Edge of a victorinox alox bantam held up better than the necker when cutting 14 gauge copper wire.
... The edge deformed and couldn't cut paper after cutting 14 gauge copper wire, and was sharpened back to shaving sharp in 7 or so minutes, well below my average. Basically easier to sharpen than my vic bantam, and dulls faster. Granted, it was very thick copper wire, and so I didn't expect the knife to stay sharp. It was a cut out curiosity.
I used both knives once on the copper wire.
Quick question: Could you perceive a difference in penetration?
I do not own the Vic, but my guess is that it is thinner behind the edge than the Necker. As such, it should penetrate through the wire more quickly/easily.
CPM-20CV is known for edge-holding
in abrasive cutting, i.e. it possesses high carbide content to resist abrasive wear. For cutting hard objects, the carbides aren't really an advantage, what matters most there is matrix hardness, i.e. compression/tensile strength, and geometry. At the same geometry, a harder blade will better resist deformation (though, depending on the matrix it may chip more easily when it does start to deform).
However at the same hardness, there is a give-and-take with geometry. A thicker edge provides more material support to prevent lateral flexing and more surface to disperse compression
BUT it also requires more application of force to complete a cut (i.e. reduced penetration). As a result, a thicker edge is subject to more force than a thinner edge making the same cut. The geometry (thickness) is the same close to the apex, but as the cut proceeds the thicker edge wedges into the space. As it forces its way through, the wedging-affect results in some lateral 'wobble' at the apex that can result in deformation not experienced by the thinner knife that didn't require as much force to get the shoulders through. One way to prevent this wobbling is to stabilize the edge at a MUCH thicker geometry like you see on tin-snips & wire-cutters, but then penetration is very poor indeed and requires even more force to complete the cut, hence the leverage provided by the scissors-design.
Take the following diagram for example:
The Necker should be close to my Izula in edge-geometry (modified), maybe ~0.025" thick at the shoulder. The SAK should be thinner than the Spydie, maybe 0.010" thick. 14-guage copper wire is 0.064" thick, that's thicker than the Necker bevel is deep but much thicker than the SAK is deep. It could be that the SAK resisted deformation because it completed the cut with greater ease.
It could also be that Guy left a burr on the edge that squashed/folded on the copper-wire, hence being so ease to restore
You can see what happened to my Necker II's edge after cutting through various materials including an old tin can (skip to ~11:50 for the damage):
[video=youtube;O-z66ajgeCo]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-z66ajgeCo[/video]
