New knife, first CRKT in a long time. Sort of an impulse buy...

ugaarguy · May 28, 2021

JohnKSa said:
Tool steels are made to be wear resistant (which means good edge retention and high hardness), but usually those properties come at the cost of decreased toughness (increased brittleness, if you will).

That would depend on the tool steel. CruWear is pretty tough for a tool steel, and even tougher in powder metallurgy form with the smaller, more uniform carbides. Then there's 52100, which is an extremely tough ball bearing steel, that I commonly see it get lumped in with tool steels. Of course there's also Cronidur 30 (AKA LC200N and Z-FiNit), a PESR (pressurized electroslag remelting) modification of 52100, with nitrogen replacing much of the carbon for extremely high corrosion resistance, but retaining most of 52100's toughness. Interestingly, the early jet turbine bearing steels were derived from high speed tool steels, because jet engines obviously get very hot, so their bearings need retained hardness at high temps, like high speed tool steels have. Yet, I don't see these jet engine bearing steels, like 154CM / ATS-34, discussed along with tool steels like I do 52100. Once again, the powder metallurgy versions (RWL34 / CPM-154) achieve even greater toughness.

Also, wear resistance is largely a function of the type of carbides. For example, AEB-L can be taken past 60 HRC and still be very tough (impact resistant). It doesn't have good wear resistance because it has (relatively) soft chromium carbides since it's composition lacks more exotic elements like niobium, vanadium, and tungsten. All of those elements form very hard carbides that contribute to high levels of wear resistance (edge holding) in steels that have large amounts of them in their compositions. For things like razor blades and kitchen knives that aren't cutting through abrasive materials like paper and carboard, AEB-L is excellent because it's toughness allows it to be ground very thin even when heat treated to high levels of hardness, without worry of excessive edge chipping.

Riomouse911 · May 29, 2021

mcb said:
So I was at Academy yesterday and this knife caught my attention and after I hemmed and hawed about it while perusing the nearly empty ammunition isle I sort of impulse bought it. This is not the typical type of knife I use but I liked the looks and I though it would make a good knife to slide into a pack's admin panel or similar place, and to carry in more formal attire. If I am carrying a knife (in addition to a multi-tool, often I only carry a multi-tool) it is usually a well used Kershaw Cryo II.

View attachment 998885
View attachment 998886
View attachment 998887
The knife is a CRKT CEO. Certainly not an expensive knife but it seemed well build with acceptable materials, ie maybe not junk.

View attachment 998888
The wife had gotten a new patio set (two chairs, loveseat, and table that I got to assemble it earlier) and it came in two big boxes. I also had a few other large boxes to cut up for the recycling. So I pressed the new knife into service. It did OK. It was not as sharp out of the box as I would like but it made it about 2/3's of the way through the stack before I decided it could be sharper and went in and spent two minutes on the crock sticks to improve the edge and finish the job. I was wearing some gloves and in a gloved hand indexing the blade with how short (top to bottom) the handle is was something you had to pay attention too. The handle is roughly the same width and heights so it difficult to tell orientation in the hand. The pocket clip became my reference for keeping the sharpe edge going the direction I wanted.

It can be flicked open and close with one hand. The thumb stud is small and well recessed into the handle which makes it snag free but making it harder to use, similar with the liner lock, it a bit hard to get to. But given the style of knife it is acceptable for my use and after a little practice one handed open and close is fairly easy.

After cleaning all the tape residue off the blade and giving it a more diligent run over the crock sticks it took a nice edge. Well see how it holds the edge with more use. This has always been my complaint with CRKT knives before. I liked them but they never held an edge as well as my Kershaws.

View attachment 998889

-rambling

I've been carrying a CEO in the breast pocket of my dress shirts at work for over a year and a half now, both under a suit jacket and without. I must say that they're really handy and easy to tote that way, and not one person has ever noticed that it wasn't a pen sitting there. :thumbup:

Nice write up, I think you're going to find it an easy EDCK from now on.

Stay safe.

JohnKSa · May 29, 2021

That would depend on the tool steel.

Yeah, I should have probably made my comments more specific to D2.

CruWear is pretty tough for a tool steel, and even tougher in powder metallurgy form with the smaller, more uniform carbides.

Interesting. I didn't realize there was a non powder metallurgy version of CruWear.

