Carpenter Technology acquires Latrobe Specialty Steel Company

Soulrack223

Soulrack223

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http://ir.cartech.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=64522&p=irol-newsArticle_print&ID=1575376&highlight=

Does this news, released today, mean anything for knife enthusiasts like us? I believe that I've read before that neither of these companies were particularly easy to get steel from for knife makers/manufacturers. My source of information is pretty much bladeforums for all things knife related so I thought this might be a good discussion point.

I know that Spyderco has released a few knives with Carpenter steel. My new Paramilitary 2 has CTS-20CP for example. And in the Spyderco Amsterdam Meet photos there was a 100% Carpenter steel knife shown. Does Latrobe produce steel used by any manufacturers? I've read rumors that Busse Combat's INFI steel is produced by Latrobe. I don't know if that is true or not nor if anyone can confirm or even deny it.

Will this merger be good, bad or indifferent to the knife industry? Who, if anyone will be effected? I don't know much about this part of the industry but I thought if anyone would, they would be on bladeforums. :confused:
 
20cv SOG ;14-4CroMo CANAL STREET; BG-42 Buck comes to mind ,others also using these steels but these are the ones that I can think of right off the bat
 
could you link me to the bg42 buck???!!!
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Buck has discontinued BG42 offerings including the custom shop knives. It was my favorite steel on 110's too.

Provided the merger goes through as planned it might be a good thing for us knife knuts and steel junkys. Carpenter has been attempting to enter the knife industry in a much bigger way as it now stands. They target the CTS steels at the domestic market and have some excellent steels. Latrobe is the one that had the reputation of not being really interested in the small sales respectively that we knife buyers use.

Latrobe is a state of the art steel maker with several plants scattered around and they have some excellent steels in their catalog. We'll see what remains , and how they plan to market the ones that we ( makers and buyers) like that weren't easy to get. BG42 is one of those. Expensive, and long waiting times but people seem to like it I'm one. Carpenter was going to make their own version for the knife industry in fact, and is on the list of scheduled sprints at Spyderco, release date unknown ( no pre orders yet I'm aware of)

Joe

They ( latrobe) make a powder steel vascowear analog I'm dying to try. :)
 
Carpenter cts-b75 is very close in their chemistry,and I think spyderco is producing a millie version w/tan g10!!

the steel is cts-xhp
 
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Very cool. Sounds like this could mean more excellent blade steels for knife nuts. :)
 
sorry about that guys the spyderco millie is in cts-xhp, but the cts-b75 is very close in chemistry however it is not a powder steel.
 
sounds like a great merger. it could end up producing the best of the best in non-crucible high end steel.
 
i may be completely off base, but infi is a special recipe that the Busse family cooked up starting with a latrobe steel they're able to get due to a special connection... depending on how the merger goes i guess i could foresee some sort of detrimental effect on that relationship, possibly forcing Busse to use something else?

purely theoretic, and as carpenter is said to like to cater to us knife nuts, it may not be an issue at all
 
I was looking at the spyderco product guide and they're going to make a manix2 ffg in cts-b75p and this is a powder steel ,so that's something to look forward to. I kind of wish they would change up the sage in s90v or even this stuff it would be awesome,we can only hope.
 
SpartanSaint said:
i may be completely off base, but infi is a special recipe that the Busse family cooked up starting with a latrobe steel they're able to get due to a special connection... depending on how the merger goes i guess i could foresee some sort of detrimental effect on that relationship, possibly forcing Busse to use something else?

purely theoretic, and as carpenter is said to like to cater to us knife nuts, it may not be an issue at all
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It's not really a special steel- INFI is A8 Modified, though Busse's HT is excellent.
 
A common complaint I've heard is that Latrobe didn't seem at all interested in knife makers, and only slightly interested in manufacturers. We'll see if that changes at all. I'd guess that whatever steels are made available to knife manufacturers and makers will likely be sold out of one of the companies, not both ( if they keep Latrobe and it's name as a seperate entity). One point of contact.

Crucible on the other hand had a great relationship with manufacturers, and even small, beginning knife makers and would work with customers for heat treats, information and help. That was why they dominated the market more than any real steel quality difference. They are all good, and have positives and negatives. That includes sandvik, Bohler now, etc.

There already was some co-mingling between Latrobe and Carpenter and at one time Carpenter listed BG42 back before they came out with the CTS line. The CTS line does have BG42 renamed, but according to Sal G. the batch he was going to get would be VIM Var'ed ( what made BG42 so clean), and it will be a powder steel.I don't know if they have ever test ran any BG42 with that process. Sometimes it's easier said than done. Recall Crucible and Carpenter both lost a whole heat of powder D2 and they say it was pretty messy both times.

Still, I feel positive about it. Latrobe has lots of nice steels that knife manufacturers might have access to ( if they feel a need to. They have most of the bases covered already)
 
I used to live next to a VP of Timken Roller Bearing. They were also owners or partners in (I think) Latrobe Steel. Latrobe Duratech steel has it's birthings in roller bearings the baddest *ss steel you can find. Most of you may have (my age anyway) had to heat up and beat on some wheel bearings, which laughed at our attempts, busted knucles, broke cheap wheel pullers etc. and wouldn't budge.

So what I'm saying is the Timken plant in Canton OH is/was (enormous) and it doesn't surprise me that a supplier of the best bearings made could care less about selling or stocking small amounts of certain steels or knife making. I'd think if you have a Duratech steel on your knife, you're probably getting some good stuff.

Here's a link to more info on them. and here is good for history of these companies.
 
Sword and Shield said:
It's not really a special steel- INFI is A8 Modified, though Busse's HT is excellent.
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That's what the rumor is but the chemical content is different. INFI has been posted as being:
V 0.36% Vanadium
Cr 8.25% Chromium
Fe 87.79% Iron
Co 0.95% Cobalt
Ni 0.74% Nickel
Mo 1.3% Molybdenum
C 0.5% Carbon
N 0.11% Nitrogen
Which adds up to be 100% and says nothing about Mn nor Si.

Latrobe's A8 mod is listed as:
V 0.54%
Cr 8.0%
Fe ?
Co ?
Ni ?
Mo 1.30%
C 0.50%
N ?
+ Si 0.95%
+ Mn 0.45%
So the formulas are different and the assumption that INFI is not really a special steel- INFI is A8 Modified is probably erroneous. The belief that INFI is a special steel made for Busse by Latrobe may be true. It may also be similar to A8, but it doesn't appear to be the same thing. I don't think anyone outside of Busse (& Latrobe if they actually make it) knows for sure.

I didn't start this thread for it to be about INFI. I'm obviously a Busse enthusiast and I thought I would be remiss not to mention those rumors even though they are at best only partially true and at worst completely false.

http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php/185490-INFI-Chemical-Content?highlight=infi+formula
http://www.latrobesteel.com/assets/documents/datasheets/LSS_Chipper.pdf
 
Crucible Industries and Latrobe already partnered up after Crucible's bankruptcy, so this should get good.
 
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