i know i might just be a Spyderco bro but can we give some love to the Glesser family for constantly and consistently bringing more steels to our pockets? i mean they literally have available models in 20+ bladesteels and over 80% of their "mule" steels become industry staples for years to come
They are definitely kings of knife making for sure!! I LOVE Spyderco’s and a lot of that love comes from all the different awesome steels they use and they actually care about getting the heat treat right and making the steel what it was designed to be. So many so called premium brands only offer a few steels and they’re all the basic run of the mill S30, S90, maybe some M4 and Magnacut now that it’s gotten hugely popular. And sadly most of them are nowhere near the Hrc they’re designed to be at so they’re no better than just basic steels. But they use the names of them to jack their prices up because ignorant people will buy it not knowing any better. But almost nobody works with Maxamet, Rex 45, K390, Superblue(other than old school Japanese kitchen knives) LC200N and a bunch of others that are just fairly normal for Spyderco. Hell they’re such steel nerds they codeveloped their own steel! SPY27.
Spyderco releases a series of “mule” knives which are simple fixed blades without handle scales which have been released in many different steels. The intent was for people to be able compare different steels in the same design. They were all limited releases though so you need to have been buying each one.
@@josephrusyn9913its the mule team series. Spyderco makes a fixed blade design that is used for testing the steel and protocol of their choice. Each iteration is a different steel. And they use this as a beta test for the steel for future knives.
Dr Thomas! 👍👍👍 Your second book arrived today and I now have both books, I'm so richly blessed to have found your channel and glean your amazing wisdom. May you and your family be richly blessed! 🙏🙏🙏
Real informative and interesting book which I got digitally back in May 2023. I used to go to college in Erie, PA back in the late 1970s and three other old industrial cities were nearby: Pittsburgh, Cleveland and Buffalo. Since one of my majors was Industrial Management we used to go to factories in all those cities . Manufacturing was big. Carnegie was in Pittsburgh and Rockefeller in Cleveland. They and others made the United States an industrial giant surpassing the GDP of all other countries around 1885. The kickstart was the end of the Civil War and the rapid expansion of railways. Back even in the late 1970s manufacturing was already dying. I moved West and got into computer science.
I really loved this book, Larrin is a great historian and story teller. The History really makes me appreciate everything from CPM Magna-Cut to 8Cr13MoV.
Great video. In the past, when trying to research the early origins of today's tool steels, finding information was often very frustrating due to the profusion of proprietary trade names, lack of transparency regarding any alloy content, and overall lack of information to be found online. Your book does a wonderful job of elucidating the field, and answered several questions I had regarding early tool steels. The chapters on pattern welding are the icing on the cake! It was an honor to be interviewed and to appear on a couple of pages. Thanks so much for all the great work, I recommend this book as well as your earlier work, to knifemakers all the time.
I have the knife engineering book as well as this one and I would recommend this books to anybody who has an interest regarding the scientific (knife engineering) or historical (the story of knife steel) background of the tool that is in our pockets everyday. I would recommend the hardcover. The pictures are even better in the hardcover. Thank you Dr. Larrin Thomas!
Cool vid Larrin. You ever wonder if in a hundred years, someone will be nerding out about the guy that invented MagnaCut? It's gotta be kinda neat to think you might find yourself in a niche part of history. You might not see that happening, but I imagine most of the guys you wrote about wouldn't have imagined it either.
I learned of high speed steel in highschool machine shop classes in the early 1980s, and about its development at Bethlehem Steel in a book about the company some years ago. I've been fascinated (obsessed 😅) by steel mills & steel production since I was a very young child in the early 70s, and have collected every book & picture I can find since. Part of my obsession with knife collecting is the alloys in the blades as well as the knives themselves. I was a steel nerd that became a knife steel nerd 🤓 I'll be adding your new book to my library of steel related books ❤
Excellent! I often wonder what it was like working in those mills long ago or be the guy to wrought iron from the puddling process and watching a Bessemer furnace in action.
I hope that even more primary sources are digitized in the future so that even more of this type of research can be done. Thanks Dr T for your contributions to both the cutlery industry and knife community
I love it. Thanks for the great video! Most people probably have no appreciation for where things really came from. How many people really care where knife steel, much less tool steels came from? Thank you!
