Steels that can cut wire.

Fat Goat Forge

Fat Goat Forge

Joined
Dec 31, 2011
Messages
292
In the horse world electric horse fence tape (http://www.horseguardfence.com/index.php) and electric horse fence rope (http://www.premier1supplies.com/fencing.php?species_id=4) are all over the place and its inconvient to carry tinsnips around on a daily basis. Most knives dull in a cut or two when asked to cut rope/tape with embedded wires. One a day that will be spent working fence I do put the tinsnips in my saddle bags but on a normal day I dont have them with me.

I have a knife with a CPM-M4 blade that seems to be able to hold its edge while making many cuts in these materials.

Are there other steels that are wear resistant cutting wires? I'm not sure if its a hardness issue (makers run M4 real hard) or the tungsten carbides in M4 that are conferring the ability of this steel to cut wires all day long.

I have not tried M390 yet and wonder if it or ZDP189 or some other supersteel can cut thin relatively soft wires well without need constant touchups on the stone.

If you have found a steel you like for this kind of stuff I'd love to hear about your experiences.
 
I am also interested in this very topic. A friend at work drives truck on the side and asked if there were any knives I knew of that could cut wire. Specifically wire reinforced hose. It is pretty tough stuff and I told him I'd check around but in the meantime to carry a Leatherman or similar tool edc.
 
In general cutting metal with a knife is not really the best thing to do.

That said it will have more to do with edge geometry, testing what works best for you and changing that until you find what angle works the best.

Most of the high wear steels would work well with a proper HT as long as the above is tweaked.
 
I don't know anything about the specific material you're referring to, but I find my Endura 4 SE to be a very powerful cutter of all kinds of materials...

endura01.jpg


Granted, I have not used it to cut wire per se, but I have faith that it could do the job adequately for light gauge interwoven wire.

ETA: I've seen little plastic handles that can take interchangeable/disposable saw blades... maybe there's one that could take a small hacksaw blade? Seems reasonable and perhaps a better alternative...
 
Last edited:
I have a Klein side cutting pliers with hardened edges .I doubt that they use any very special steel .The edges are AFAIK flame hardened . The big difference is a greater angle than a knife. The pliers are made for cutting things like 'copperweld' which is hardened steel covered with copper .We use that for antenna work. Mine is also a 9" one for greater leverage.
The finer angle on knives is the big problem and any side by side movement will tend to chip the knife blades.
 
I carry a leatherman surge for this kind of thing. It has built in wire cutters on the pliers and I swapped out the wood sawblade and put in a mini hacksaw blade. Think they are called T-shank blades. The surge is big but, I think you would find it has enough function to justify carrying it around. Don't think your gonna find any knife that can cut wire and keep a good edge.
 
They call CPM S-90-V the steel that cuts other steels because it is often used to make blades for power shears. I ordered some S-90-V for a custom knife, and they had to heat the sheet to red hot to shear off a strip. I had to buy the whole 6ft length. They apparently don't have an S-90-V scrap barrel. Rather than hike a knife, an anvil, and a hammer around, why not get one of the new multitools with replaceable jaw inserts?
 
tiguy7 said:
They call CPM S-90-V the steel that cuts other steels because it is often used to make blades for power shears.
Click to expand...

S90V is a tough steel, and is on the top of the list of Ankerson's test steels, although I think he now may prefer S110v. Of course, Jim's cutting tests used rope, twine and cardboard plus cutting hardwood twigs of 2" diameter or so, and did not include cutting wire. Gosh, I'd hate to cut wire with a nice knife.
Kershaw made a Shallot model in this steel a few yrs ago, but it is currently unavailable, AFAIK. Of course, even that particular knife has a relatively low hardness, below 60, and would do much better with a Brinnell of 62-64. (Kershaw Ken Onion Shallot Model 1840110V). In that regard, too hard may induce blade chipping on that wire.
The CPM S90V has been produced in a few models by Spyderco; i.e. the Military, Paramilitary, and Manix, I believe. Generally, you have to pay a good premium for this blade-steel, as it is not readily available off the shelf. You can find S90v occasionally in the EXCHANGE section of this forum.
As Ankerson has pointed out, knife edge geometry may well trump other factors in your search, and may save a lot of money in the process. Meaning, of course, you may have to start off with a good steel and then reprofile the edge to suit the task.
I would guess that D2 tool-steel might be a decent choice and is available in MANY models from Spyderco, Benchmade, and others. Not as good as S90V, but much easier to obtain.
Sonny
 
Last edited:
For cutting wire, I think Ankerson's ranking should be pretty accurate. Manila rope and bundles of copper wire both abrade somewhat similarly, and copper cable has other fibrous materials in the insulation often times.
 
