7:00 That is definitely a steep secondary bevel and primary grind as well on that Hogue Deka, thanks for pointing out -- seems like kind of a waste of the Magnacut to ship it with such steep angles unless customers are using it to cut car tires everyday or something... LOL not sure what that knife is for. I understand the handle is a bit light and flimsy as well so it doesn't seem like it could be a heavy use knife.
I was the first person calling hogue out on the Overly soft Magnacut... I bought two of the SMKW Subzero Dekas and as soon as they got to me I cut test them on thr factory edge just to see. Took them to 15dps, finished on venve dragon F800 cut test again just to get an ideal but didn't record the findings that happens on edge number 4 then cut test again to verify on edge 5. They are to soft, they clearly felt soft on the stones. On my card board cut test edge 4 and 5 verified within 3% so I called the test knowing I was definitely in fresh clean unburnt steel. My spyderco mule in MC out cut them by over 50%. I had that MC HRC tested and it poked at 63.4 average over 3 pokes (this is on a large commercial Rockwell tester at a machine shop so highly accurate) we poked one of the sub zero dekas and it tested 59.7hrc. Vastly to soft and the edge retention shows it. When it's done right its fantastic, rivaling the best S45VN I have tested, does extremely well at low angle angles so a very stable steel and or. Course highly corrosion resistant. Hogues MC is done way to soft and what tickles me is the carbon MC Ritter made by hogue is done extremely well, but for some reason hogue is simply taking theirs vastly to soft. Mc is pointless at sub 60HRC and needs to be 63+ to really show the performance of what the steel is capable of.
The toughness and easier sharpening is what pushes it past 390's edge retention with relation to frequency of sharpening for me. I like to be able to touch up EDC edges with just a little stropping instead of actual sharpening. So far ( for a month of carry) that's all my Hogue clip point Magnacut has needed. It is all about personal needs and expectations, like you state yourself. Just another option. Maybe not for you, but will definitely be for others.
With the right tools (typically CBN/Diamond abrasives) and sound technique, the difference in sharpening should be so small you would need to be a highly skilled sharpener to notice. Even then, we’d be talking number of passes and not minutes or how you may need to go about taking off a burr. That’s also one of my personal preferences for tools steel. Very clean, sticky sharp, apexes with little work that respond well to even a simple strop. Once you move over to stainless and high carbide stainless (not saying Magnacut is high carbide…just speaking to what seems to be the broader desire for high carbide stainless steels) that’s typically where people start to say a steel is “hard” to sharpen. I think a good example of the “hard to sharpen” thing is Apostle P saying Maxamet was basically impossible to sharpen. Then, Triple B Handmade/Big Brown Bear, repeatedly showed how that’s not true. Then he goes on to show all the exotic steels at high hardnesses sharpening in minutes. He has good gear and great technique. One of the open secrets of this community is few even own sharpening equipment and fewer know how to use it well. That leads to the narrative of hard or easy to sharpen. I definitely agree about options, preferences, and even niche requirements for a stain proof steel. I just think the reason a lot of people are lead to believe the need stainless steel is overblown. That’s a story for another day. I’ve already beaten that drum here and on IG 😂👊🙏 I wanted to see for myself if Magnacut has 4V toughness and more edge retention than m390. However, I know high end custom makers that say the edge stability/toughness isn’t there. That’s more of what I’m trying to see. I remember when Elmax came out and it was supposed to be the perfect blend of stainless and tool steel. I just can’t go around saying things if I haven’t tried it though. That’s ultimately why I got the knife and why I’m trying it out. Raw, demonstrated, info for the community. Not marketing from someone that got a free knife to show off.
You gotta be one of the last of the original really in depth knife channels still uploading. Still holding out hope for a Nero or Michael Christy notification, but that doesn't make me any less excited for one from Alchemy_1.
Thank you, sir 🙏👊. I hadn’t heard from Vinny in a few years. I don’t even know if he’s still into knives. I know Christy is. Maybe he’ll put something out soon. 🤞
Michael Christy got off the band wagon when everyone started to learn about microstructure and the difference between performance of the heat treat protocols and he didn't and refused to learn.
