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With Nathan's permission, text (edited out his first person so it doesn't sound like I am saying it or quoted where necessary) and pictures, I wanted to create a thread here, primarily for reference. I want something easier to find than the old sales threads. If anyone has additional pics, or info, limited runs of scales or anything, please feel free to add them and I will edit as necessary.
Pre-order list here
The Field Knife was designed as a collaboration with Lorien Arnold. It is a well made, no frills, high performance utility knife. The steel is Crucible CPM 3V at HRC 61-62 with the fully optimized heat treat with very good edge retention and edge stability. You'll be surprised how sharp this gets and how well it holds an edge. If you have never used 3V this hard and thin, it is gonna blow your mind.
3V with this heat treat will support a fine edge, so this was taken down to .015" before sharpening and it was sharpened 18 degrees per side. This is relatively acute and it cuts well, but is very durable.
Some batches were lightly hand ground after machining to give it a slight convex grind.
Some might consider this a tactical knife but the point is not reinforced and it is not shaped or balanced as a weapon. It's reasonably thin behind the edge. It is a hard working cutting tool, a big skinning knife and woods knife. There is a pry/scrape in the tang.
The handle is ergonomically designed for a standard forward, reverse, saber and pinch grips for an average to relatively large hand. The tang is internally skeletonized. The scales are 3D sculpted CNC machined. The blade is made of 3/16 3V with a heat treat that has been optimized to maximize edge stability in rough use. Despite being relatively thin it is durable. You can baton with it. You might damage the fine edge if you set your mind to it, but the knife itself is practically unbreakable.
A side effect of this heat treat is a higher percentage of free chromium, so although it is not stainless, it is nearly so.
Specs:
3V, tested 62 HRC, .188 thick at ricasso
0.015" before sharpening, 15 DPS.
This 3V is a fully optimized 3V for this hardness and application
Total length 9.75
Blade length 4.625
Weight 8.0 oz
Grippy 3D machined scales in micarta or G10
Black oxide treated 18-8 stainless steel fasteners
These are old pictures that show the scale options and finish.
Note the new 3V with the delta symbol indicating the delta 3V heat treat.
Here is the old 3V marking.
Handle selection:
Here is a new pic added July 15th, 2016:
From the top:
Natural micarta
Black micarta
Black G10
OD green G10
Blue G10
Black and brown G10
Black and OD green G10
Black and toxic green G10
Black and orange G10
Terotuf and Denim Micarta from sale on Jan 15, 2016:
From the sale Jan 8, 2016:
#1 Terotuf laminated it to a thick micarta liner to reduce issues with it moving over time.
#2 Denim Micarta, matte surface, laminated to a thin G10 liner. Dark blue, almost black. Will darken with use.
#3 Edge grain antique micarta came from old stock round bar, black G10 liner. Lineage unknown, probably older than dirt, I think this is as dark as it's going to get.
#4 Old paper base "butterscotch" micarta, black G10 liner. The color will eventually turn brown over time. One of a kind.
#5 Westinghouse from an old drop. Oxygen seeped in through some of the fibers around the edges, some went pretty deep, creating the unusual mottled appearance. The color will eventually turn brown over time. One of a kind.
Here is the thread detailing the materials used in this sale, very awesome and I believe deserves to be referenced here.
Additional pics of these unique scales courtesy of BF member betzner. Thank you Sir.
Jared Corry sheaths are custom made for these knives and are well designed and well made. They can be worn vertical or horizontal and can be configured for left hand or right hand carry.
Nathan's video:
[video=youtube;1w1_WX_fNN8]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1w1_WX_fNN8[/video]
Prices for the last batch sold on May 6th, 2016:
$235 in micarta, black or brown
$245 in solid color G10, black, OD green, blue
$255 in multi color G10, OD green, toxic green, brown, orange / black
$265 in Terotuf laminated over thick black micarta not shown. Terotuf is unbuffed. It is about performance, not pretty. If your hands get slippery when they sweat this is what you want.
Pricing includes a good kydex sheath.
Shipping in the USA is $10.
These knives are unusual because they are machined. Nathan does this in his shop on industrial CNC machine tools. A WIP thread documenting his technique can be found here.
Some of Nathan's thoughts about 3V and heat treat:
"3V was originally developed for the tool and die industry for difficult stamping applications. The heat treat used in that application, which uses the secondary hardening hump, results in good toughness and abrasion resistance in that application and minimal part growth after heat treat, which is critical in tool and die. But, the carbon lean martensite, secondary carbides and retained austenite that decomposes in temper rather than a part of the primary quench all lead to issues with reduced edge stability in a knife edge. The thin geometry of a knife edge is not found in a stamping tool, and tiny areas of weakness become like the perforations in a postage stamp, allowing an edge to roll over, chip and generally behave "mushy". This sort of thing is so common in today's complex super steels and stainless steels that people just accept it as normal.
