The History of 3V, Cru-Wear, and Z-Tuff Steel

Larrin

Knifemaker / Craftsman / Service Provider
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Jan 17, 2004
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My Dad had one of those Gerber Knives in Vasco Wear. This was when I was a little kid, and both of us only knew about "carbon steel and stainless steel", not necessarily different alloys. Before I knew it was his favorite knife, I had already fell in love with it, because of the edge retention it had over what we were used to at the time.
 
My favorite article so far. I have been blown away by the performance of this group of steels. Learning the history was quite fun. Seeing the change in chromium vs. vanadium carbides when using PM technology has been enlightening.
 
Nice job Larrin. Keep up the good work.
 
I used to watch for the vascowear Gerber, up till about 2 years ago you could occasionally find them,haven't seen any since...I am crazy happy with some of the new steels out,(rex45,bd1n,bdz1,14c28n, m390,k390) now it's just about saving up for what you want
 
Very cool article. I agree with Warren that the last 2 have been especially interesting.

A question that has bugging me is how does the carbon ratio work? For instance with M2 and M4 there is a lot of alloy and a similar mix. I'm assuming that the carbide difference is substantial between the 2. Or in the examples in this article if you add 1% more vanadium how much carbon needs to be added to use that extra vanadium?
 
Very cool article. I agree with Warren that the last 2 have been especially interesting.

A question that has bugging me is how does the carbon ratio work? For instance with M2 and M4 there is a lot of alloy and a similar mix. I'm assuming that the carbide difference is substantial between the 2. Or in the examples in this article if you add 1% more vanadium how much carbon needs to be added to use that extra vanadium?

Additionally, when comparing cast to pm, can we predict with accuracy what carbides will form?
 
Additionally, when comparing cast to pm, can we predict with accuracy what carbides will form?
That was super interesting about getting different carbide with 3V vs ingot. Is that something that would happen with other PM steels?
 
That was super interesting about getting different carbide with 3V vs ingot. Is that something that would happen with other PM steels?

I’m curious. The temp at which carbides form, and the different temps which cast vs. Pm steels solidify probably generalize. M2/M4 probably have similar differences from cast cru-wear and cpm cru-wear.
 
I’m curious. The temp at which carbides form, and the different temps which cast vs. Pm steels solidify probably generalize. M2/M4 probably have similar differences from cast cru-wear and cpm cru-wear.
I just used those because the alloy is similar but the carbon content is very different. If I understand it right the the alloys are by weight that carbon being much lighter than say tungsten smaller changes make a big difference. I assume that the alloys work differently when they aren't being turned into carbides.
 
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