K390 and V4E/4V are my fetish steels. Would love to see K390 used more often, and would like to see a damned DLC/PVD option. The Adamas in Cruwear is a beast, for damn sure. S90V is my favorite on the stainless side, but 154CM has blown my mind on certain blades, and eaten competition that it shouldn't have by a long shot. Was excited about SOG's cryo XHP, because Cold Steel's notoriously kicked ass, despite having to swap to s35vn due to XHP's major unavailability, which apparently SOG, Spyderco, Spartan, etc. were able to bypass... But I was surprised at SOG's SEAL XR, being regular old non-cryo s35 punching well above its weight class, and surpassing their cryo XHP releases. Sometimes we get some wild outliers, or get lucky on the specific production model we receive. I have an awesome Maxace knife, model name is the Killer Whale 2.0. They used a tool steel that is PM, and was first patented in the '70s. It's called ASP-60, and has hardly seen use in knives, but is apparently up there between Magnacut and REX121. Not sure if you've heard of it, and haven't put mine to hard use, but would like to know if anybody's done any testing or had much experience with it. It's a Swedish variant on this blade, but there are a few manufacturers
@@Alumapro23 GREAT VIDS. NEED A KNIFE ASAP. HELP ME PICK PLZ: ABOUT 3 INCHES, LIGHT ( LESS THAN 3 OZ) "SLICEY" THIN AS POSSIBLE..DECENT STEEL...SAY S30V AT LEAST
Ap60 superclean is a older first generation PM steel. It's capable of being taken upwards of 68hrc. I have delt with a couple custom knives in it. At 65hrc it will outcut maxamet by a significant margin. It's a really neat steel, the problem with it is toughness is very low, and edge stability is not great that's why it hasn't caught on as a wonder steel in the knife would. It has vastly more potential edge retention then you 10v class steels but at the expense of being far less tough and edge stability is a real issue. If maxace took it to 64-65hrc that thing will have some INSANE edge retention just be very careful with any lateral loading of the apex or hitting anything hard with the apex and don't apply heavy side loads to the blade as it will not do well in that dept. I have tested it in a 3.5 inch custom fixed blade that wad taken to 67.5hrc and it outcut 68hrc Rex76 by about 25% and got within 10% of some custom 71hrc Rex121 I tested. It really is a neat steel but it's never gonna be a steel that catches on in the knife world because of its extreme lack of toughness and lack of edge stability. And just so your aware its nothing remotely in the same ballpark as MC is, MC is a totally 100% vastly different steel with vastly different properties... it's ap60 isn't in between MC and rex121, MC is nothing like steels in that category they are so completely different its like saying the earth's temperature is between Pluto's and the suns.
Sounds like decent results for magnacut in a production knife. I have a very thin magnacut bugout reblade, it's amazing for food prep. I use it every day because my room mates trash all of the communal knives. The pocket clips on my Hogue Ritter RSKs are a bit on the light side for retention well btw, so it might just be a Hogue thing in general, but I've had no issues with it falling out or anything so it's fine by me.
I’ve always ASSuMEd Magnacut would be decent. That’s not how it was billed though. Hahaha! If you want to know how a knife is going to perform, put it in the hands of a non-knife person. I never had any issues with my RSK, but that clip is longer, if memory serves. This knife didn’t give me any real issues, but I definitely noticed it slipping and sliding and I never talk about clip issues.
Ill add my opinion to this. They are a little flimsy feeling and will bend a little. Still durable enough for use. Worst thing about them for me is they are slippery and not well texturized.
@@whatisupthere10 The issue has been overcome by events. I got the gold marbled carbon fiber (Scorpion) version. No give in the carbon fiber, plus looks really nice.
I'll wait for Spyderco to release a Magnacut folder. Do you know if the Hogue has corrosion proof hardware on the rest of the knife? As far as k390 goes... try stropping it with Flexcut Gold and get back to me!
Spyderco has been consistently, but Hogue has been criminally slept on. I can’t imagine K390 getting any better (I use Swartz CBN emulsion), but I’m always up for even more performance. 👊🙏
@@Alumapro23 Bro, I used gunny juice and bark river CBN on k390. I'm telling you k390 was coming up sharper on a BAD flexcut gold strop than a good diamond strop. I didn't BESS test it, but was using it on cardboard. Will test with bark river white next.
