HTM Gunhammer Concern?

L

Landon7

Joined
Apr 2, 2013
Messages
34
Purchased from Knife Country USA off of Amazon. My concern is a possible fake? I am at sea at the moment and will not be able to get a feel for lock up, weight, blade play. Can forum members help me out?

1 "HTM MFDRGHBEDHAO Gun Hammer Assisted, Dark Earth, DLC, Bowie Blade, Plain"
Misc.; $196.46
In Stock
Sold by: KnifeCountryUSA
 
Maybe "fake" was the wrong terminology. Maybe one of those kit knives you put together for around $200 was more along the lines of what I am concerned about. I want the real thing made and quality controlled with the lifetime warranty.
 
I don't think they are a forum sponsor.

BladeHQ is though and you can get Gunhammers for them around that price...
 
I looked at it and it seems there is no way to tell that I know of. But their ratings on amazon are really good.

best of luck, sorry I couldn't help more!
 
It is the older model, in S30v. I have seen it for the same price at other internet dealers. I think it is legit.
 
Thanks guys. I've been burned once on a Benchmade Infidel that I thought I was getting a good deal on at a gun show. Paid $220 for it (retail $460) only to find out later that it was a Chinese replica.... When I get home I am going to go to the show again, find the dealer, and report him to Benchmade. I am looking to purchase one more DDR/HTM Gunhammer and I was thinking CPM S90v paying the going price at knife center. Would it be better for general use than the CPM S30v that was much cheaper? Asking because it is easy for one to get caught up in the details of blade material, strength, edge retention, etc.
 
I.m.o. S30v one of the best general use steels, for the price, I have ever had. I may not do one thing super, but it does everything very well. That gunhammer is a great deal.
 
I'm not sure if they're an authorized HTM dealer, but I looked up that third-party seller's listing on on Amazon, and the stock photo they have there is a genuine HTM Gunhammer. As others have noted, their seller ratings are good as well. So you'll probably be fine, and if so, you got a very good deal.

The only way to know for sure will be when it arrives and you see it in person, since obviously there's always a chance that what they're sending out is different from the stock photo. If you want to be sure, post up some pics when you get it, and I and the other forum guys should be able to tell you if it's the real deal. (If there's any question, I'll send the photos along to Darrel to take a look, since obviously he'd want to know in the event that someone is ripping off his designs, logo/brand names, etc.)
 
Landon7 said:
Purchased from Knife Country USA off of Amazon. My concern is a possible fake? I am at sea at the moment and will not be able to get a feel for lock up, weight, blade play. Can forum members help me out?

1 "HTM MFDRGHBEDHAO Gun Hammer Assisted, Dark Earth, DLC, Bowie Blade, Plain"
Misc.; $196.46
In Stock
Sold by: KnifeCountryUSA
Click to expand...


Product code breaks down as follows from what I recall, though it's been a long time now since I've assisted with HTM/DDR stuff (I was former mod here). Can't tell you without looking at whether it's real or not. But it seems real enough.
MF = matte finish
DR = Darrel Ralph
GH = Gun Hammer
B = bowie
EDH = edge honed
AO = assisted opening
 
how do you guys feel about a gunhammer in S90v? I always like to have a back up knife, which would be the S30v once I decide on which to get as my primary. Is the S90v worth the extra $125 over the price that I paid for the S30v? Should I buy this next knife from DDR's site, Blade HQ, or Knife Center? From the charts it looks as if the S90V would be one heck of a knife d/t the proper heat treating.
 
Neuron, I will have the pictures emailed to me (working seismic in the G.O.M. currently). I'll get all the angles and forward them to you in an email. Can you provide me with your email address? It will be Friday before my gf goes over to my place to take the pictures of the knife.
 
Landon,
As to your question is CMP s90v worth it? Well if you want it, it is! Even if you just put it in the safe. Many of us are waiting for our forum blades in that steel. In reality, it takes hard use to separate the performance from s30v. And you are correct the HRC, edge geometry etc play a big role in factoring in if the s90v will do so. A drop of 1or 2 points in the hardness is all it takes to drop it from a top tier cutting steel to a level two, per Ankerson's extensive testing which can be found in the testing and review section and should be condidered required reading for all knife enthusiasts. Having said all that, I own s30v, m4 and many others. Hell, I even bought a knife in D2 and one in CPM S110V this week. So, many things go into the buying considerstion process.
Cheers...
 
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Landon7 said:
Neuron, I will have the pictures emailed to me (working seismic in the G.O.M. currently). I'll get all the angles and forward them to you in an email. Can you provide me with your email address? It will be Friday before my gf goes over to my place to take the pictures of the knife.
Click to expand...
Email is in my signature: bladeforums.neuron@gmail.com. :)

Like Ray said, S90V definitely represents a big jump in edge retention over S30V, especially if you get the heat treat right. That's why the blades of the S90V forum knife are, by our request, being run a couple Rockwell points harder than the S90V KnifeCenter blades. :D Having said that, though, S30V (and its very close cousin S35VN) are also excellent general use/EDC steels. S90V is just the sort of thing you'd reach for if you have a bunch of cardboard boxes or other abrasive media to cut up, or if you just love extremes of performance.
 