But yes, even in the tool steels, there's a spectrum of toughness and powder metallurgy can improve toughness. There's also a powdered metallurgy form of D2 which is tougher than standard D2 (though still not as tough as CruWear). But standard D2 is pretty low on the toughness spectrum.

Then there's 52100, which is an extremely tough ball bearing steel, that I commonly see it get lumped in with tool steels.

Interesting. I'm not sure why 52100 would be called a tool steel. Other than a little bit of chrome content (less than 2%), it's about as plain as a carbon steel can be.

Also, wear resistance is largely a function of the type of carbides. For example, AEB-L can be taken past 60 HRC and still be very tough (impact resistant). It doesn't have good wear resistance because it has (relatively) soft chromium carbides since it's composition lacks more exotic elements like niobium, vanadium, and tungsten. All of those elements form very hard carbides that contribute to high levels of wear resistance (edge holding) in steels that have large amounts of them in their compositions. For things like razor blades and kitchen knives that aren't cutting through abrasive materials like paper and carboard, AEB-L is excellent because it's toughness allows it to be ground very thin even when heat treated to high levels of hardness, without worry of excessive edge chipping.

All true. I guess I'm not following though--was that a response to my comment about tool steels typically being wear resistant by design or in response to my comment that D2 was more wear resistant than 8Cr13MoV?

ApacheCoTodd · May 29, 2021

Are CRKT's products all made in America?

Todd.

hso · May 29, 2021

JohnKSa said:
There's also a powdered metallurgy form of D2 which is tougher than standard D2

And the the differences between CPM D2 and D2 is shocking as to toughness, sharpness, and even corrosion resistance. Just remarkable what happens with some well established steel when they are tried as particle.

ugaarguy · May 30, 2021

ApacheCoTodd said:
Are CRKT's products all made in America?

Todd.

They have a few hatchet sheaths and replacement hatchet handles that are made in the US, and that's about it. Most, if not all, of their hatchets / small axes are made in Taiwan, along with several of their knives. The majority of their knives are made in China. But they do have the "Forged by War" program that puts US military veteran designs into mass production, with a portion of the profits from those designs donated to the veteran designer's charity of choice - https://www.crkt.com/forged-by-war/

ApacheCoTodd · May 30, 2021

Thanks for that.

I am quite happy to support Taiwan but steer clear of Communist China whenever possible and I guess discretionarily purchased knives is up at the top of that list.

I looked about with no luck. Is it possible to tell whether the CEO line is Taiwan sourced or anywhere but the PRC? I'd sure like to buy a couple of them.

Todd.

ugaarguy · May 30, 2021

ApacheCoTodd said:
Thanks for that.

I am quite happy to support Taiwan but steer clear of Communist China whenever possible and I guess discretionarily purchased knives is up at the top of that list.

I looked about with no luck. Is it possible to tell whether the CEO line is Taiwan sourced or anywhere but the PRC? I'd sure like to buy a couple of them.

Todd.

It looks like most of the CEO line is made in China, but the large CEO flipper is made in Taiwan. On sites like Kinfe Center and Blade HQ you can select a brand (or type of knife like folding, fixed blade, etc) then go over to the long skinny tool bar column on the left and filter by country of origin, lock type, blade steel, etc. For example, here's every CRKT product that's made in Taiwan, that BHQ carries, sorted by popularity - https://www.bladehq.com/cat--All-CRKT--114#/filter:country_of_origin:Taiwan

ApacheCoTodd · May 30, 2021

ugaarguy said:
It looks like most of the CEO line is made in China, but the large CEO flipper is made in Taiwan. On sites like Kinfe Center and Blade HQ you can select a brand (or type of knife like folding, fixed blade, etc) then go over to the long skinny tool bar column on the left and filter by country of origin, lock type, blade steel, etc. For example, here's every CRKT product that's made in Taiwan, that BHQ carries, sorted by popularity - https://www.bladehq.com/cat--All-CRKT--114#/filter:country_of_origin:Taiwan

Thank you. Another reason for me to like BHQ!

I looked hard at the flipper as I like that pocket clip better but don't like that it's at the other end.

Perhaps I'll jut get used to it for the Taiwan aspect.

Todd.

New knife, first CRKT in a long time. Sort of an impulse buy...

ugaarguy

Member

Riomouse911

Member

JohnKSa

Administrator

ApacheCoTodd

member

hso

Moderator

ugaarguy

Member

ApacheCoTodd

member

ugaarguy

Member

ApacheCoTodd

member

Similar threads