The "Ask Nathan a question" thread

Casinostocks said:
Lorien, I am sure if you send it to Nathan he'll find out as to whether it's a Westinghouse or what not ;)
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I'll send it to Nate the moment he expresses an interest in making a khuk!
:)
 
Nathan the Machinist said:
I don't have any real plans for a weapon. It may be a big ass pig shanker or a small dagger, or something else. *shrug* Unless America gets into another big shooting war I'll probably work on a lot of other projects before a weapon comes into queue again.
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Does it have to be a big shooting war? Can I persuade you to come up with something for this Cyber War we're in? How 'bout a big arse Ruski shanker? I shall name mine "the Vlad impaler" :)
 
Nathan the Machinist said:
Is that Westinghouse Micarta?
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straight from the sk8er;

It could have been... it was given to me by a fellow who had it for a long time, and he'd gotten it from Boeing surplus during his career at Boeing as a machinist. It certainly grinds and smells like the quality original Westinghouse stuff I've used in the past.
He gave me a huge block of it, with a very aged surface, as well as some smaller pieces.
 
Nathan, would you consider Z-wear PM or Z-tuff PM for a future run of one of your blades? Zwear is said to be quite similar to 3v and we all know how awesome your D3V is! Z tuff I am not sure--supposedly it is like a PM version of a shock tool steel like S7. Would developing a "D Zwear" or "D Z tuff" be something you would be interested in working with?

I have several blades in Zwear PM, and *quite* a few more in 3v from different makers. From my limited perspective and qualitative observations, the two steels are similar. (holding an edge, taking impacts without chipping, both are easy to sharpen and maintain)

Not too many folks use Zwear/Ztuff and what a game changer it would be if CPK improved them remarkably like you did with "regular" 3v turning it into D3V!
 
Ratman79 said:
Nathan, would you consider Z-wear PM or Z-tuff PM for a future run of one of your blades? Zwear is said to be quite similar to 3v and we all know how awesome your D3V is! Z tuff I am not sure--supposedly it is like a PM version of a shock tool steel like S7. Would developing a "D Zwear" or "D Z tuff" be something you would be interested in working with?

I have several blades in Zwear PM, and *quite* a few more in 3v from different makers. From my limited perspective and qualitative observations, the two steels are similar. (holding an edge, taking impacts without chipping, both are easy to sharpen and maintain)

Not too many folks use Zwear/Ztuff and what a game changer it would be if CPK improved them remarkably like you did with "regular" 3v turning it into D3V!
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I think it's a good product. It machines like a dream and is very nice to grind and process here and I feel it's a good material that makes a good knife and I did consider using it.

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I'm not certain, but I don't think that Z tuff is a better material than 3V. It's actually impossible to really know without fully refining optimizing the heat treat, but I've tried it and decided it doesn't have the potential in a knife edge that you find in 3V. Compared to optimized 3V it is mushy and it rusts. When they're both given the data sheet HT they're both pretty good, but not great as a knife. It has nickel in it that improves toughness in thick sections but has a nasty tendency to stabilized retained austenite which reduces edge stability in a thin knife edge and reduces the low temp HT potential almost necessitating the secondary hardening hump which tends to reduce edge stability and edge durability in a knife. 3V doesn't have these limitations and, when fully optimized for a knife application I feel that 3V gives better performance. That said, I'm just one guy working out of a shop and I can't say definitively that Z tuff has less potential (it is certainly very tuff) but I looked into it and found the edge stability of optimized 3V holds up better in rough use.
 
Great info Nathan--thanks so much for your response!

I agree; edge stability is really important especially considering how I/we use the FK. IOW, it's *plenty* tough as D3V. I do much more cutting/slicing than say batoning it through wood or other activities that would require toughness over edge stability or retention. I tried batoning even though the blade length is a bit short for that. No surprise it did just fine! I do not have a LC (yet!) so the FK is my sole example of your D3V. I could not think of an application where I would need greater toughness than D3v has inherently.

And the Zwear Shiv looks really nice! I have always read about the machinability of Zwear so it is great to hear your experience with it. I know you have experience with quite a few steels, A2,D2,3V,4V, the "Z" steels and many I didn't list, so I figured I'd ask. Thanks for the super informative response!
 
Nathan, the "behemoth" choppers..are they a design you created a long time ago and just never got around to creating or is it a new design Lorien made and submitted to you?

Is there a rough time frame on these? Like, sometime this year?
 
ExtraBaconPlease said:
Nathan, the "behemoth" choppers..are they a design you created a long time ago and just never got around to creating or is it a new design Lorien made and submitted to you?

Is there a rough time frame on these? Like, sometime this year?
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They are the Heavy Chopper, 2.0 and have been waiting for an opening for over a year. Longer thinner blade and taller narrower primary grinds and thinner edge, this is going to be a big high performance chopper.

We started cutting chips on them last week, but everything in the shop is currently on hold while we move things around installing a new machine. Once we get back into production it will probably still be an active project, though that waits to be seen.
 
Hi Nathan. Are you planning on having a lanyard hole at the butt end of the Survival Knife like the one on the LC and EDC?
Thanks much!
 
Cobra5 said:
Hi Nathan. Are you planning on having a lanyard hole at the butt end of the Survival Knife like the one on the LC and EDC?
Thanks much!
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that's the plan
 
Apologies for a question regarding the FK... could you give us an idea of when you expect to put out the updated Field Knife? Some of us came over to Carothers too late and missed out on a truly awesome knife! I'm sure alot of us wished this is one knife that would be in "regular" production!
 
animportant said:
Apologies for a question regarding the FK... could you give us an idea of when you expect to put out the updated Field Knife? Some of us came over to Carothers too late and missed out on a truly awesome knife! I'm sure alot of us wished this is one knife that would be in "regular" production!
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there is nothing currently in the works. Keep your eye out in BF classifieds, FK are available there from time to time
 
Thank you for answering my question. I'll try to grab one on secondary market (to match my natural micarta scales that have no D3V between them... I've got the bun but no burger lol)
 
425KRS said:
How far away are we from seeing a 4v product? Thanks!
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We have a 4V protocol worked out here that works very well that I like a lot, but we need to scale it up at Peter's. We're doing trials there now to see if they can duplicate it. If it works, we'll have a few 4V soon. If it doesn't work, it could be a while.
 
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