Steel testing underway...

In your video one of the blades that you pull out to air cool does not have foil on it what steel is that?
 
chad2 said:
In your video one of the blades that you pull out to air cool does not have foil on it what steel is that?
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I believe that was an A2 blade, but I can't be 100% sure. All of the blades that were air cooled without foil were coated with anti-scale compound (ATP-641) in order to protect them from atmosphere...
 
So I know this is an old thread, but I actually have an update to the testing! I was talking to Des Horn at the Canadian Knifemakers Guild Show the other day, and he was saying how much he liked RWL34 and recommended that I try it or something similar like CPM154.

That made want want to go back and have a look at the results of the testing that I did all those months ago. When I was looking I noticed something... The steel that actually fared the best in the impact toughness test was CPM154.

That got me thinking. If that steel did so well in impact toughness why was it behind the other steels in the final results? The reason was because it 'failed' the tip strength test. If it had passed the tip strength test then it would have been 3rd overall in points rather than 5th, with the difference between the top 3 being nothing other than minor.

Luckily, after I completed the testing 'way back when' I decided I would label and keep all the broken parts in case I had a future use for them. So I went and dug them all out to see what the tip thickness was like on the CPM154 sample compared to the other blades, something I probably should have looked at in the past!

Here's the results:
dGS8DEzl.jpg


Turns out that CPM154 likely failed the tip strength test simply because the tip of that test blade was a fair bit thinner than the other test blades! (27% thinner)

I grabbed a couple of the test blades and re-did parts of the impact testing, and it's really not a fluke. I wailed on the edge of the 2 CPM154 test blades with my trusty 'testing crowbar' and they held up really well. Every bit as well as the CPM3V test blade and the A2 test blade.

It seems I might have discounted CPM154 without good reason, so I'll be making a few test blades in it over the next few weeks to see how they hold up to some further testing.

Just wanted to make sure that people got the update!
-A
 
At what angle did the A2 blade fail on the bend test? I've seen videos by other makers where O1 at Rc 60 bent 90° Without breaking but didn't return all the way to true zero. Thanks.
 
man Aaron... I know I have said this to you before but man thanks. due to the absolute lack of time I can hardly get around to finishing the knives I have for the guys that need em but when guys like you put this much effort into your testing it benefits everyone... and in the end, most importantly our customers. Awesome thread.
 
Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith said:
Ummm.....you guys know this is a year old thread ... right?
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Cmon Stacy... that's not anywhere near the record for a Necro, lol. yep, I knew it was but I had only just saw it and thought it should be bought up to the recents just in case someone else hadn't seen it. it's a lot of work and a lot of info that a lot of people should read and comment on... can only help us all learn a little something. I wish more people would do tests like this as even just the results he came to are great for discussion and understanding.
 
Newbi7 said:
At what angle did the A2 blade fail on the bend test? I've seen videos by other makers where O1 at Rc 60 bent 90° Without breaking but didn't return all the way to true zero. Thanks.
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It failed around 40º if I remember right... That info should be somewhere in the result lists.
 
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