I think magnacut is definitely innovative and the innovator that created magnetcut should be in that book also. I will be purchasing the book soon. Thank you for all your hard work and all this information that’s in this book some of it would’ve been lost forever. Now it’s all in one spot forever.
Once again THANK YOU so much for all your work. Honestly I'm so grateful that there is somewhere I can go to get actual facts on steels instead of just thoughts or beliefs.
Thank you so much for your contribution,I have all your books and even some knives in magnacut, you've answered so many of our questions your a treasure in the community and otherwise as well ...please keep up the great work
Thanks very much, Dr T! I bought your book and found it a well written and very thorough overview. I also got your special MagnaCut knife made by Buck. You can call me a fanboy. (One non-steel comment, made with all due respect, on your video presentation. In future, please wear a better fitting suit, or wear it with the jacket unbuttoned.)
Excellent video! Looking forward to reading your book. I just ordered my first knife made with Magnacut yesterday. I'm excited to try it out. All the best to you and yours. - Jim
Dr. Thomas, I have a suggestion that might interest you: creating a video where you perform back-of-the-envelope calculations to estimate the longevity of various steels in a marine environment. To make it comprehensive, you could choose steels from the lower, middle, and upper corrosion ranges within the main composition categories. Here are some potential options: S90v (or XHP, although you declared it sub-stainless), 14C28N, and Magnacut or LC200N/H1. A2, D2, and 3V (or Cru-Wear). Blue Super, 5160, 52100. I understand this might involve significant effort, but I appreciate your consideration. Thank you.
Man you were only about an hour and a half away from my home! I live in central PA. This is definitely the steel state for sure, especially Pittsburgh. I love reading up on the different knife steels on knife steel nerd. I’m a big fan of high end steels in my knives and have several in M4, Rex 45, Maxamet, K390, M390, LC200N and so on. I prefer tool steels due to the edge retention and awesome patina they can develop but I really enjoy high end stainless steels as well including your top of the line Magnacut.
If i were a billionaire I'd give you enough money to make content like this daily! Love your videos, very informative and simple enough for even me to grasp!
Larrin, I'd like to see a new steel composition with: 2.1 C, 16 Cr, 1 Mo, 6 V and 0.6 W - to see how well it performs. The composition sits roughly right between M390 and M398. However, the Cr is reduced and I'm curious if this will lead to similar benefits to it's properties similar to what was gained in the making of Magnacut. The steel could be named M395, imho. The goal of the new composition would be to make large gains in toughness, with only slight reduction to the stainless properties. Cheers!
@@KnifeSteelNerds Now that you mentioned it, it is very close... too close to justify any special work/ consideration I would guess. Hum... Cr could be dropped down even further, to bring it even more in line with what's done with Magnacut; say to 13 Cr. But, now that comp is almost the same as S90V! Oh well.. perhaps smarter minds than mine can find a mix of elements that has some of the added toughness I was looking for. Cheers!
Larrin will you please buy the trademark for the Hypercut from that old add you referenced in the video and use it on whatever steel you develop after ApexUltra?
I'd love to get your views on the myths and legends of James Black the bladesmith who may have made Bowie's knife (strong maybe). As someone with an engineering background I have really enjoyed your content and bought your book after seeing just one video of yours.
Must be a Pennsylvania boss thing, nearly 30 years ago I worked for an engineer from there who'd migrated down to the barren hellscape of the south. He was pretty much exactly like that, the boss is always right and the workers are lazy! Not a bad guy in all but he had some whacko ideas. I still quite like A2, its a joy to heat treat, finishes nicely and will keep a great edge. Found a bar of it last month in my steel 'junk pile' which now has a proper rack with my C- carpentry skills. Unfortunately no D2 in there but I found a fairly old stash of D6 I didn't know I had and need to turn into something.