We have been tweaking 3V for cutlery for a while now, improving it for knives incrementally. There are a number of versions of these tweaks from me and other makers, but they can all be described as a "low temperature tweak". Basically, it involves avoiding the secondary hardening hump, and when done right reduces structures that are harmful to edge stability, but requires addressing retained austenite without a high temper. A happy side effect of leaving the carbon in the martensite is it doesn't tie up all the chromium, leaving 3V very nearly stainless.
All of my 3V over the years has been tweaked in one way or another.
Last year some of us running a tweaked 3V ran into some trouble with some that didn't respond like we expected. Those of us makers who test work from every batch noticed it. It required some re-work, but we addressed the issue, and it prompted us to try to better understand what was going on with the alloy and to pursue a fully optimized 3V. So, Guy Seiferd (Survive Knives), Dan Keffeler and I invested the time and resources to more deeply investigate variables and develop a more complete understanding of the alloy, its quirks, and develop an optimized heat treat protocol for it. This is one reason my output was low earlier in the year, because I'd spent a significant portion of the winter in R&D mode.
Our previous tweaks to 3V had already made it significantly outperform the industry standard, so the fully optimized version is not a night and day improvement over our previous work, but the difference is significant, so in order to differentiate between this optimized 3V and previous tweaks we are putting a Delta symbol with the 3V on the knife to denote change. Otherwise, it would be difficult to differentiate."
The pictures above are old pictures showing a previous batch. The knives in the sale on May 6th 2016 are Delta 3V and look like this:
"If you have an old Field Knife don't feel bad like you're missing out, they had a very good heat treat and perform extremely well. The new heat treat achieves the same level of edge stability and edge retention with a higher degree of ultimate toughness. The old heat treat was already a very good performer (best in the industry) so unless you're cutting nails, most folks would not notice a difference.
If you're curious, this is a video that illustrates the difference between the fully optimized 3V and an old industry standard heat treat:
[video=youtube;6imZ4Vo8iwA]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6imZ4Vo8iwA[/video]
The heat treat for these Field Knives is the new protocol, but left a point harder because it's a smaller blade.
There is a small price increase. The new heat treat has more steps, takes longer and costs more to perform. But the actual cost increase per blade is pretty trivial and well worth it."
Pre-order list here
The Field Knife was designed as a collaboration with Lorien Arnold. It is a well made, no frills, high performance utility knife. The steel is Crucible CPM 3V at HRC 61-62 with the fully optimized heat treat with very good edge retention and edge stability. You'll be surprised how sharp this gets and how well it holds an edge. If you have never used 3V this hard and thin, it is gonna blow your mind.
3V with this heat treat will support a fine edge, so this was taken down to .015" before sharpening and it was sharpened 18 degrees per side. This is relatively acute and it cuts well, but is very durable.
Some batches were lightly hand ground after machining to give it a slight convex grind.
Some might consider this a tactical knife but the point is not reinforced and it is not shaped or balanced as a weapon. It's reasonably thin behind the edge. It is a hard working cutting tool, a big skinning knife and woods knife. There is a pry/scrape in the tang.
The handle is ergonomically designed for a standard forward, reverse, saber and pinch grips for an average to relatively large hand. The tang is internally skeletonized. The scales are 3D sculpted CNC machined. The blade is made of 3/16 3V with a heat treat that has been optimized to maximize edge stability in rough use. Despite being relatively thin it is durable. You can baton with it. You might damage the fine edge if you set your mind to it, but the knife itself is practically unbreakable.
A side effect of this heat treat is a higher percentage of free chromium, so although it is not stainless, it is nearly so.
Specs:
3V, tested 62 HRC, .188 thick at ricasso
0.015" before sharpening, 15 DPS.
This 3V is a fully optimized 3V for this hardness and application
Total length 9.75
Blade length 4.625
Weight 8.0 oz
Grippy 3D machined scales in micarta or G10
Black oxide treated 18-8 stainless steel fasteners
These are old pictures that show the scale options and finish.
Note the new 3V with the delta symbol indicating the delta 3V heat treat.
Here is the old 3V marking.
Handle selection:
Here is a new pic added July 15th, 2016:
From the top:
Natural micarta
Black micarta
Black G10
OD green G10
Blue G10
Black and brown G10
Black and OD green G10
Black and toxic green G10
Black and orange G10
Terotuf and Denim Micarta from sale on Jan 15, 2016:
From the sale Jan 8, 2016:
#1 Terotuf laminated it to a thick micarta liner to reduce issues with it moving over time.