A craftman lockback boxcutter fitted with a convex blade along with - Ankerson's suggestion - change angles geometry (strokes on a thickly loaded strop). Or for longer cutting edge, use a good quality kitchen shear - usually the blade angle is around 80 degrees <= ofcourse you can change its angle to a working-acute angle.
 
The Vanadis 23 that Lion Steel is using in their Rasul knives makes it hard enough that they could baton a blade through a bolt without damaging the blade. I assume that would be hard enough to cut wire as well. But, that's a $300 knife, I don't know if I'd personally be using THAT to cut wire.
 
Steel that can cut wire... Sounds related to metal-shop and machining, I think?

High-speed-tool-steels (M4 is one of these) are metals used in drill bits, milling machines, and bits for metal-lathes.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_speed_steel

Of course, they are used to cut metals (usually annealed steels, iron, and also softer metals like aluminum and brass). However, due to the extreme forces of machining metal, these cutting bits often have very large included angles. I think this is also because the edges are used in a way that is closer to "scraping" than "cutting" (sort of like a fruit peeler). I don't know exactly, but when I worked on a metal lathe, I was taught to grind my high-speed tool-steel bit to an inclusive angle probably larger than 70 degrees at the microbevel, and sometimes much more (close to 90 degrees inclusive). Hard to say exactly, as it was all just eyeballed. Can any real machinists chime in tell us the inclusive angle on their lathe bits?

Beyond high-speed tool-steels, there are materials like tungsten-carbide (with cobalt as a binder), and cubic-boron-nitride (CBN) inserts. You will see these in CNC machines (robotic machining which is computer controlled). They are extremely hard and wear resistant, but unfortunately, they are quite brittle. They too will use very large included angles for metalwork.

I don't know if there are any materials good at cutting hard steel wire with thin edges or micro-bevels (say 30degrees to 50 decrees inclusive). I mean at the industrial level (ie: for manufacturing processes where you need to cut miles of stuff). But I'm not a machinist (only did a tiny bit of metal shop), and I don't know much about manufacturing, etc. So if you find or hear about something, let us know!

After doing very minor metal-shop work (mill, lathe, just to make simple fittings between pipes and lab instruments), I was very curious to try a high-speed tool steel as a knife material. In particular, I would love to try M4 someday.

Sincerely,
--Lagrangian
 
Last edited:
Have you considered picking up a pair of EMT shears like these:
7_5in_emt_shears__39525_zoom.jpg

They can be bought for around 5 bucks usually and do a fine job of cutting through thin wire (often they are advertised as being able to cut through a penny).
 
Get a two bladed knife with great steel and you can sharpen the smaller blade to a greater angle, maybe convex/radius it, for tough stuff.

Just sharpening a knife normally and then hitting the edge on a buffing wheel like you are using it to sharpen it at a greater angle (which will give it a "secondary radius" if you get what I mean) will make it hold up to metal on metal use. Won't feel near as sharp of course.

People use sharpened triangular files to deburr and cut metal all the time. They are brought to a sharp point too. 65 rockwell steel and a 60 degree included angle and they stay sharp for a while.
 
Nico01 said:
Have you considered picking up a pair of EMT shears like these:
7_5in_emt_shears__39525_zoom.jpg

They can be bought for around 5 bucks usually and do a fine job of cutting through thin wire (often they are advertised as being able to cut through a penny).
Click to expand...

They will cut pennies. It is all about edge geometry. Shears use two opposing large angle edges. This geometry allows for rather mundane steel to work wonders since there are no thin angles to easily deform.
 
doesn't take much in the alloy to cut steel, just consider the low alloy steels used in cold chisels. The 50-75 degree angle is what gets the job done without chipping the edge. Shears are a good idea, you can get that larger angle and create the shearing action without needing an impact tool and an anvil surface.
 
hardheart said:
doesn't take much in the alloy to cut steel, just consider the low alloy steels used in cold chisels. The 50-75 degree angle is what gets the job done without chipping the edge. Shears are a good idea, you can get that larger angle and create the shearing action without needing an impact tool and an anvil surface.
Click to expand...

Good points everyone. I actually have a pair of the EMT shears and they weigh much less than my tinsnips. I think I will grab them and put em in my saddlebags.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top