DR. THOMAS...JUST BOUGHT BOTH YOUR BOOKS ON AMAZON, Because I want to support you. Thank you for sharing your Knowledge & Brilliance. FINALLY The B.S. that most believe from Movies and Romantic Forge beliefs see out there.. I just wanted the truth. You Are My "CROM" .Conan's Choice Of God''s. 😁😉😎. I recently found you on You Tube.. YOU ARE THE GUY I BEEN LOOKING FOR.. To "Cut Through" All the B.S. with Steels in Swords & Knives..Cant thank you enough for your UA-cam Channell. Thank you for Showing Us "THE REAL RIDDLE OF STEEL" (Conan)..
Are there any modern sources or actual recreations of wootz steel? I get that modern steels are the best that have ever existed. But it would be interesting to make a few real damascus knives. (probably get flamed for the "real" damascus comment... but oh well. I mean wootz damascus, the old original stuff)
i know i might just be a Spyderco bro but can we give some love to the Glesser family for constantly and consistently bringing more steels to our pockets? i mean they literally have available models in 20+ bladesteels and over 80% of their "mule" steels become industry staples for years to come
The Story of Knife Steel has a lot on Spyderco and the Glesser family.
They are definitely kings of knife making for sure!! I LOVE Spyderco’s and a lot of that love comes from all the different awesome steels they use and they actually care about getting the heat treat right and making the steel what it was designed to be. So many so called premium brands only offer a few steels and they’re all the basic run of the mill S30, S90, maybe some M4 and Magnacut now that it’s gotten hugely popular. And sadly most of them are nowhere near the Hrc they’re designed to be at so they’re no better than just basic steels. But they use the names of them to jack their prices up because ignorant people will buy it not knowing any better. But almost nobody works with Maxamet, Rex 45, K390, Superblue(other than old school Japanese kitchen knives) LC200N and a bunch of others that are just fairly normal for Spyderco. Hell they’re such steel nerds they codeveloped their own steel! SPY27.
What are mule steels?
Spyderco releases a series of “mule” knives which are simple fixed blades without handle scales which have been released in many different steels. The intent was for people to be able compare different steels in the same design. They were all limited releases though so you need to have been buying each one.
@@josephrusyn9913its the mule team series. Spyderco makes a fixed blade design that is used for testing the steel and protocol of their choice. Each iteration is a different steel. And they use this as a beta test for the steel for future knives.
Its people like you Dr. Thomas that keep our world connected and that keeps our history a living memory, not a forgotten one. Thank you so much.
Dr Thomas! 👍👍👍
Your second book arrived today and I now have both books, I'm so richly blessed to have found your channel and glean your amazing wisdom.
May you and your family be richly blessed! 🙏🙏🙏
How does this video not have 50 million views!? HSS has to be top 10 inventions of all time.
Latin, everything you do oozes style. Even dry boring steel information becomes turn of the century aesthetic presentations.
We’re lucky to have you.
Real informative and interesting book which I got digitally back in May 2023.
I used to go to college in Erie, PA back in the late 1970s and three other old industrial cities were nearby: Pittsburgh, Cleveland and Buffalo. Since one of my majors was Industrial Management we used to go to factories in all those cities . Manufacturing was big. Carnegie was in Pittsburgh and Rockefeller in Cleveland. They and others made the United States an industrial giant surpassing the GDP of all other countries around 1885. The kickstart was the end of the Civil War and the rapid expansion of railways. Back even in the late 1970s manufacturing was already dying. I moved West and got into computer science.
Dr. Thomas, I am so glad that you are a young man and have a long ways to go. I look forward to your future contributions to the knife community.
No kidding! Imagine how lost we'd be had he been born a cryptid of some sort! 😳
I really loved this book, Larrin is a great historian and story teller. The History really makes me appreciate everything from CPM Magna-Cut to 8Cr13MoV.
Great video. In the past, when trying to research the early origins of today's tool steels, finding information was often very frustrating due to the profusion of proprietary trade names, lack of transparency regarding any alloy content, and overall lack of information to be found online. Your book does a wonderful job of elucidating the field, and answered several questions I had regarding early tool steels. The chapters on pattern welding are the icing on the cake! It was an honor to be interviewed and to appear on a couple of pages. Thanks so much for all the great work, I recommend this book as well as your earlier work, to knifemakers all the time.
