Willie71
Warren J. Krywko
- Joined
- Feb 23, 2013
- Messages
- 12,214
I personally have not used any V4E yet but have used quite a bit of 4V, Z Wear, and PD1; I have to say that from my experience they are not similar in performance.
All steels mentioned were heat treated with high temp tempering, I am not a fan of the low temper protocols due to the slight loss in edge holding, to a final of 63 Rc.
The steels were also treated to a dry ice sub-zero treatment.
I will state that I feel that ZWear and PD1 have a higher toughness than 4V, but 4V has much higher wear resistance IME.
I am speaking from a competition chopper standpoint here, but this is a great avenue to put a couple steels against one another.
The first knife I made for my wife was from PD1 heat treated to 63 with dry ice treatment and high temper.
Her knife was noticeably duller after a single course run.
It would no longer cut newsprint and needed to be touched up after or before each competition.
Her edge geometry was very thin for a chopper as well at .010" BTE.
My 4V chopper though can go three or four competitions before needing to be touched up, it's generally around the fourth competition I start feeling it dragging through the big 2" rope.
At this point only about half the edge will still cut newsprint, and I am still using this same knife between competitions for practice.
My knife varies from around .008" to .012" BTE.
The 4V was heat treated to 63 Rc given a cold treatment and high temp temper.
IMO this is not necessarily real world testing but it is very hard on a knife edge.
I have compared low and high temp tempers several times and aside from the increase in stain resistance I am not sold on low temp protocol for any steel.
All that I have personally experienced with 4V in BladeSports is the same basic results others are getting with V4E.
not questioning your results, just clarifying one point for those who are newer at heat treating. Sub zero is not cold enough for full conversion of retained austenite with this group of steels. You need full cryo. Well, you need to get last -140f, which sub zero does not.
Your testing confirms that heat treating must be tailored to the application. There are advantages/disadvantages to high and low temper. High temper has better wear resistance at the expense of some toughness. I make mostly kitchen knives and thin slicers, where the increased toughness and smaller carbides are an advantage. Chris is using an application where wear resistance is more important. Heat treat to your application.