New Steels vs San Mai

Insipid Moniker said:
That would be Bladeforums very own Nathan the Machinist. To be completely fair, 3V is tough stuff, but that gentleman has also been tweaking and massaging the heat treat to get every last bit of performance out of the steel. I'm very, very happy with CSs 3V, but I'm betting Nathan's would outperform it by a measurable degree.
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Cold Steel does a wicked heat treatment, and it looks like Nathan does, too. I'd love to see the two compared, especially as far as edge retention and toughness go.
 
There's one metal that out performs them all, including Nathan the Mechanic's alchemy with 3V, and that's unobtainium. :D Even if CS is not benefitting from Nathan's heat treatment, any CS product in 3V will have outstanding performance.
 
Insipid Moniker said:
That would be Bladeforums very own Nathan the Machinist. To be completely fair, 3V is tough stuff, but that gentleman has also been tweaking and massaging the heat treat to get every last bit of performance out of the steel. I'm very, very happy with CSs 3V, but I'm betting Nathan's would outperform it by a measurable degree.
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To survive that kind of test without significant edge damage requires the steel to be of certain toughness yet quite hard as well. Remember that a severe edge roll is as bad a chip. He tempered the knife to 60 HRC. Cold steel typical do not temper their knives anywhere as hard. Usually mid 50s so they pass the knife in a vice bending test. So I don't expect cold steels 3v to perform as such.
 
MichaelMyers said:
To survive that kind of test without significant edge damage requires the steel to be of certain toughness yet quite hard as well. Remember that a severe edge roll is as bad a chip. He tempered the knife to 60 HRC. Cold steel typical do not temper their knives anywhere as hard. Usually mid 50s so they pass the knife in a vice bending test. So I don't expect cold steels 3v to perform as such.
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Actually, I think they're running their 3V at 60-62 Hrc. At least in the master Hunter, though it may be lower in some of the larger blades. That's one of the fantastic things about the steel, if you nail the heat treat you can take it very hard and still have tremendous toughness.
 
Insipid Moniker said:
Actually, I think they're running their 3V at 60-62 Hrc. At least in the master Hunter, though it may be lower in some of the larger blades. That's one of the fantastic things about the steel, if you nail the heat treat you can take it very hard and still have tremendous toughness.
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Interesting. Someone should make an email enquiry to cold steel about this.
 
Looks like San Mai will be gone pretty much anyway.
"The classic San Mai III fixed blades have been a Cold Steel staple for decades. Coveted by martial artists and knife collectors alike, they are much in demand, but these high-end luxury fixed blades are only produced in exclusive limited edition runs each year."
I like the new ones but I love my San Mai's.(Just picked up a San Mai Magnum Tanto XII, beware zombies!)
 
What Cold Steel (and we) need is a Super San Mai, which might be a 440J stainless sandwich and a V3 core. One step further toward unobtanium... :D
 
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