Good video and in my opinion you can’t beat seki k390 for the money and after a couple of sharpenings it only gets better. Thanks for sharing brother 👊
Larrin is honest. He invented the steel, he told everyone this steel has edge retention slightly lower than S30V, but a lot more toughness and corrosion resistance. It's good in all three aspect, that's why it's a great steel. If one doesn't care about corrosion resistance and toughness, we already have better steels. I think on a survival fixed blade is where we need Magnacut, not a pocket folder. Some people reported the insane edge retention of Magnacut. I've seen very similar things happened for M390, so I'd rather believe what Larrin said.
Who said Larrin wasn’t honest? Who said that Larrin is even in control of what these companies end up producing with Magnacut? Any maker can follow whatever protocol they want. That’s kind of why we’re in the boat we are with the aforementioned M390/204P/20CV. Also, I do not have the chart or video in front of me, but I’m 90% sure the chart he uses for promotion and what he said in his video is that Magnacut has slightly higher edge retention than m390 and toughness is significantly higher. Bordering on 4V levels, which is the steel I know he talks about in comparison to Magnacut, for that reason. I wouldn’t disagree about usage for the toughness you and most of the community typically refer too. Meaning blade flex (plastic and elastic deformation). We already know a folding knife is a broken knife. Any sharp edge is a failure point and the pivot is one big sharp edge. However, edge stability, that’s a whole different ball game.
I think toughness gets overlooked a lot in the folding knife world because people misunderstand what toughness actually is, and the effects it has on the blade. Specifically, the edge. Toughness contributes directly to edge stability, and really determines the type of damage an edge recieves. Not just impact damage, but also the way the edge blunts through normal use. The less significant the damage recieved, the better an edge will come back after stropping. Using the extreme example of 3v: Do I _need_ 3v because I'm gonna be prying open car doors with my folder? No, not at all. Do I _want_ 3v because it supports a fine edge, has decent edge retention, and strops back amazingly well? Absolutely.
@@CNYKnifeNerd Big fan of Rhymesayers, first off. The two are definitely cousins. How the steel “compresses” is definitely one of the functions of general steel toughness. When people say toughness, especially in the fixed blade world, they are talking about a blade being hit by a baton and bending back and forth, but coming out straight when it’s all said and done. More broadly, people aren’t typically “compressing” their edges in many other uses than chopping and battoning, like you would with a fixed blade. Most of those “tough” steels guys like, folder or fixed blade, are also treated lower to increase elastic deformation. With something like Magnacut or K390, it’s the opposite. And not to go down a super rabbit hole, but that could take us to stainless/high carbide, versus non-stainless, lower carbide. You get big fat carbides, relatively speaking, like you typically do in stainless and you’re moving right into chipping/fracturing world. But, you can kind of see that by the typical steels that are used for situations where a “tough” blade is needed.
@@imawesome734 For sure. I’m sure that’s why Sal, a long time steel nerd, decided to use it in their Salt knives. Great for very niche, true, needs. The main selling point was a stainless 4V and how many people, even as rampant as the rust monster boogyman stories in the community are, are buying a knife for pure/1st priority rust resistance? I cannot think of a conversation I’ve had in 20+ years, with an everyday knife guy, that said they are looking for rust resistance above all else.
So it depends which batch of magnacut you got. The latest batches are between 62 and 64rc and are excellent according to the cardboard cut testing. So your sample may be one of the earlier ones that wasn't as impressive. But then again, no factory edge is ever impressive.
7:00 That is definitely a steep secondary bevel and primary grind as well on that Hogue Deka, thanks for pointing out -- seems like kind of a waste of the Magnacut to ship it with such steep angles unless customers are using it to cut car tires everyday or something... LOL not sure what that knife is for. I understand the handle is a bit light and flimsy as well so it doesn't seem like it could be a heavy use knife.
Always love getting an alchemy 1 notif
Thank you for the kind words 🙏
I was the first person calling hogue out on the Overly soft Magnacut... I bought two of the SMKW Subzero Dekas and as soon as they got to me I cut test them on thr factory edge just to see. Took them to 15dps, finished on venve dragon F800 cut test again just to get an ideal but didn't record the findings that happens on edge number 4 then cut test again to verify on edge 5.
