While browsing Larrin's knifesteelnerds.com found an unreleased alloy - Crucible CPM S145V steel. Composition is borderline insane, 3.20% Carbon, 14.50% Vanadium and 14% Chromium. That thing sure would hold the edge for abrasive wear resistance. Well, unreleased sadly, so we might never know, but who knows, might get released too.
Thursday, June 20, 2019 19:15:47
Zapp's own alloy, confirming to AISI A11 tool steel specification. Actual composition is identical to Crucible CPM 10V steel. Very high wear resistance steel, used in light/medium cutters. I did have a chance to use and review couple blades made from that alloy group, both by Phil Wilson by the way. They can be found here: K294 steel - Phil Wilson Bow River knife review and CPM 10V steel - Phil Wilson Utility Hunter knife review
Wednesday, June 19, 2019 22:45:45
Vasco Tuf was incorrectly listed as an analog of the Vasco Supreme A, hence the composition was also shown incorrectly. In fact it is an unique alloy, not a high speed tool steel as previously listed, but an 8% die steel. Fixed composition. No longer in production though. However, there are a few sites which list it in their assortment of steels for sale, so I am assuming it's still made?
Tuesday, June 18, 2019 20:22:06
Found out about Vasco Die when reading Larrin's very interesting article - The History of 3V, Cru-Wear, and Z-Tuff Steel which also covers the history of the Vasco Die steel, you should definitely check that out.
Monday, June 17, 2019 19:53:23
Continuing scouring of the Zapp's site. A few more new steels are definitely in there. Zapp certainly doesn't make my job easier by not stating corresponding standard names for their steels, not sure why, pretty much everyone else does that.
Sunday, June 16, 2019 21:08:21
Brand new M398 steel from Bohler, and for some reason, as of now, it's only available in Russia. I have no idea why that is though. M398 steel is intended as a more wear resistant improvement over quite popular, high end Bohler-Uddeholm M390 steel Working hardness and wear resistance improved alright, but the toughness went down. Toughness isn't all that important for industrial tooling, but for the knives it's a different matter. Still, I think it'll do fine for small, high performance cutters. Apparently, 66-67HRC is a realistic goal with this alloy, although neither that HRC, nor processing the M398 steel are an easy task. Given its very high carbide volume, I suspect M398 steel won't do well with high polished, acute edge, and so far what I've seen recommended for it, is between 30°-40° inclusive angles on the edge. I'll definitely try to get one for my collection.
Saturday, June 15, 2019 14:19:25
Zapp's take on quite famous Crucible CPM S90V steel, called Z-420PM. Unfortunately, the datasheets form Zapp are rather lacking the details, at least as far as precise compositions are concerned. No mention of any trace elements, Wolfram, Mn or Si. THe rest matches official Crucible spec. Here's if you are interested, Zapp Z-420PM vs. Crucible CPM S90V steel composition comparison. This could mean one of two things, either the compositions are the same, and Zapp doesn't think omitted elements are worthy of mentioning, or Zapp isn't committed to keeping those elements around or in the same amounts at least. I'd rather have clarity on that, but as it is, we have primary elements at exact same levels with Crucible CPM S90V steel. Technology is also different, PM vs. CPM, but that's mainly naming, not really a deciding factor.
Friday, June 14, 2019 19:22:25
Visited Zapp's site, and apparently they have been on the roll lately, seems like they've added quite a few new alloys. Well, first looks can be misleading, like just renamings, so it'll take time to sift through the data, but, nevertheless, Z-Tuff is definitely a new one, equivalent of the Carpenter CD#1 steel. Tough, and quite wear resistant high alloy steel from ~8% Cr group.
Thursday, June 13, 2019 20:37:57
During the migration to PHP 7, a but snuck in. Graph builder was no longer displaying the alloy title for a single alloy, or alloy list for comparisons. Just uploaded the fix.
Wednesday, June 12, 2019 21:26:22
As promised :) The result of 4 separate measurements was used to deduce the alloy group, which turned out to be good, old 440B, to be more specific, JIS SUS440B stainless steel spec. Median values for the Cr, Mo, V, Mn, Ni, Si, Cu were used in the composition, the rest come from the SUS440B spec, which is how steel compositions work anyway. One more mystery solved, took a decade, but hey, I'll take whatever I can get.
Tuesday, June 11, 2019 20:24:30