makes me wonder about some of these value-priced m390 chinese blades........

can DLC, PVD coatings affect magnacut hardness characteristics ? thanks

Love the Mr Rogers theme! 😂

Hi Larrin, would you be interested in making a video on how evaluating sharpness and edge retention works. Since edge retention and sharpness is often one of the deciding metrics when choosing a knife/knife steel, and one of the most widely debated subjects in the knife community, it would be interesting to get your thoughts on. Also I wouldn't mind a deep dive on the testing equipment such as the bess sharpness scale and the CATRA edge durability & sharpness tester.

What a great video. There's so much contradictory misinformation regarding wootz/dimascus and I've ran down this rabbit hole several times trying to learn about it. Usually it starts with someone saying damascus was this lost ancient superior material, then another source will say no, damascus is a cheap imitation/misnomer, Wootz was the real superior material, it's from India, and it's so miraculous that we can't make it today. Then you'll read about the carbon nanotubes and think there's actually something to the myth. Honestly, it was kind of exhausting trying to find some solid information in one place until I saw this video.

And here I was, thinking the 9 was in reference to the .9% carbon the whole time… great video Larrin, really appreciate the in depth explanation of spray form vs powder with the visuals.

what that guy does is not even close to the real wootz

Have you done any testing on the Titanium knife handles coming from Chinese knife brands? I'm very curious about the authenticity of those. I know there are different levels of quality when it comes to titanium. I just can't help but think some of these handles are something else all together.

After watching this, I pulled out my 11 year old Kershaw cryo, took it completely apart it, cleaned, lubed and put it back together with the intent to carry. And then I flicked it, and it's weak action on brass washers reminded me why I don't edc it anymore. Thanks for the Video!

"Powdered material" is what the cop finds on the inside of your Altoids tin

10:20, oh thank god, we haven't been wasting our time with metallurgy all this time.

Why do they cll the ancient version "wootz"?

Yes, but will it Kiiiilll?

Great video! Can you tell us a bit about Ginsan 3? i don't see it in your charts, or at least, whats the quivalent ?

Point of order: the older Damascus blades, generally but not exclusively made from wootz steel (there was an iron industry in that region of Syria for a long time) were called that because they were associated with the city of Damascus, where they were forged and traded. The local Syrian steel at the time also produced blades with that tightly packed grainy pattern. Modern pattern-welded Damascus steel is meant to evoke the historical stuff but the process and results are very different.

No such thing as hi carbon iron. The second you add carbon to iron you have made steel. Forge On!!!

The trolley falling off the edge was so good. I was hoping that would happen lol 🤣🤣🤣🤣 Mr. Owl was good, "i don't know, I'm a puppet" 🤣🤣🤣 Informative video as well, ty

A Chinese business being dishonest about their subpar steel ? "SHOCKING"!!!

I have a CJRB Chord with AR-RPM9. I was new to this steel and I'm not impressed. I have picked up 2 considerable chips in the blade by regular use. But is that the steel or the heat treat? Either way, the Chord is a throw away knife I use at work. If it breaks or chips real bad and becomes useless... oh well. This knife was a warranty replacement for an AC Hornet which had a problem with the pivot and/or bearing. I think I'm done with CJRB and Artisan. Sh!t knives

another chinese manufacturer doing scummy scammy things, i'm shocked lol. i bought one of their arrpm9 knives 2 years back (can't remember the name but it's the one with their weird lock on top) and i was a bit baffled how quickly it went dull, i found it to be very reminiscent of civivi's 9cr18mov (now i know why😂). well whatever, i've stopped buying chinese knives a while back, fed up with all the lying and bullshittery, boring designs and shoddy fit'n'finish.

0:02 Hi Larrin.

Could you elaborate slightly on what causes micro cracks? I know normalizing around 1550 (for 1095) gets carbon in solution and around 10 min is what you recommend in your book for a hold time if you’re trying to do it in a forge. What temp/ hold time would create conditions for “too much carbon in solution” and elevate chances of forming micro cracks?

Mr Owl is Amazing!

Thank you for all your research and testing. I have been curious what you educated guess on AUS-10 would be?

There is a steel called ZDF-905, some knife company also claims that it is a powder metallurgy version of 9cr15MoV. I think it's probably also a spray form 9cr15MoV.

This is top tier humor

Dr. Thomas, please turn Suer Thanks on! Some of us would be happy to contribute this way. It’s a setting in Studio under Earn, Supers, toggle Super Thanks to ON

For a time it was required that every Chinese household produce steel for the war so its luck of the draw .

China, hahaha 😂

I don’t think knife nerds bought CJRB for that fake steel. It’s always about quantity. Would you rather have one more good Spyderco/ Benchmade etc, or 2-3 Artisan/ CIVIVI/ “insert Chinese budget brand here”? The overall lesson her is… Don’t buy anything from Chinese companies when you can avoid it. Especially knives.

China ☕

❤❤❤

Thank you for citing the distinct differences.

Olight bundles a tripod for only $1 extra during their current sale.

Regardless of the specifics and details, the biggest disappointment with AR-RPM9 has been it's performance. I own 3 knives in this steel, and have been underwhelmed - performance-wise - by all of them. I will not buy any more.

I prefer to think you ruined science for this knife. Priorities.

Amazing video. So informative and impressed with your knowledge

You were right that their incompetence was the issue, which I certainly think isn't as damning as outright lies. For what artisan charges for their knives, which generally have pretty good actions versus "bad China" knives, I'd say if their marketing matched reality, they still are producing knives way better than Gerber crap that has worse steel, worse actions, and worse QC.