Recommend me a stainless?

[rhinoknives]

Yup, 440C got a bad rep due to manufactured knives stating that they were made from "440" stainless. The general public doesn't know the difference between 440A, 440B, 440C or 440 XYZ. All they know is that they bought a blade from "440" and it was a piece of junk.

That is really a shame. I made a few a couple of years ago from 440C and sent them to Paul Bos for H/T. I kept one for myself in order to see how they held up. Very, very satisfied. Holds a great edge when used as intended.

As a side note, I finished one from CPM S35VN a couple of months ago. Heat treated it in my Evenheat and did not Cryo. I think it could skin a Greyhound bus and then shave a wooly mammoth.

Robert

YEP!
That is the problem. Alot of Chinese junk marked 440 or 400 series and people don't know the diff??

if 440C came out today with a new name it would be the big write up in all of the knife rags etc.. 440C has been around since the 1950's and for price verses performance it's still hard to beat.

I am slowly moving most of my culinary knives over to CPM-154 for the added fine grain structure you can achieve.

Andrew,
If you are making folders the cost isn't as much of a issue so I would say to go for the CPM series like the CPM-154, CPM-S35VN or the latest one that they have sent me a test billet of is CPM-S110V that looks great and I want to come up with a new design for soon! Go here www.nsm-ny.com and go to the knife steels and products page to read more about these great stainless steels.

Laurence

www.rhinoknives.com

 

[Knifemaker.ca]

...or the latest one that they have sent me a test billet of is CPM-S110V that looks great and I want to come up with a new design for soon!
www.rhinoknives.com

CPM 110V has been around for years, used both in customs and in factory knives. At it's best, it can be a real bi*ch to grind. Anything that tough to work has to perform pretty well.

The supply dried up after the crucible bankruptcy. Glad to hear it's back. I'm almost out.

 

[Drew Riley]

Well, I've certainly been given a lot to think about, but I'm still researching the possibility of a dewar rental and "as needed" fills.

I did end up calling a local LN distributor to see what I cound find out about rentals and fill, but unfortunately, it was one of those things where I could have probably talked to anyone else and gotten more information.

First I ask "Hey, do you guys happen to rent out Liquid Nitrogen Dewars" (I pronounce it "do-our"), and he's like "sorry, liquid nitrogen do-what-now?... do you mean dewars? (prounonced like "doers")

Sure, it's a funny pun, but let's get real here. Dew-war vs. Dew-wer shouldn't really be hanging anybody up. hahah

Then when I ask about rental, he says they sometimes do it for account holders on a case by case basis, but I'd have to come in a see what they could do. Ok, I get it, you're clearly not in charge here, and you don't want to be handing dewars out like candy. Cool.

Then I ask if there are any minimum fill requirements, and if not, how much would 40 to 50 liters cost me?

Well, apparently he's got to look into it and give me a call back. I called around Noon yesterday, and still haven't heard anything, so I'm not holding my breath. You'd think they'd have that kind of info a little more readily available, but then again, I guess they deal with clients that are probably running through 1000's of gallons of this stuff per month, and aren't looking to accomodate 30 or 40 liters per month. hahah

If anything, I'll give them a call back next week and see if I can get some more information.

 

[bladegrinder]

AR, I'm switching to CPM154 right now,have a couple blades ground out and have been researching the dri ice treatment in a couple threads here,getting back to 440-C, I've been using it for years and have testimony from hunters in africa using my knives on rhinos,lions,cape buffolo and other critters including alot of wild hogs I've killed here in florida that it's definitly a worthy steel for blades, that said,recently I've had problems getting mirror polishes on it. {I can only say this for the size I use,5/32 x 1-1/2 } I had the same problem from more than one source. I found out the problem lies in sheared plate steel but not in rolled bar stock,if you go with 440-C make sure you use rolled bar stock if your looking for a mirror finish.
I also had the same problem with 154-CM, that is why I'm going with CPM-154, even at 400 grit I can tell the CPM is going to take a great mirror finish.