They are to soft, they clearly felt soft on the stones. On my card board cut test edge 4 and 5 verified within 3% so I called the test knowing I was definitely in fresh clean unburnt steel. My spyderco mule in MC out cut them by over 50%. I had that MC HRC tested and it poked at 63.4 average over 3 pokes (this is on a large commercial Rockwell tester at a machine shop so highly accurate) we poked one of the sub zero dekas and it tested 59.7hrc. Vastly to soft and the edge retention shows it. When it's done right its fantastic, rivaling the best S45VN I have tested, does extremely well at low angle angles so a very stable steel and or. Course highly corrosion resistant. Hogues MC is done way to soft and what tickles me is the carbon MC Ritter made by hogue is done extremely well, but for some reason hogue is simply taking theirs vastly to soft. Mc is pointless at sub 60HRC and needs to be 63+ to really show the performance of what the steel is capable of.
The toughness and easier sharpening is what pushes it past 390's edge retention with relation to frequency of sharpening for me. I like to be able to touch up EDC edges with just a little stropping instead of actual sharpening. So far ( for a month of carry) that's all my Hogue clip point Magnacut has needed. It is all about personal needs and expectations, like you state yourself. Just another option. Maybe not for you, but will definitely be for others.
With the right tools (typically CBN/Diamond abrasives) and sound technique, the difference in sharpening should be so small you would need to be a highly skilled sharpener to notice. Even then, we’d be talking number of passes and not minutes or how you may need to go about taking off a burr. That’s also one of my personal preferences for tools steel. Very clean, sticky sharp, apexes with little work that respond well to even a simple strop. Once you move over to stainless and high carbide stainless (not saying Magnacut is high carbide…just speaking to what seems to be the broader desire for high carbide stainless steels) that’s typically where people start to say a steel is “hard” to sharpen.
I think a good example of the “hard to sharpen” thing is Apostle P saying Maxamet was basically impossible to sharpen. Then, Triple B Handmade/Big Brown Bear, repeatedly showed how that’s not true. Then he goes on to show all the exotic steels at high hardnesses sharpening in minutes. He has good gear and great technique. One of the open secrets of this community is few even own sharpening equipment and fewer know how to use it well. That leads to the narrative of hard or easy to sharpen.
I definitely agree about options, preferences, and even niche requirements for a stain proof steel. I just think the reason a lot of people are lead to believe the need stainless steel is overblown. That’s a story for another day. I’ve already beaten that drum here and on IG 😂👊🙏
I wanted to see for myself if Magnacut has 4V toughness and more edge retention than m390. However, I know high end custom makers that say the edge stability/toughness isn’t there. That’s more of what I’m trying to see. I remember when Elmax came out and it was supposed to be the perfect blend of stainless and tool steel. I just can’t go around saying things if I haven’t tried it though. That’s ultimately why I got the knife and why I’m trying it out. Raw, demonstrated, info for the community. Not marketing from someone that got a free knife to show off.
Very cool to hear the updates. Great video 👍
Thank you, sir 🙏👊
You gotta be one of the last of the original really in depth knife channels still uploading.
Still holding out hope for a Nero or Michael Christy notification, but that doesn't make me any less excited for one from Alchemy_1.
Thank you, sir 🙏👊. I hadn’t heard from Vinny in a few years. I don’t even know if he’s still into knives. I know Christy is. Maybe he’ll put something out soon. 🤞
Dude ! Same. Nero and sharp thinking and in the pocket . And of course alk 1. No matter what I'm doing I will stop and watch.
Michael Christy got off the band wagon when everyone started to learn about microstructure and the difference between performance of the heat treat protocols and he didn't and refused to learn.
Is that what happened to christy? I did not see that coming. So was supersteelsteve talking to christy when he was crusading for hardness
K390 and V4E/4V are my fetish steels. Would love to see K390 used more often, and would like to see a damned DLC/PVD option. The Adamas in Cruwear is a beast, for damn sure. S90V is my favorite on the stainless side, but 154CM has blown my mind on certain blades, and eaten competition that it shouldn't have by a long shot. Was excited about SOG's cryo XHP, because Cold Steel's notoriously kicked ass, despite having to swap to s35vn due to XHP's major unavailability, which apparently SOG, Spyderco, Spartan, etc. were able to bypass... But I was surprised at SOG's SEAL XR, being regular old non-cryo s35 punching well above its weight class, and surpassing their cryo XHP releases. Sometimes we get some wild outliers, or get lucky on the specific production model we receive.
