The "Ask Nathan a Question" Thread

Nathan the Machinist said:
This new tweaked Delta 3V is not an improvement. It's not even very much different than regular Delta 3V. But it is a little better at higher hardness and it a good fit for certain knives and certain people who want that little bit more of a crisp edge.

"wow, big deal Nate, you cooked it hotter and tempered it lower. What a breakthrough. *shrug* "

If it were that simple, I'd have found this years ago during D3V development.

Back then I was buying the same 3V as everyone. Over time I started buying entire heats of it, to minimize variations. That also gave me the ability to change the heat condition and grain bias and % cross roll among other things. I can now buy entire melts which opens even more possibilities for little tweaks. While it is basically the same steel design, this tweak resulted in a much finer carbide distribution.

N8CzGPH.jpeg


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This reduces the edge stability issues at higher hardness and moves the sweet spot up a little bit so we're running it harder.

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There is no free lunch. While this results in improved durability in certain use, it costs a little toughness in other use. So I won't be doing this with large blades. But it's a good fit here.

In practice, there honestly isn't much difference. But there is some.
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Nathan-

Your write-up about the tweaked D3V that you've been posting on recent Friday sale threads leaves me with questions.

The impression that I get after reading through this is that the tweaked D3V is created not only (or not at all?) by tweaking the delta heat treat protocol, but that it involves some sort of tweaks which are somehow applied during the manufacturing process of the steel; i.e., independent from and before the heat treat process. Is this correct or nah?

The two comparison pictures captioned "New modified 3V" and "CPM 3V" show the modified version having smaller carbides which are more evenly distributed. I always thought this sort of carbide profile is advantageous at any given harness. I guess not though?

TIA!
 
nu4an said:
Nathan-

Your write-up about the tweaked D3V that you've been posting on recent Friday sale threads leaves me with questions.

The impression that I get after reading through this is that the tweaked D3V is created not only (or not at all?) by tweaking the delta heat treat protocol, but that it involves some sort of tweaks which are somehow applied during the manufacturing process of the steel; i.e., independent from and before the heat treat process. Is this correct or nah?

The two comparison pictures captioned "New modified 3V" and "CPM 3V" show the modified version having smaller carbides which are more evenly distributed. I always thought this sort of carbide profile is advantageous at any given harness. I guess not though?

TIA!
Click to expand...

That is correct
 
Nathan the Machinist said:
That is correct
Click to expand...

Very interesting...

I'm curious to learn more about the specifics of these tweaks, but I'm thinking that it would require a hella long explanation, and I'm not gonna ask you to go to the trouble to do that. But whatever these tweaks are, if they result in a carbide profile that is just categorically better, that's freaking huge. I feel like this isn't getting the attention and recognition it deserves here.

I know that the harder 62 HRC isn't going to be used for every knife. But hardness aside, will this new tweaked/modified, dare I say "better", version of 3V be the new standard for all CPK knives going forward?
 
nu4an said:
Nathan-

Your write-up about the tweaked D3V that you've been posting on recent Friday sale threads leaves me with questions.

The impression that I get after reading through this is that the tweaked D3V is created not only (or not at all?) by tweaking the delta heat treat protocol, but that it involves some sort of tweaks which are somehow applied during the manufacturing process of the steel; i.e., independent from and before the heat treat process. Is this correct or nah?

The two comparison pictures captioned "New modified 3V" and "CPM 3V" show the modified version having smaller carbides which are more evenly distributed. I always thought this sort of carbide profile is advantageous at any given harness. I guess not though?

TIA!
Click to expand...
#NotNathan but in simple terms, larger carbides serve as crack initiation points but more carbides distributed throughout allow already existing cracks to propagate more easily through the steel. So it's not necessarily advantageous in all circumstances.
 
I have a question! (I’m new to understanding steels and knives, by the way I have a Field Knife, very cool)
Basically, Delta3v is 3V steel with cryo?
And, to be honest, I’m more interested in how it’s possible to have SUCH STRENGTH in steel, I mean, a knife that passes through the chain link. Is it all about cryo, or some other moments?
(sorry if my question sounds a little stupid)
 
Moorik said:
I have a question! (I’m new to understanding steels and knives, by the way I have a Field Knife, very cool)
Basically, Delta3v is 3V steel with cryo?
And, to be honest, I’m more interested in how it’s possible to have SUCH STRENGTH in steel, I mean, a knife that passes through the chain link. Is it all about cryo, or some other moments?
(sorry if my question sounds a little stupid)
Click to expand...

 
randucci said:
Is there a way to order extra set of the tri-rag micarta scales for the 2024 3” EDC that was the 10/2024 pre-order? I ordered and received two of the knives and saw a knife with the tri-rag micarta scales on it and want to try them on my EDC. Thanks.
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You can reach out to Jo at jocarothers at gmail dought com and inquire. If they're available we can provide what you want.
 
There was an evolution from the EDC-1, 2, and 3.

I've put together what I feel are the best features in what I feel is the best package and I don't intend to tweak it again.

But, calling it an EDC4 would have been misleading because a lot of people would have thought that meant it had a 4-inch blade.

It was going to be called the EDC 1.2 because it was closer to the original.

However I ultimately settled on simply calling it the 3-inch EDC. 2024, 2025 simply being the year that it's made, to help add additional confusion.

I suck at naming things
 
Nathan the Machinist said:
There was an evolution from the EDC-1, 2, and 3.

I've put together what I feel are the best features in what I feel is the best package and I don't intend to tweak it again.

But, calling it an EDC4 would have been misleading because a lot of people would have thought that meant it had a 4-inch blade.

It was going to be called the EDC 1.2 because it was closer to the original.

However I ultimately settled on simply calling it the 3-inch EDC. 2024, 2025 simply being the year that it's made, to help add additional confusion.

I suck at naming things
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It’s OK, don’t get too down on yourself buddy. You make up for it by being good at other things…:p
 
Nathan the Machinist said:
There was an evolution from the EDC-1, 2, and 3.

I've put together what I feel are the best features in what I feel is the best package and I don't intend to tweak it again.

But, calling it an EDC4 would have been misleading because a lot of people would have thought that meant it had a 4-inch blade.

It was going to be called the EDC 1.2 because it was closer to the original.

However I ultimately settled on simply calling it the 3-inch EDC. 2024, 2025 simply being the year that it's made, to help add additional confusion.

I suck at naming things
Click to expand...

For future reference, if I or someone else wants to replace the scales with a different color or material type, are the scales version specific or will any scale fit any version?
 
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