DON'T BE A STEEL SNOB!!!!!

VANADIO 1.4116
German DIN1.4116
X50CrMoV15
German steel
DIN 1.4116




WTF IS THIS STEEL????


Well this is actually DIN 1.4116 and that translates to the following elemental composition: (Direct Reference to thyssenkrupp documentation

Ok so the Spanish are calling this alloy

"Vandio" and this is because it does indeed contain significant amounts of Vanadium ranging from 0.1-0.2% ie the range acceptable for this alloy. The other significant element is Molybdenum at 0.5-0.8%. Along with a Carbon content range of: 0.45-0.55%.


What this translates to is a martensitic stainless steel, of which a high hardness can be achieved along with a very good toughness and resistance to corrosion.

This is precisely why this alloy is used throughout the cutlery industry and food processing blades and knives on a global scale. It can be both air hardened and oil quenched.

For those of you too lazy to read the PDF from ThyssenKrupp here it is:

I own one outdoor knife made with this steel, from Nieto Knives in Spain, otherwise known as Miguel Nieto SL; it's the CHAMAN model, 

of which they market under the banner of a "Survival Knife". Whenever I hear or read about knives entitled with the name "Survival" then it has to stand up to a lot of abuse in order to satisfy my personal experience of the word "Survival", when it comes to edged weapons.

I have really beaten the daylights out of and some may say abused my Chaman knife, especially the edge. Like cutting through tin cans. Laugh if you like but the edge was undamaged. The prestigious KNIFE magazine in Japan (just about the best magazine on knives full stop-you just need to be able to read Japanese!) Tested STRIDER's MFS made with Hitachi Steel's ATS34 by cutting open tins of ham! Then going on to cut up other things without sharpening. And of course the Japanese do not know anything about knives.......NOT!

Sure it (my Chaman) requires some touching up now and again but on what frequency? NOT MUCH is my answer. Working semi seasoned BEECH, 

through the dirty bark, oak, Douglas fir, Cherry etc has NO affect on the edge of this knife. How do I keep it sharp, simply by using a ceramic stone on the edge.
Do I see it suffering from corrosion, no not at all and I sometimes put it away wet and dirty (not a very smart thing to do).

So is the Chaman worthy of carrying the label of "Survival Knife" YES -depending on where you are. I say the latter as this small drop point with a sabre hollow grind is better suited to non-tropical conditions. Tropical environments generally always dictate a knife needs to be able to "chop" and as this is a small knife then it's not that good at chopping. However, it can be done.
My point is take the right tool into the environment. NO one Knife can handle all sorts of environmental situations.

In my view and experience, a knife, if to be titled "Survival" simply has to be well constructed with little or no chance of failing the user. That is, it isn't going to break easily if accidentally subjected to some un-foreseen abuse, for example: levering.

Whatever the handle construction it should not part company with the blade.

There should be as few parts as possible in it's construction and of those parts there should be no one part of which whose purpose, should it fail, render the knife dangerous or hazardous to use.

See my extensive review of my Nieto Chaman here.

AND SEE WHAT YOU THINK.


HARDCORE KNIVES AND TOOLS FOR WILDERNESS CAMPING