App Review: Zvisoft Steel Composition Chart
(Editor’s note: The following post originally appeared at The Truth About Knives. Used with permission of author)
In my personal journey down the rabbit hole of all things blade related, one thing I have learned is that there are an incredible array of knife steels out there. I can tell you the pros and cons of common steels like D2, AUS8, and 440C, but when you start diving into the land of alphabet soup, it all begins to run together. Will Woods’ Ask a Knifemaker post: The Truth About Blade Steel is a great introduction, and I have used web pages such as Benchmade’s Materials Chart or Wikipedia to look up individual steels on many occasions. Enter ZviSoft Knife Steel Composition Chart app, a single reference for every registered steel type (apparently “Pakistani Car-Bumper is not an AISI recognized steel).
TTAK reader Roger mentioned the application in the comment section of Nathan’s CRKT Cobia announcement and I decided to check it out. The App is free on iOS, and is also available for Android. Additionally, all of the information is available on the Zknives Website. It is all in one giant webpage, and is difficult to navigate without using your browser’s search function. The App gives it to you in an easily searched and indexed package.
Enter the steel type you wish to learn about and click search.
Searching for a steel is easy, the interface is intuitive and the App even autocompletes your input. The results screen pops up, and from there you can dive even further into the steel composition.
Results for CPM 3V – a steel I have recently begun testing in form of the Kraken by Will Woods.
If you click on the graph icon, you get the following chart:
Composition Graph for CPM 3V.
You also have the option to bookmark or email the results. Plus there is a glossary of alloy component elements, an example of which is seen below:
The App comes with a glossary of alloy components as well.
I am still playing with the App, and there are surely options I have yet to explore. But I hope I have given you a good picture of this free and useful smartphone and tablet application. Thank You Roger! I only wish that I had known of this before the Blade Show. It would have made my life easier. It will doubtless prove useful in the future.
