I was looking through Shawn Houston's (a.k.a. Big Brown Bear) YouTube channel when I came across this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WOpu13O_OFE
In the video, REX45 seems to resist edge deformation a lot better than M4 does. However, I was under the impression that REX45, at least according to Larrin Thomas's chart on the Knife Steel Nerds page, was a strict downgrade to M4. REX45 scored a 4.5/6/4, while M4 scored a 6.5/6/4 (so a much tougher steel). I can see the other charts—for example, I see that REX45 is usually heat treated much hotter than M4—but is there something I'm missing about the information on the Knife Steel Nerds site?
by pika_pie
2 Comments
I would trust steel nerds over someone who calls themselves big brown bear. But that’s just me.
This is, again, why edge strength and edge stability are wildly more important than charpy ft/lbs toughness. I’ve been saying it for many many years, but Charpy impact testing is already a wildly flawed test. How it is even remotely applicable to pocket knife blades is beyond me.