Conclusions -
Simply put, CPM 10V is a very good steel with extremely high wear resistance and quite good impact resistance or toughness for the light/medium use utility or hunting knives. Definitely this isn't a steel to be used in swords or axes or even in large combat knives. On the other hand, one would be very hard pressed to find another steel that can match its abrasion resistance, and even at 64-65HRC, it resists small nicks and chips during cutting very successfully. I've had bunch of other knives with rolled or chipped edges cutting old carpets, plastic, wiring, but not this one. Restoring the edge, especially when it is a thin, coarse type, is a breeze. More on that in Phil Wilson K294 Bow River knife review. Rebeveling CPM 10V is a chore, no way around that. My advise would be to start with very aggressive, coarse stone, to reduce the workload. It will be very time consuming to rebevel even a 4" long blade.As for the choice of the edge finishing grit. I've experimented a lot with CPM 10V, and later with Bohler-Uddeholm K294. I went from coarse ~800 grit to high polish ~100K, then back to semi coarse ~1000-1200 grit and eventually to really coarse 300-400 grit edge. I'll spare you the details, but a short summary would probably save you some time :) The best performance I got out of the CPM 10V, and its Bohler-Uddeholm counterpart K294, also from other high carbide volume alloys like CPM S110V, CPM S125V was around 300-600 grit edges, which results in very high slicing performance, and restoring the same very aggressive edge is just few strokes on coarse stone, or ceramic stick. I've had very good results with DMT Diafold coarse and medium sharpeners for example. Higher polished edges on those types of alloys don't really do them justice. Yes, you can certainly put 100K or even finer edge, but it will not last long and then you will be left with underperforming, shiny edge. If you want thin, high polished razor edge there are other alloys that can do that well, but that's not where high carbide volume steels like CPM 10V and K294 excel. On the other hand, coarse, very aggressive edges, with thin bevels, and about 15° per side edges slice very efficiently, last very long time and are very easy to restore when they start to dull.
Specifications:
- Blade - 120.65mm(4.75")
- Thickness - 3.04mm
- Width - 27.00mm
- OAL - 241.30mm(9.5")
- Steel - CPM 10V steel at 64HRC
- Handle - Ironwood
- Weight - 116.10g(3.93oz)
- Acquired - 07/2005 Price - 400.00$