is amazing how much it affects the edge. I like to score the peel on my oranges to peel them. I find that peeling 1 orange will have my edge more than 20' of cardboard. Meat and veggies are another story. As American chefs are moving from French high fat flavors to fresh bright flavors that make use of acidic foods I think stainless blades are going to be a bit more desired.
 
Interesting about the citrus acids on CPM M4. I have a “petty” knife I made from CPM M4 about a year ago. I use it exclusively on meat proteins and a wooden cutting board. It has yet to be sharpened, not even a strop or touch up, and is almost exactly the same edge it had when new and freshly sharpened. It also has resisted patina. So much so that I would swear it was stainless. But of course, M4 is not. With that said, I did have Peters run the “Delta 3v” heat treatment on it, so it has great “edge stability” and excellent corrosion resistance. Sorry for a slight thread derail with that testimony.
 
samuraistuart said:
Interesting about the citrus acids on CPM M4. I have a “petty” knife I made from CPM M4 about a year ago. I use it exclusively on meat proteins and a wooden cutting board. It has yet to be sharpened, not even a strop or touch up, and is almost exactly the same edge it had when new and freshly sharpened. It also has resisted patina. So much so that I would swear it was stainless. But of course, M4 is not. With that said, I did have Peters run the “Delta 3v” heat treatment on it, so it has great “edge stability” and excellent corrosion resistance. Sorry for a slight thread derail with that testimony.
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That's interesting... last I checked w/ brad he said the delta 3v ht wasn't available without express permission from dan/nathan... and i wasn't aware that it worked on anything other than 3v but they did it to the m4 and it worked fine?
 
razor-edge-knives said:
That's interesting... last I checked w/ brad he said the delta 3v ht wasn't available without express permission from dan/nathan... and i wasn't aware that it worked on anything other than 3v but they did it to the m4 and it worked fine?
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At the late of 2016 I sent 20 blades made of 3V to Peters requested for low tempering protocol at 60-61 HRC and they did it for me.

Not sure the particularity of delta 3V but I bet they are pretty much the same.
 
I called Brad and talked to him directly about doing a specific ht on the M4 blade. I didn't call it the "Delta 3v" heat treatment, and it may not have EVERY detail Nathan and Peter's have settled on with the Delta 3v heat treatment. My main concern was no snap temper, and use the lower end of the tempering temperatures to get 64HRC, without using the secondary hardening. There may be other things the Delta 3v treatment uses, like specific aus temps and maybe even a pre-quench, I really don't know the exact protocol. I just told him exactly how I wanted it to be heat treated, and was expecting to hear, "sure but it will cost more". Brad graciously told me it wouldn't cost more, and would be more than happy to run the heat treatment I asked him to do.

Yeah, it works "real fine"! But we're talking a kitchen knife that gets babied, not a chopper that's going to really be tested to limits. Hunting knife, too. I have 2 knives in M4 with the low temper protocol. Both are just great.
 
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