But he has a beard… he must be correct

would W2 or 8670 be good steels to austemper for larger blades or swords?

So with these high carbide content steels, does forging make powder metallurgy less relevant or does the even composition of the powder metallurgy steel still play a big part in making a better steel versus the smaller carbides that forging can kind of mimic?

If you read between the lines, this is cheap Chinese steel bought by a company to make knives. The rest of the story is lies created by their marketing department. Very deceptive company.

During my career, my mind could manipulate data gathered with experiments. Tests require a lot of things that cannot be applied when you are working on something new. So when our metallurgist was attempting to case harden Vanadium Permendur, he had all sorts of data on various trials. I was working in a research lab and we had cross technical meetings to aid the individual researcher with other looks at the problem. I asked the metallurgist for a separate meeting so we could dig deeper into the conditions under which all the data had been gathered. When we had that meeting my brain arranged the steps in a sequence that I thought would yield case hardening. He ran that as an experiment and it did indeed give the desired result. He had done all the steps previously, but never in the order or timing I had proposed. So I really enjoy seeing your work in heat treating.

can you test the new Nitro-X7 Steel?

I had a CRKT M21-14G with that steel. It definitely took a whooping before it finally broke when I was being a lazy ass and didn't want to go get my pry tool to pry a part off my car. I'm not huge on chinese made stuff but the CRKT was a gift and was one of the best chinese blades I've ever used steel wise and being designed by an American company means that it could at least be trusted to be made of the claimed steel

Brutal, I hope they figure it out:/ Also, thank you for everything you've done for the metallurgy and knife community🙂

The most important thing when heat treating a knife blade is to pray to Crom! Crom is the god of the Earth, and he lives underground! If you pray to Crom, your knife will be good, but if he does not listen to you, then the hell with him! ⚔️ Edit: Just kidding, I'm just a consumer who's interested in buying a knife and I'm watching videos on KZbin, with no real idea what any of this means. I enjoyed the video anyway though. 😊

So sad 😢

Thanks for the deep-dive, Larrin. You’re so good at taking complex topics, knowing deep facts, and making them digestible. Well done.

I just watched this video and you covered the subject very well. I do have a question for you somewhat related to the video. I currently have 120 volt 14" paragon oven. I find myself making more and more Stainless knives. So I want to upgrade to a 240 volt, 18 or 22" oven. In no order the top 3 are Paragon, Even Heat & Hot Shot. Being retired and I'm limited to what I can spend. This drops out Paragon as it is more expensive. Even Heat and Hot Shot are very close. I've read that some have issues with Even Heats door bowing when doing stainless near the 2000 temp. Have you ever experience this? Also do you have pros or cons to either make? Thanks for your time.

The knowledge available here is amazing

fingers crossed for the happy end

Knife metallurgy 101. What a nice neighbourhood. 🗡

Thanks for this super informative video. Crossing my fingers

What would you rate 8670 in edge retention, corrosion resistance and toughnes? I had a custom shop make my prototype and due to pricing I had to have it made in 8670 it's a fixed blade for outdoor use with aggressive recurve to a point then a nice rounded belly on tip also very thick knife.

This is cool

A Chinese company will purchase crucible 🥴

I did quick look at data in International Trade Administration in US, and I can say that, isn't it a bit like ""you gather what you sow" as some companies of American steel industry are a bit... behind in terms of updating and optimizing their market and sales in relation of expanding Asian market(that no matter if people joke about chinesium, is getting better and better) and European, that dig them self small trench to protect them self from ""external floods"", but its Europe, so they can contain good sales over whole euro-asia as they have cheaper ways to transport materials over regions, where US kinda... stuck. And I dont see them fight with prices and availability in South America(including Mexico) or Canada as export is going down compared to before 2019 in terms of raw metal/iron like hot and cold rolls, bars and rails, but Mexico and Canada started to import semi or finished stuff like sheets tubulars, and more specialized(galvanized, stainless, electrical , and overall flat stuff closer to what knife makers would wanted) from Korea or China instead of US that still keep high prices for it even if you dont really get better quality or numbers out of it. I know that its related to appreciating of dollar and all that retaliatory tariffs imposed on US steel but still I think It would be better for them to drop that stupid "AMERICAN MADE so pay for it as its better" ideology, as we all know that American made is too often worst than Chinese made, and just drop price, optimize spending on higher and mid level(as sadly they have the same issue as everyone else, read: paying CEOs and upper staff half of what company earn) and try to accustom to modern market...

