When buying a knife, you wouldn’t want to get a knife that breaks easily or is prone to corrosion.
EDC blades are used for cutting things, and when it comes to putting them to work, there are significant factors you need to consider in determining the quality of steel.
The goal for every knife user is to get a knife with the best steel that fits their needs.
For an EDC knife enthusiast, steel pocket knives are the best for self defense and any task requiring strain and toughness.
A good steel knife needs to have excellent edge retention, be tough- for fixed blades and hard-use knives, easy to sharpen, and corrosion-resistant.
CPM 3V is one of the existing high-end steels that make great knife blades. In addition, the steel provides better toughness than several other grades of steel.
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What is CPM 3v Steel?
CPM 3V is one of the high-end steel grades with top toughness and wear resistance.
The steel comes with beautiful features and long-lasting performance.
The CPM 3V steel has a significant advantage when used to make knives.
It makes unmatched knife blades that are tough and unlikely to break with heavy use.
Given its properties, the steel is ideal for varieties of applications such as blanking tools, stamping tools, scrap choppers, slitters, and several other industrial uses that require high amounts of toughness.
Its toughness level also makes it ideal for building large knives, swords, and fixed blade knives.
Is CPM 3V Steel Suitable for Knives?
Considering its features, CPM 3V steel provides high toughness and dimensional stability.
Its toughness makes highly durable everyday carry knives that won’t break or chip easily, making it one of the best materials to make pocket knife blades.
In addition, CPM 3V steel also offers excellent edge retention capabilities, which make the knife cut for a longer time without requiring sharpening.
This is mainly because of carbides in CPM 3V steel that makes your blade stay sharper for a more extended period.
The Advantages of CPM 3V Knife Blades
The CPM 3V steel contains Rockwell hardness of 58-60 HRC.
This hardness level is excellently in line with expert recommendations for making perfect steel knives.
CPM 3V steel knife blades contain the following properties that make them stand out.
Commendable Toughness:
CPM 3V Steel comes with outstanding toughness. Therefore, you can expect it to survive in abusive scenarios.
The tough steel blades resist chips or total failure when subjected to torsion, beating, twisting, and impact.
CPM 3V steel knife blades can sustain power through staples, intense batoning sessions, and glide through steel strapping.
Due to superior toughness, CPM 3V Steel Knife Blades can handle chopping, batoning, and other tough tasks.
Excellent Wear and Abrasion Resistance:
CPM 3V Steel Knife Blades have more excellent wear resistance due to the steel’s high amounts of vanadium and carbon.
Steel containing tougher vanadium has a very high resistance to wear compared to steel with fewer or no vanadium.
Decent Corrosion Resistance:
Even if CPM 3V Steel Knife Blades are not stainless, they possess more than 7% chromium which increases their corrosion resistance.
In addition, most of the currently available CPM 3V Steel Knife Blades in the market contain a tough coating that enhances corrosion resistance.
Excellent Edge Retention:
Edge retention is the capability of the knife to hold sharp for a longer time during use.
With a Rockwell hardness of 58-60 HRC, CPM 3V Steel gives great edge retention.
With this feature, CPM 3V Steel blades exhibit increased performance compared to lower-end options.
Ease of Sharpening:
The sharpening rule is that the tougher the steel, the harder it is to sharpen it and vice versa.
In this case, CPM 3V steel is a hard steel with great edge retention, and therefore, a considerable amount of effort is required to get a sharp edge.
Heat treatment:
Heat treatment is the process of tempering or hardening the blade steel through heat.
This often varies depending on the composition of the steel.
Since CPM 3V Steel Knife Blades are made from hard steel, heat increases their edge retention at the cost of brittleness.
Why Choose CPM 3V Steel?
There are many different types of steel that your knife could be made from.
Why choose CPM 3V Steel? Toughness. CPM 3V steel has its advantages when it is used in a knife.
It makes a great knife blade that is tough and unlikely to break with heavy, near abusive, use.
Bottom Line
So, does CPM 3V steel make the best pocket knives? It depends on what you do with your knife.
Remember, besides steel, other factors like heat treatment and geometry play a role in performance.
This means you need to know what you will require from your knife before determining which is the perfect choice for your project.
The CPM 3V Steel Knife Blades are admired because of their excellent toughness.
This makes them resistant to chipping and breakage.
If sharp edge retention, super-tough field knife, and excellent wear resistance are your priorities, then CPM 3V Steel Knife Blades would be perfect for you.