Neuron, how can I get a DDR gunhammer in S90V heat treated correctly like the forum knife you guys are getting? I am almost new to blades but I am doing my homework. When I buy something I like to get the most that I can for the money with in the parameters I set. I see that there is a difference between the quality control/blade hardness that knife center, blade hq, maybe even knife country usa utilize? I would like to know what the optimum blade hardness is for S30v and S90v are. I suppose I will buy 2 S90v blades as I would like to have back ups. Where is the most trusted place to buy these DDR gunhammer knives that heat treat the steel to the proper hardness? I almost feel I made a mistake buying the S30v version from knife country usa.
 
Landon7 said:
Neuron, how can I get a DDR gunhammer in S90V heat treated correctly like the forum knife you guys are getting? I am almost new to blades but I am doing my homework. When I buy something I like to get the most that I can for the money with in the parameters I set. I see that there is a difference between the quality control/blade hardness that knife center, blade hq, maybe even knife country usa utilize? I would like to know what the optimum blade hardness is for S30v and S90v are. I suppose I will buy 2 S90v blades as I would like to have back ups. Where is the most trusted place to buy these DDR gunhammer knives that heat treat the steel to the proper hardness? I almost feel I made a mistake buying the S30v version from knife country usa.
Click to expand...
The forum knife is the only run of S90V HTM Gunhammers with the harder heat-treat. They're run at around 61 HRC (range of 60-62), while the KnifeCenter ones are at 59 HRC. The higher hardness seems to be optimal in terms of edge-holding, but the knives with HTM's "regular" S90V heat-treat will still perform very well. The forum knife order list closed back in September -- the knives are now almost done (blade markings are being done right now, and final assembly after that) -- so your best bet if you really want one is to see if anyone backs out by not paying the remaining part of the deposit, or to watch to see if anyone lets one go on the exchange. Also, instead of budgeting for two S90V HTM Gunhammers, you might also consider just putting that toward one DDR (full custom) Gunhammer. Darrel could do the harder heat-treat on the custom, and of course you'd also be able to choose other options such as blade finish, handle anodizing/machining pattern, inlays, and so forth.

As for S30V, the best heat-treat I've found is the one done by Paul Bos for Buck (as well as other companies that contract or had contracted with him to do their heat-treat such as Strider), which averages around 59.5 HRC.
 
I have seen the pictures of these customs on DDR's site and I am highly impressed. At this time though I am looking to have 2-3 general use gunhammers with great blades. I would like to keep the cost as low as possible being these are just utility blades say about $325 for a properly treated S90v. Would that be possible with an order through DDR's website?
 
Landon,
If I may offer some insight also. Please understand that most of the time, blade treatment will be done by single sourcing to a heat treat shop that a knife maker uses and trusts per his specs. On limited occasions, such as our forum blade knife, a client will have direct input as to some design specs that they are shooting for such as steel hardness. The HRC of 58 to 60 for the S90V that Knife Center requested (they show 59) on their website is a good, user friendly etc for their run of about 240 blades. We on the other hand, wanted as aggressive of treatment (we requested 60 to 62) as could be safely had for our money, and after discussion of the merits, went that way. It will be interesting to see what independent testing verify's on the outcome of our hardness. This is where your due diligence and research as a enthusiast plays out. I also would be unhappy paying premium money for a second tier blade. One trend I have noted is that blade treatments the last year or two have gotten considerably more aggressive due to market factors, and this is a good thing. It is now possible to buy performance off the shelf what was only available through custom makers 3 years ago.
At any rate, perhaps a couple of forum blades in S90V may become available for you at some point. Or...perhaps S110V may be lurking unknown to all of us.

Cheers
 
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Good info. It's one of those things for me that I would rather pay $360 for a blade treated to the specs you guys requested than $325 for the one off knife center. If the forum group buy was more of an OD color I'd be all over that but the chosen green is not something I would be interested in at this time. I just contacted DDR with the specs and see what price point I get back.

Specs
1. Gunhammer S90v heat treated to 60-62 range, 4" torpedo design, assisted opening, dark earth, dark grey, or black handles.

2. Gunhammer S90v heat treated to 60-62 range, 3.5" torpedo design, assisted opening, dark earth, dark grey, or black handles.

See what kind of pricing I can get back.

Ray Allen, as you have stated, would I be wasting my money on a knife center S90v, being inferior to the HRC of 60-62 or is it a decent buy at $325?
 
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Landon,
CPM S90V @~59 HRC will blow away most steels used in current production folders. The thing is...if you raise it above above 60 it gets into its sweet spot and really is where it shines. People like Ankerson, Phil Wilson and a few others have proved this beyond a doubt. Now..one other thing you may want to look at is, I think I saw a new run of Gunhammers in M390 @ Knife Center that appeared to be run extra hard on the heat treat. Very, very good stuff if true.
My take away on all of this is that there is a market shift going on in terms of bigger, better, badder in terms of high tech blades and specifically heat treats. I look forward to the first Gunhammer S110V. We should all benefit.
Cheers...
 
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I emailed DDR. If the price point is on point with what I am willing to pay for the 2 different knives I sent specs for then I'll buy from his site. If not, which would you choose at knife center the M390 or their S90v @ 59 HRC and or which would out perform the other of those two choices?
 
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