magnacut as a bladesteel is a joke. its so cringe listening to "knife tubers" talk about alloys they don't understand using nonsense terms like "super steel". the entire concept of a knife thats super difficult to sharpen is so stupid it hurts my brain. you people have no idea what goes on in manufacturing and you have no idea why certain metals are used in certain industries and not others.

Is Magnacut used in another industry different from the Knife Ind.?

I've been told that the minimum size lot of AR-15 bolt steel (Carpenter 158) is 20,000 pounds from Carpenter. Not sure it that is what a knifemaker calls a small to medium sized order or not.

Thank you

For 2 years edc has been a kershaw analyst 8cr13mov part serrated, it’s the best one I’ve had from them and for 30-40 bucks you’re not afraid to use it. Haven’t had any need to sharpen any of it, used every day. The shape of the blade has a lot to do with edge retention I believe and the way you use your blade, everybody holds it and cuts different. Happy I found one that works for me.

Was under the impression Crucible was mainly into knives metal. Now I know, it's only a fraction of what they make. Paints a completely different picture. Love my Cruwear knife, it's my precious. Hope they make it and good jobs are saved.

Union Steel Workers Union strikes again. Way to go.

This brings up some painful memories of the GST Steel bankruptcy and subsequent Wire Rope Corp bankruptcy after 9/11. May there be brighter days for all those affected.

"...A2, D2, and R2-D2..."

I guess my Crucible steel knives just became more valuable.

Thank you for this video!!!

MugnaCat...

I have friends and neighbors who work at Crucible, so I am anxiously hoping they find a buyer who wants to keep the plant operating. 🤞

Knife prices through the roof due to inflation / printing money. I stopped buying. My collecting is stagnant.

Trying to bend a bainitic lawnmower blade back into shape blew me away, and theyre usually nearly mild steel. Id love to try a high carbon bainite knife

Ah NY….that makes sense now.

Ya know how Chat GPT sounds to me? Like every knife salesman pretending to be a reviewer that reads from the manufacturer’s promo data. @Knifecenter @BladeHQ Especially when they are promoting a certain super steel that has a “trifecta of properties” so that the hype keeps on hyping. Our culture is currently so impeded by inability to view objectivity and fact as anything other than negative criticism. And anyone who knows anything about the AI understands that its core algorithms is to reflect back whatever the user wants to hear.

Probably smart if Magnacut was rebranded as close as possible to original name.Magcut seems the most logical, shorter name, same steel. 😁

I imagine the government regulations aren't helping either.

Thank you for the information.

A new name: Nerdnacut!

Never make s30v again please. All seriousness CPM steels rock

So, I watched the video and I read the book; I'm still left with a question (maybe I read it and missed it); Why anneal at all? I will admit my introduction to knifemaking came from forged in fire, and those guys are making the entire knife start to finish in 5 hours, albeit with low alloy steels. I trust your research a lot more than my own knowledge. So lets say I'm just a guy in my garage that likes to swing a hammer. I like to make useful knives, so I like AEB-L kitchen knives. I forge to shape, Normalize (though I know now not to bother with that) and then I Austenitize at 1975 for 5 minutes and quench. What properties are my knives missing by not annealing in between forging and austenitizing?

Great video

Thank you for the update.

This is so interesting. Thank you professor.

Thanks for the information. Everyone has been wondering. I’ve heard a couple people talk about the situation, but nothing this definitive. 🎸🔪

Magnacut is the least important product affected by this.

I worked there for 10 years. The people making the decisions are paper pushers. Terrible decision making. The plant was bought for 8 million by venture capitalists in 09. There was never a real plan to invest and make it better for efficiency and betterment of the products. We all had ideas, good ideas but without financial investment they are all just pipe dreams.