Z-TUFF

rodriguez7

rodriguez7

Gila wilderness knife works
Joined
Feb 1, 2009
Messages
1,428
just curious what everyone thinks of this steel? I really like the composition! Seems like a very tough steel for choppers, but also a steel I could use in a hunter, or back packing blade, or an edc! It should hold an edge better than most simple carbon steels, with 1 percent vanadium! I’ll be trying the low temp temper on it, and see how it turns out. Just trying to find a cheap electrician to help me wire my shop for 220. Seems like a similar steel to A8, but with better edge retention!
 
I think we can get z-wear a little tougher at the 58-60 Rc than we did. The low hardness was an upper temper with no cryo.
 
Willie71 said:
That’s ok. I think the z-wear will hold the middle quite well, balancing edge retention with toughness. I’m more worried about V4e knocking z-wear out of my top steel slot.
Click to expand...
. I think v4e will prove to be just a little better all around!! It’s one of my favorites so far!
 
rodriguez7 said:
. I think v4e will prove to be just a little better all around!! It’s one of my favorites so far!
Click to expand...

I suspect they will perform quite similarity. V4E will likely hold a better edge, while z-wear likely be slightly tougher.
 
Early on, I talked to some of the guys who had pioneered CPM M4 for the comp cutters. It was fairly tough and abrasion resistant, but they thing that they appeared to REALLY like was its relative fine edge stability. They would take it down to the point where it failed and then back off. IIRC, the magic number seemed to be around 15 thousandths which strikes me as pretty thin for somethings specifically made to take that kind abuse. This was back in the days before we started playing with stuff like lower temper to enhance that toughness/edge stability even more.
 
Last edited:
I love M4 in my Spyderco Gayle Bradley, that thing cuts cardboard like there’s no tomorrow and it’s perhaps my favorite folding knife, but for an all around small fixed blade that can be used for everything without the risk of chipping, I think I would prefer my Fredrik Haakonsen V4e hardened to 63hrc (1/4” thick, at my request, Fredrik doesn’t like to make thick knives) or an extreme solution, like my small (1/4”+ thick) Giedymin in NZ3 steel.
 
hugofeynman said:
I love M4 in my Spyderco Gayle Bradley, that thing cuts cardboard like there’s no tomorrow and it’s perhaps my favorite folding knife, but for an all around small fixed blade that can be used for everything without the risk of chipping, I think I would prefer my Fredrik Haakonsen V4e hardened to 63hrc (1/4” thick, at my request, Fredrik doesn’t like to make thick knives) or an extreme solution, like my small (1/4”+ thick) Giedymin in NZ3 steel.
Click to expand...
Those Gayle Bradley's take and hold a edge like nothing else. After that hollow gets nocked down they are thin behind the edge. I have used mine harder than any other knife with no failure other than small chips occasionally.
 
hugofeynman said:
V4e will be tougher, M4 will have better wear resistance in soft materials.
Click to expand...

Can you direct me to toughness comparison between V4E and Z-tuff? I certainly do not believe that V4E is tougher, not with 1.4% C. In fact, I would bet that the only currently available steel tougher than z-tuff is S7. When both HT'd properly as that goes without saying. But stranger things have happened in the knife world and maybe you are correct.
 
Cobalt said:
Can you direct me to toughness comparison between V4E and Z-tuff? I certainly do not believe that V4E is tougher, not with 1.4% C. In fact, I would bet that the only currently available steel tougher than z-tuff is S7. When both HT'd properly as that goes without saying. But stranger things have happened in the knife world and maybe you are correct.
Click to expand...
I believe he is comparing the toughness of V4E and M4, not V4E and Z-TUFF.
 
Cobalt said:
Can you direct me to toughness comparison between V4E and Z-tuff? I certainly do not believe that V4E is tougher, not with 1.4% C. In fact, I would bet that the only currently available steel tougher than z-tuff is S7. When both HT'd properly as that goes without saying. But stranger things have happened in the knife world and maybe you are correct.
Click to expand...

You are absolutely correct. Ztuff is way tougher than Vanadis 4 extra, only S7 and even more extreme steels (k600, 4140, 4340, Maraging, Aermet, ...) are tougher than Ztuff.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top