I have the knife engineering book as well as this one and I would recommend this books to anybody who has an interest regarding the scientific (knife engineering) or historical (the story of knife steel) background of the tool that is in our pockets everyday. I would recommend the hardcover. The pictures are even better in the hardcover. Thank you Dr. Larrin Thomas!
Cool vid Larrin. You ever wonder if in a hundred years, someone will be nerding out about the guy that invented MagnaCut? It's gotta be kinda neat to think you might find yourself in a niche part of history. You might not see that happening, but I imagine most of the guys you wrote about wouldn't have imagined it either.
One hundred percent.
We talk about how it’s cool all those dudes came together to make s30v, this is like that only more impressive in every way.
I learned of high speed steel in highschool machine shop classes in the early 1980s, and about its development at Bethlehem Steel in a book about the company some years ago.
I've been fascinated (obsessed 😅) by steel mills & steel production since I was a very young child in the early 70s, and have collected every book & picture I can find since.
Part of my obsession with knife collecting is the alloys in the blades as well as the knives themselves.
I was a steel nerd that became a knife steel nerd 🤓
I'll be adding your new book to my library of steel related books ❤
Excellent! I often wonder what it was like working in those mills long ago or be the guy to wrought iron from the puddling process and watching a Bessemer furnace in action.
I hope that even more primary sources are digitized in the future so that even more of this type of research can be done. Thanks Dr T for your contributions to both the cutlery industry and knife community
I love it. Thanks for the great video! Most people probably have no appreciation for where things really came from. How many people really care where knife steel, much less tool steels came from? Thank you!
I think magnacut is definitely innovative and the innovator that created magnetcut should be in that book also. I will be purchasing the book soon. Thank you for all your hard work and all this information that’s in this book some of it would’ve been lost forever. Now it’s all in one spot forever.
Once again THANK YOU so much for all your work. Honestly I'm so grateful that there is somewhere I can go to get actual facts on steels instead of just thoughts or beliefs.
Thank you so much for all your work, this community owe you eternal gratitude.
Thumb up for the video, that was very nice !
Thank you so much for your contribution,I have all your books and even some knives in magnacut, you've answered so many of our questions your a treasure in the community and otherwise as well ...please keep up the great work
Great video! Nice to know where important steel innovation occurred.
Nicely done, You share great info on this subject of steels. Now off to get your book. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks very much, Dr T! I bought your book and found it a well written and very thorough overview. I also got your special MagnaCut knife made by Buck. You can call me a fanboy.
(One non-steel comment, made with all due respect, on your video presentation. In future, please wear a better fitting suit, or wear it with the jacket unbuttoned.)
Suit was too short too
Excellent video! Looking forward to reading your book. I just ordered my first knife made with Magnacut yesterday. I'm excited to try it out. All the best to you and yours.
- Jim
Nice.. The details are awesome, a look back in time for both the video and the topic. Thank you again.
Excellent retro video. : )
Thank you, sir! Great information and very entertaining! As a knife nerd, I love this stuff and I can't wait to check out the book.
Very cool! Primary sources are the best anyway!
Thanks for doing all the work to make this book Larrin! Very interesting and an important preservation of history.
Dr. Thomas,
I have a suggestion that might interest you: creating a video where you perform back-of-the-envelope calculations to estimate the longevity of various steels in a marine environment. To make it comprehensive, you could choose steels from the lower, middle, and upper corrosion ranges within the main composition categories. Here are some potential options:
S90v (or XHP, although you declared it sub-stainless), 14C28N, and Magnacut or LC200N/H1.
A2, D2, and 3V (or Cru-Wear).
Blue Super, 5160, 52100.
I understand this might involve significant effort, but I appreciate your consideration.
Thank you.
Great video! Its great information.
I bought your book, and am excited to read it. Thank me
Man you were only about an hour and a half away from my home! I live in central PA. This is definitely the steel state for sure, especially Pittsburgh. I love reading up on the different knife steels on knife steel nerd. I’m a big fan of high end steels in my knives and have several in M4, Rex 45, Maxamet, K390, M390, LC200N and so on. I prefer tool steels due to the edge retention and awesome patina they can develop but I really enjoy high end stainless steels as well including your top of the line Magnacut.
