Easter Rockwell Hardness Results!

Verified on a 59.8, 62.7, and 65.0 HRC Verification Block.

Demko AD20S CPM-M4 61.2 HRC

Demko AD20S CPM-Magnacut 62.5 HRC

Spyderco Leafjumper K390 64.9 HRC

Shirogorov Neon Elmax 62.2 HRC

Urban EDC Isarus CPM-Magnacut 63.0 HRC

Shirogorov Hati M390 62.4 HRC

Shirogorov F95 CPM-S30V 58.6 HRC

Demko AD-10 CPM-3V 59.3 HRC

Strider SNG PD#1 62.0 HRC

CRK Umnumzaan CPM-Magnacut 64.3 HRC

Shirogorov Stellar CPM-Magnacut 64.4 HRC

Spyderco Tenacious CPM-M4 64.3 HRC

CKF Evo 4.0 CPM-S90V 60.3 HRC

Spyderco Shaman CPM-10V 63.2 HRC

TOPS Camp Creek CPM-S35Vn 59.0 HRC

TOPS Tracker 3 154CM 57.9 HRC

TOPS Badger Creek N690 59.4 HRC

For those who saw the post Maxace made earlier, I am now working to help Maxace improve their testing procedures, and help them work towards improving their heat treatment. I do not hold negative feelings for Maxace, however I do wish for them to continue working towards doing proper heat treatment. I will be receiving some more samples from Maxace and performing testing on said samples soon. Quality issues are only issues if they are not dealt with properly. Companies are going to have problems, that is expected. What matters is how they deal with said problems. This project was not created to cause drama, it was created to give the knife community a source of unbiased factual data that the wonderful members of the community can reference when making purchases.

I am still looking for as many samples as I can get sent my way. The push to work with manufacturers has been fairly ineffective as most companies do not want a bad result due to the negative ramifications. Still charging a mere $10/blade plus shipping both ways.

A special shoutout to Leo of TOPS Knives for sending in the 3 blades for testing. Leo was a breeze to work with, and gave me a very open and honest vibe. He immediately sent me blades as soon as I reached out. This was extremely unexpected, in all honesty. At Blade Show I had actually skipped past his booth, as I had fully expected to be rejected. Most overbuilt fixed blade making knife companies tend to care more for toughness over hardness. So please take that into account when seeing the results, this is one of those times when the toughness of the blade actually matters a good bit. These are large fixed blades that are meant to take some abuse.

Note the K390 Leafjumper blade. We now believe all Spyderco K390 to have a target hardness range of 63-65. This has been consistent between Seki City and Golden Colorado models so far.

The Urban EDC Magnacut blade is consistent with other Reate-made CPM-Magnacut knives. That seems to be the one steel Reate can get properly so far…

The Demko AD20S CPM-M4 blade is about 3 points lower than the average Spyderco CPM-M4 blade. A stark contrast in price range makes this result confusing to me.

The Shirogorov CPM-S30V blade comes from a time when Shirogorov had a completely different heat treatment process. And is an interesting data point to note.