I have an awesome Maxace knife, model name is the Killer Whale 2.0. They used a tool steel that is PM, and was first patented in the '70s. It's called ASP-60, and has hardly seen use in knives, but is apparently up there between Magnacut and REX121. Not sure if you've heard of it, and haven't put mine to hard use, but would like to know if anybody's done any testing or had much experience with it. It's a Swedish variant on this blade, but there are a few manufacturers
Excellent comment. Thank you for taking the time to comment. I’m not familiar with that steel or knife. I’d be interested to hear how it does.
@@Alumapro23 GREAT VIDS. NEED A KNIFE ASAP. HELP ME PICK PLZ: ABOUT 3 INCHES, LIGHT ( LESS THAN 3 OZ) "SLICEY" THIN AS POSSIBLE..DECENT STEEL...SAY S30V AT LEAST
Ap60 superclean is a older first generation PM steel. It's capable of being taken upwards of 68hrc. I have delt with a couple custom knives in it. At 65hrc it will outcut maxamet by a significant margin. It's a really neat steel, the problem with it is toughness is very low, and edge stability is not great that's why it hasn't caught on as a wonder steel in the knife would. It has vastly more potential edge retention then you 10v class steels but at the expense of being far less tough and edge stability is a real issue.
If maxace took it to 64-65hrc that thing will have some INSANE edge retention just be very careful with any lateral loading of the apex or hitting anything hard with the apex and don't apply heavy side loads to the blade as it will not do well in that dept.
I have tested it in a 3.5 inch custom fixed blade that wad taken to 67.5hrc and it outcut 68hrc Rex76 by about 25% and got within 10% of some custom 71hrc Rex121 I tested. It really is a neat steel but it's never gonna be a steel that catches on in the knife world because of its extreme lack of toughness and lack of edge stability. And just so your aware its nothing remotely in the same ballpark as MC is, MC is a totally 100% vastly different steel with vastly different properties... it's ap60 isn't in between MC and rex121, MC is nothing like steels in that category they are so completely different its like saying the earth's temperature is between Pluto's and the suns.
K390/-10V/-and 4V are probably my favorite steels. I say probably because I have not used Rex-45 and a couple others enough to determine for sure.
I wish more knives came in K390
I love my Spyderco Endura it just feels good the hand. I can cut a piece of rope like nothing.
Sounds like decent results for magnacut in a production knife. I have a very thin magnacut bugout reblade, it's amazing for food prep. I use it every day because my room mates trash all of the communal knives.
The pocket clips on my Hogue Ritter RSKs are a bit on the light side for retention well btw, so it might just be a Hogue thing in general, but I've had no issues with it falling out or anything so it's fine by me.
I’ve always ASSuMEd Magnacut would be decent. That’s not how it was billed though. Hahaha! If you want to know how a knife is going to perform, put it in the hands of a non-knife person.
I never had any issues with my RSK, but that clip is longer, if memory serves. This knife didn’t give me any real issues, but I definitely noticed it slipping and sliding and I never talk about clip issues.
Great vid and feedback as always my friend. We need some more Alchemy1 knowledge 😁👍⚔️
👊🙏
Miss my Para 3 ): but got the Hogue Deka v2. Loce the clippoint
I love K390 and Venev…. I just wish there is a PM2 in K390 soon
They put one out. It doesn't have the same heart treat as the seki models
I am more interested not in your opinion of Magnacut, but how well the Deka's handles held up. Were they flimsy in any way?
Ill add my opinion to this. They are a little flimsy feeling and will bend a little. Still durable enough for use. Worst thing about them for me is they are slippery and not well texturized.
@@whatisupthere10 The issue has been overcome by events. I got the gold marbled carbon fiber (Scorpion) version. No give in the carbon fiber, plus looks really nice.
I'll wait for Spyderco to release a Magnacut folder. Do you know if the Hogue has corrosion proof hardware on the rest of the knife?
