Spyderco est en train de recruter sur leur forum des testeurs pour comparer leurs nouveaux aciers à venir.
La manip est simple : ils créent le même modèle de couteau en différents aciers, en l'occurence ce fixe :
qu'ils vendent aux steel junkies du forum afin de comparer D2, ZDP, S30V, S90V, peut-être le nouveau S125V
L'idée originale de Sal Glesser, le boss de Spyderco :
Sal Glesser a écrit:I would like to share a potential project with you.
The "plan" was to use a fixed blade pattern for learning about steels. The design is a warncliffe, 3" - 4" blade length. Blade and handle one piece of steel. Essentially a steel "mule" like we use in our testing, but with a handle.
I spoke with Brian Huegel (Country knives) about this a couple of years ago. He has a very good understanding of knives and the industry. He said that everyone will want a handle that is more than just the steel and probably a sheath. A good point. I don't want to get involved in trying to make custom handles of sheaths for the "mules".
I thought of doing this several years ago but the idea was put on hold because of the handle / sheath issue.
I've thought about it quite a bit and I would like to present the idea to the steel junky's.
A standard fixed blade pattern, probably a warncliffe, 3 - 4" in blade length. Handle and blade would be one piece of steel. Perhaps one of you could make aftermarket handles / sheaths where desired. Our sheath maker could probably be persuaded to make a standard Boltaron sheath.
I would work with the foundries to get material. We would make a pre-planned quantity, maybe 300 - 500. All full flat grind. We coud probably do 1 - 4 runs per year. Each "Mule Team" knife would be engraved with the type of steel.
We would determine steel to test and Rc on the forum before making each run. We would cut them out, heat treat, tumble (cheap), grind, sharpen and ship. Some steels have to be ground before heat treat. No handle, no sheath. All would have to be pre-sold (I don't want to inventory.) which means some of the group would purchase more than one to be able to have some available for those not signed up. We would keep the cost as low as is possible. Costs would vary depending on mfg costs.
We would begin with steels we're already using, eg: VG-10, S30V, ZDP, etc. to get the ball rolling. Then steel selction would come from you.
We could maybe do Rc, CATRA and Charpy tests, but leave the rest to you.
Any interest?
sal
