New Steel

[Bill Schmalhofer 200]

Was just on the Pop's website and saw a pre-advertisement for Apex Ultra Steel. Looks interesting. Wondering if this is going to be the new CruForge V? Has any one had a chance to work with it?

CHEMICAL COMPOSITION 

Carbon 1.25% 
Tungsten 2.60% 
Vanadium 0.40% 
Chromium 1.50% 
Manganese 0.30% 
Silicon 0.35% 

[Alan Longmire 3,877]

Looks like a super-tough O-1 that will be a bear  to HT, but will hold an edge very well indeed...

[Bill Schmalhofer 200]

Found this on Knife Steel Nerds. Described as 52100 with V and W,

 

Seems Larrin Thomas of KSN is one of the developers.

https://knifesteelnerds.com/2021/12/02/laboratory-development-of-apexultra-forging-knife-steel/?utm_source=feedly&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=laboratory-development-of-apexultra-forging-knife-steel

 

 

[Gilbert McCann 151]

Ordered looking forward to playing with it. Probably San mai to reduce the area that needs to be ground. Specs look great. 

[Joshua States 2,563]

On 7/14/2022 at 8:57 AM, Bill Schmalhofer said:

Was just on the Pop's website and saw a pre-advertisement for Apex Ultra Steel. Looks interesting. Wondering if this is going to be the new CruForge V? Has any one had a chance to work with it?

 

@Daniel Cauble posted on FB that he got some. I'm sure we will see something come from that.

[Daniel Cauble 191]

Yea, I've got a stick of it sitting here now.

 

I'm most interested in the topend hardness and toughness in relation. At 67-68rc, I can knock back my geometry and sharpening angle a few degrees - hopefully.

 

Edited July 30 by Daniel Cauble

[Doug Lester 408]

I would go along with Alan on the heat treating.  I wouldn't even try it without a heat treating furnace.  Their comment that it should be able to be heat treated in a forge but they haven't tested it yet means that they are guessing and don't really know.  My feeling is that this is another alloy designed to pit hardness against toughness where the toughness will probably lose out to a degree.  It won't be nearly as tough as some lower alloy steels where the blade may need to be sharpened more often but it will be less likely to break.  Just my opinion, for what it's worth.

 

Doug

[Joël Mercier 716]

If you read the article, it's exactly the opposite. They achieved high toughness at high hardness. They got charpi toughness lab tests done on the steel and it's pretty darn impressive how tough the steel is at 65 hrc. 

 

They got more thorough tests coming with the large ESR batch they ordered, with more details on HT and more toughness/hardness samples done. 

 

I say let's wait for those before jumping to conclusions, but I am pretty happy new steels are finally being developed specifically for knives. We've largely been using steels intended for other purposes in the last century, just saying...

[HSJackson 14]

Al Pendray got improved toughness out of 52100 by austempering (quenching from critical in 500 degree salts and holding 30 min before cooling to room temp).   You do give up some hardness tho. Wonder how this steel would respond to that method?

[Bill Schmalhofer 200]

Just looked at Pop's (they seem to be the only distributor in the US). One, they are already sold out. Two, for the price they are charging, I hope it lives up to the hype . Will be very interested to hear your report @Daniel Cauble.

[Daniel Cauble 191]

Unfortunately i cannot use it until i finish up this long project ive been working on which is finally nearing completion.

 

I think a sakimaru is in order for this new steel though. I like to make japanese style kitchen knives and frequently take steels to 64+ range with hand ground geometry. Very thin edges on most.

 

The single bevel knives like yanagiba or the aforementioned sakimaru have even thinner meat behind the edges. Very delicate knives. I've only made a few like this  but not a sakimaru, which i have a desire to do.