As far as k390 goes... try stropping it with Flexcut Gold and get back to me!
Spyderco has been consistently, but Hogue has been criminally slept on. I can’t imagine K390 getting any better (I use Swartz CBN emulsion), but I’m always up for even more performance. 👊🙏
@@Alumapro23 Bro, I used gunny juice and bark river CBN on k390. I'm telling you k390 was coming up sharper on a BAD flexcut gold strop than a good diamond strop. I didn't BESS test it, but was using it on cardboard. Will test with bark river white next.
Actually, I need to retest this... maybe my diamond strops are shot.
Good video and in my opinion you can’t beat seki k390 for the money and after a couple of sharpenings it only gets better. Thanks for sharing brother 👊
100%
Larrin is honest. He invented the steel, he told everyone this steel has edge retention slightly lower than S30V, but a lot more toughness and corrosion resistance. It's good in all three aspect, that's why it's a great steel. If one doesn't care about corrosion resistance and toughness, we already have better steels. I think on a survival fixed blade is where we need Magnacut, not a pocket folder.
Some people reported the insane edge retention of Magnacut. I've seen very similar things happened for M390, so I'd rather believe what Larrin said.
Who said Larrin wasn’t honest? Who said that Larrin is even in control of what these companies end up producing with Magnacut? Any maker can follow whatever protocol they want. That’s kind of why we’re in the boat we are with the aforementioned M390/204P/20CV. Also, I do not have the chart or video in front of me, but I’m 90% sure the chart he uses for promotion and what he said in his video is that Magnacut has slightly higher edge retention than m390 and toughness is significantly higher. Bordering on 4V levels, which is the steel I know he talks about in comparison to Magnacut, for that reason.
I wouldn’t disagree about usage for the toughness you and most of the community typically refer too. Meaning blade flex (plastic and elastic deformation). We already know a folding knife is a broken knife. Any sharp edge is a failure point and the pivot is one big sharp edge. However, edge stability, that’s a whole different ball game.
I think toughness gets overlooked a lot in the folding knife world because people misunderstand what toughness actually is, and the effects it has on the blade. Specifically, the edge.
Toughness contributes directly to edge stability, and really determines the type of damage an edge recieves. Not just impact damage, but also the way the edge blunts through normal use. The less significant the damage recieved, the better an edge will come back after stropping.
Using the extreme example of 3v: Do I _need_ 3v because I'm gonna be prying open car doors with my folder? No, not at all. Do I _want_ 3v because it supports a fine edge, has decent edge retention, and strops back amazingly well? Absolutely.
@@CNYKnifeNerd Big fan of Rhymesayers, first off.
The two are definitely cousins. How the steel “compresses” is definitely one of the functions of general steel toughness. When people say toughness, especially in the fixed blade world, they are talking about a blade being hit by a baton and bending back and forth, but coming out straight when it’s all said and done. More broadly, people aren’t typically “compressing” their edges in many other uses than chopping and battoning, like you would with a fixed blade.
Most of those “tough” steels guys like, folder or fixed blade, are also treated lower to increase elastic deformation. With something like Magnacut or K390, it’s the opposite.
And not to go down a super rabbit hole, but that could take us to stainless/high carbide, versus non-stainless, lower carbide. You get big fat carbides, relatively speaking, like you typically do in stainless and you’re moving right into chipping/fracturing world. But, you can kind of see that by the typical steels that are used for situations where a “tough” blade is needed.
Larrin actually undersold the steel. He said the corrosion resistance was equal to 20cv but testing shows its actually BETTER than 20cv
@@imawesome734 For sure. I’m sure that’s why Sal, a long time steel nerd, decided to use it in their Salt knives. Great for very niche, true, needs.
The main selling point was a stainless 4V and how many people, even as rampant as the rust monster boogyman stories in the community are, are buying a knife for pure/1st priority rust resistance? I cannot think of a conversation I’ve had in 20+ years, with an everyday knife guy, that said they are looking for rust resistance above all else.
🤙🏻👊🏻🇺🇲
🫡👊
So it depends which batch of magnacut you got. The latest batches are between 62 and 64rc and are excellent according to the cardboard cut testing. So your sample may be one of the earlier ones that wasn't as impressive. But then again, no factory edge is ever impressive.