#2 Denim Micarta, matte surface, laminated to a thin G10 liner. Dark blue, almost black. Will darken with use.
#3 Edge grain antique micarta came from old stock round bar, black G10 liner. Lineage unknown, probably older than dirt, I think this is as dark as it's going to get.
#4 Old paper base "butterscotch" micarta, black G10 liner. The color will eventually turn brown over time. One of a kind.
#5 Westinghouse from an old drop. Oxygen seeped in through some of the fibers around the edges, some went pretty deep, creating the unusual mottled appearance. The color will eventually turn brown over time. One of a kind.
Here is the thread detailing the materials used in this sale, very awesome and I believe deserves to be referenced here.
Additional pics of these unique scales courtesy of BF member betzner. Thank you Sir.
Jared Corry sheaths are custom made for these knives and are well designed and well made. They can be worn vertical or horizontal and can be configured for left hand or right hand carry.
Nathan's video:
[video=youtube;1w1_WX_fNN8]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1w1_WX_fNN8[/video]
Prices for the last batch sold on May 6th, 2016:
$235 in micarta, black or brown
$245 in solid color G10, black, OD green, blue
$255 in multi color G10, OD green, toxic green, brown, orange / black
$265 in Terotuf laminated over thick black micarta not shown. Terotuf is unbuffed. It is about performance, not pretty. If your hands get slippery when they sweat this is what you want.
Pricing includes a good kydex sheath.
Shipping in the USA is $10.
These knives are unusual because they are machined. Nathan does this in his shop on industrial CNC machine tools. A WIP thread documenting his technique can be found here.
Some of Nathan's thoughts about 3V and heat treat:
"3V was originally developed for the tool and die industry for difficult stamping applications. The heat treat used in that application, which uses the secondary hardening hump, results in good toughness and abrasion resistance in that application and minimal part growth after heat treat, which is critical in tool and die. But, the carbon lean martensite, secondary carbides and retained austenite that decomposes in temper rather than a part of the primary quench all lead to issues with reduced edge stability in a knife edge. The thin geometry of a knife edge is not found in a stamping tool, and tiny areas of weakness become like the perforations in a postage stamp, allowing an edge to roll over, chip and generally behave "mushy". This sort of thing is so common in today's complex super steels and stainless steels that people just accept it as normal.
We have been tweaking 3V for cutlery for a while now, improving it for knives incrementally. There are a number of versions of these tweaks from me and other makers, but they can all be described as a "low temperature tweak". Basically, it involves avoiding the secondary hardening hump, and when done right reduces structures that are harmful to edge stability, but requires addressing retained austenite without a high temper. A happy side effect of leaving the carbon in the martensite is it doesn't tie up all the chromium, leaving 3V very nearly stainless.
All of my 3V over the years has been tweaked in one way or another.
Last year some of us running a tweaked 3V ran into some trouble with some that didn't respond like we expected. Those of us makers who test work from every batch noticed it. It required some re-work, but we addressed the issue, and it prompted us to try to better understand what was going on with the alloy and to pursue a fully optimized 3V. So, Guy Seiferd (Survive Knives), Dan Keffeler and I invested the time and resources to more deeply investigate variables and develop a more complete understanding of the alloy, its quirks, and develop an optimized heat treat protocol for it. This is one reason my output was low earlier in the year, because I'd spent a significant portion of the winter in R&D mode.
Our previous tweaks to 3V had already made it significantly outperform the industry standard, so the fully optimized version is not a night and day improvement over our previous work, but the difference is significant, so in order to differentiate between this optimized 3V and previous tweaks we are putting a Delta symbol with the 3V on the knife to denote change. Otherwise, it would be difficult to differentiate."
The pictures above are old pictures showing a previous batch. The knives in the sale on May 6th 2016 are Delta 3V and look like this:
"If you have an old Field Knife don't feel bad like you're missing out, they had a very good heat treat and perform extremely well. The new heat treat achieves the same level of edge stability and edge retention with a higher degree of ultimate toughness. The old heat treat was already a very good performer (best in the industry) so unless you're cutting nails, most folks would not notice a difference.
If you're curious, this is a video that illustrates the difference between the fully optimized 3V and an old industry standard heat treat:
[video=youtube;6imZ4Vo8iwA]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6imZ4Vo8iwA[/video]
The heat treat for these Field Knives is the new protocol, but left a point harder because it's a smaller blade.
There is a small price increase. The new heat treat has more steps, takes longer and costs more to perform. But the actual cost increase per blade is pretty trivial and well worth it."
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