Excellent presentation. Educational and entertaining.
this was awesome! very well done
Thank you Larrin!
If i were a billionaire I'd give you enough money to make content like this daily! Love your videos, very informative and simple enough for even me to grasp!
Thanks for the info! Enjoyed the video!
love your videos, my Guy
I wish you would design a test for edge stability.
Larrin,
I'd like to see a new steel composition with: 2.1 C, 16 Cr, 1 Mo, 6 V and 0.6 W - to see how well it performs. The composition sits roughly right between M390 and M398.
However, the Cr is reduced and I'm curious if this will lead to similar benefits to it's properties similar to what was gained in the making of Magnacut. The steel could be named M395, imho. The goal of the new composition would be to make large gains in toughness, with only slight reduction to the stainless properties. Cheers!
Your proposed composition is almost the same as CPM S60V which predated M390 and M398.
@@KnifeSteelNerds Now that you mentioned it, it is very close... too close to justify any special work/ consideration I would guess. Hum... Cr could be dropped down even further, to bring it even more in line with what's done with Magnacut; say to 13 Cr. But, now that comp is almost the same as S90V! Oh well.. perhaps smarter minds than mine can find a mix of elements that has some of the added toughness I was looking for. Cheers!
Larrin will you please buy the trademark for the Hypercut from that old add you referenced in the video and use it on whatever steel you develop after ApexUltra?
Yeah, that name and ad is great.
I'm sure it inspired Magnacut's name and ad page.
Nice! Been waiting for something like this 👌
Let's also give props to Don Draper for working so hard on their account.
you're doing good work at making me interested in the book. I'm not interested in any books.
Are there any videos on your channel where you demonstrate how to make a knife out of Magnacut, start to finish?
No, there are other “how to make knives” channels out there.
Hi Dr. Larrin, what are your thoughts on Lohmann's 1.2695?
In a world where powder metallurgy steels exist it’s hard to get excited about 1.2695.
Would you recommend a high speed / pm steel or apex ultra for a laser - s grind geometry?
Both could work well for that
I'd love to get your views on the myths and legends of James Black the bladesmith who may have made Bowie's knife (strong maybe).
As someone with an engineering background I have really enjoyed your content and bought your book after seeing just one video of yours.
One of the famous James Black legends is quoted in the book
@KnifeSteelNerds I'll definitely be buying this book too.
Must be a Pennsylvania boss thing, nearly 30 years ago I worked for an engineer from there who'd migrated down to the barren hellscape of the south. He was pretty much exactly like that, the boss is always right and the workers are lazy! Not a bad guy in all but he had some whacko ideas.
I still quite like A2, its a joy to heat treat, finishes nicely and will keep a great edge. Found a bar of it last month in my steel 'junk pile' which now has a proper rack with my C- carpentry skills. Unfortunately no D2 in there but I found a fairly old stash of D6 I didn't know I had and need to turn into something.
I love these funny videos
Your contributions to the community are deserving of a statue...To be made of Magnacut naturally!
Like i tell just about everyone i meet; Central New York isn't _totally_ useless!
DR. THOMAS...JUST BOUGHT BOTH YOUR BOOKS ON AMAZON, Because I want to support you. Thank you for sharing your Knowledge & Brilliance. FINALLY The B.S. that most believe from Movies and Romantic Forge beliefs see out there.. I just wanted the truth. You Are My "CROM" .Conan's Choice Of God''s. 😁😉😎. I recently found you on You Tube.. YOU ARE THE GUY I BEEN LOOKING FOR.. To "Cut Through" All the B.S. with Steels in Swords & Knives..Cant thank you enough for your UA-cam Channell. Thank you for Showing Us "THE REAL RIDDLE OF STEEL" (Conan)..
Is the chromium in my boost drink enhancing my stainlessness?
Are there any modern sources or actual recreations of wootz steel?
I get that modern steels are the best that have ever existed. But it would be interesting to make a few real damascus knives. (probably get flamed for the "real" damascus comment... but oh well. I mean wootz damascus, the old original stuff)
It exists, people make it in small batches. The earliest recreation if it was over a century ago, and that's not pattern welded damascus, that's wootz
But I only like cheap, mystery stainless.