Cruwear vs. 3V ?

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I come across various videos on youtube including "what's happening at Bark River". They produce a lot of models in 3V and in a recent video they were talking about some upcoming models to be made in Cruwear. They said the Cruwear had the same toughness as 3V but with increased edgeholding, making it sound like an amazing steel. This is slightly different from how I have heard Cruwear characterized. Is Bark River correct?
 
Cru-Wear is an in-between steel.

3V's toughness is on a far greater level than Cru-Wear's toughness, however as for wear resistance they might be tied. Bark River is just using marketing to trick those who don't know about 3V and Cru-Wear into one of their new knives.

The defining feature of this unique expression of the Para Military 2 is its blade, which is precision machined from CPM CRU-WEAR--an air-hardening tool steel possessing an excellent combination of high wear resistance and toughness. Specially formulated by Crucible Industries, its alloy composition allows it to excel in applications that require greater wear resistance than D2, more toughness than M2 high speed steel, or both.
 
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My impression is that cruwear is somewhere between M4 and 3V; it has increased toughness over M4, but less ability to hold and edge, and more ability to hod an edge than 3V with less toughness. It does sound like an amazing steel, and I suspect it is similar to Vanadis 4E, which is incredible in my ZT 0180.
 
Cru-Wear is an in-between steel.

3V's toughness is on a far greater level than Cru-Wear's toughness, however as for wear resistance they might be tied. Bark River is just using marketing to trick those who don't know about 3V and Cru-Wear into one of their new knives.

The defining feature of this unique expression of the Para Military 2 is its blade, which is precision machined from CPM CRU-WEAR--an air-hardening tool steel possessing an excellent combination of high wear resistance and toughness. Specially formulated by Crucible Industries, its alloy composition allows it to excel in applications that require greater wear resistance than D2, more toughness than M2 high speed steel, or both.


That's gonna depend a bit on heat treat, Spyderco is gonna go for a higher rockwell on a folder than Bark river will on a mid-size fixed blade.
 
My impression is that cruwear is somewhere between M4 and 3V; it has increased toughness over M4, but less ability to hold and edge, and more ability to hod an edge than 3V with less toughness.

This has been my experience too. I really enjoy Cruwear in the PM2.
 
I may be wrong but I think (THINK) cruwear was the precursor to 3V. It may also be that its not made via the CPM process. Feel free to correct me if I am.
I know this, most SpyderFans love their cruwear blades.


Heat treat definitely plays a major factor in the properties when comparing both. You could run 3V really hard and it will lose toughness and gain wear resistance. Or run it softer for crazy toughness and less wear resistance. So hypothetically, cruwear at 58 might be as tough as 3V at 60, but may have more wear resistance than 3V. Flip those numbers and 3V may be way more tough with the same or slightly less wear resistance. It depends on the HRC, and that is a VERY BASIC assessment. Soak times, the quench and cryo and a bunch of other factors also determine the prooperties. Either way They are both very good steels.
 
I don't own any 3V blades, but I love my CruWear Manix. I've had really good results sharpening it and it seems to be very good at retaining the edge that I put on it. Totally unscientific, but with the current sharpening set up I have, I'd venture to say that my blade in CruWear is one of, if not the sharpest that I own.
 
"I may be wrong but I think (THINK) cruwear was the precursor to 3V. It may also be that its not made via the CPM process. Feel free to correct me if I am."

Initially Cruwear was an ingot steel . The Mules were made of this version. The newer folders are "CPM Cruwear", the powder steel version of this old steel that went back as far as Vasco Pacific's "Vascowear" and probably farther than that . Gerber used Vascowear in the 80's as "V" steel in a Sportsman 2 version. CPM Cruwear has indeed brought the toughness up into the range of almost overlapping 3v depending on the heat treat with higher abrasive wear resistance and higher hardness's more usual. It does rc 63 no problem with plenty of toughness for knife purposes.

3V was a powder steel development of a "H" series tool steel. I forget which one. H32 maybe?

Joe

* Edit It was H18 steel and not H32. It has been around a while though I'm not sure how popular H18 ever was. Not as popular as 3v anyways.
 
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Keffeler once made a two exactly same blade of PD1 which is pretty much Carpenter version of CPM-Cruwear and another in 3V. He did some destructive test on both blade to see how the steel hold up and the result is 3V is significantly tougher than PD1.
 
Screenshot_2016-09-03-17-41-31.png

For those that would like to see the numbers making up the alloys.
I also threw in PD-1 due to it often being stated as a "comparable" alloy, though I did leave out spectrum-wear and one or two others that are close.
 
Cru-Wear is an in-between steel.

3V's toughness is on a far greater level than Cru-Wear's toughness, however as for wear resistance they might be tied. Bark River is just using marketing to trick those who don't know about 3V and Cru-Wear into one of their new knives.

The defining feature of this unique expression of the Para Military 2 is its blade, which is precision machined from CPM CRU-WEAR--an air-hardening tool steel possessing an excellent combination of high wear resistance and toughness. Specially formulated by Crucible Industries, its alloy composition allows it to excel in applications that require greater wear resistance than D2, more toughness than M2 high speed steel, or both.

Hey guys I don't at all mean to derail this most interesting thread but I just have to inject something at this point to be considered. I currently have a thread going regarding which steel would be ideal for use in serrated edges better known as Spyderedges. One of the guys on the thread suggested 3V as being an excellent candidate for use in Spyderedged models like the JUMPMASTER or any other fully serrated model for that matter.

Because it seems like blade steels that have properties of super toughness tend to do really well in Spyderedge. Just wondering what some of you guys might think about that one? Like I say I'm not at all trying to derail what this thread was intended for but I just can't help but believe this might be the ideal blade steel for serrated edges i.e. the Spyderedge>> I've also given thought to XHP as being a great possibility as well. What do you all say?
 
Hey guys I don't at all mean to derail this most interesting thread but I just have to inject something at this point to be considered. I currently have a thread going regarding which steel would be ideal for use in serrated edges better known as Spyderedges. One of the guys on the thread suggested 3V as being an excellent candidate for use in Spyderedged models

3V has the reputation for being one of the toughest steels commonly used in knives so it is probably a good suggestion. XHP is supposed to be tougher than average for stainless but I have not found it to be very stainless. But then 3V is not stainless either.
 
Hey guys I don't at all mean to derail this most interesting thread but I just have to inject something at this point to be considered. I currently have a thread going regarding which steel would be ideal for use in serrated edges better known as Spyderedges. One of the guys on the thread suggested 3V as being an excellent candidate for use in Spyderedged models like the JUMPMASTER or any other fully serrated model for that matter.

Because it seems like blade steels that have properties of super toughness tend to do really well in Spyderedge. Just wondering what some of you guys might think about that one? Like I say I'm not at all trying to derail what this thread was intended for but I just can't help but believe this might be the ideal blade steel for serrated edges i.e. the Spyderedge>> I've also given thought to XHP as being a great possibility as well. What do you all say?
I can't speak about serrations really. I am not a person who will ever like or use serrations. Sorry.
 
Why Molar %?
Although all steel alloys contain iron, the proportion of other elements to iron depends on the type of steel. As a result, the molar mass -- a chemical measurement used to state the mass of a defined number of molecules of an element or compound -- of steel varies widely depending on the type of steel in question.
As an alloy, steel does not have its own chemical equation, but each variety of steel is made of different percentages of elements.

The above was taken directly from a site stating why that is used as a measurement of alloys.
 
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