Knife Steel Nerds: USA vs Europe – Powder Metallurgy Knife Steels

 

Jim Sutton of Zapp Tooling Alloys contacted me recently to talk about testing their Z-Wear. Zapp has previously purchased their powder steel from a USA company, and they are adding a European steel company as another source. They wanted to compare the properties between the two suppliers to ensure they are equivalent, and/or to determine if one is better than another. Some companies have claimed that their powder metallurgy process is better than other companies, notably Bohler and Uddeholm (of the parent company voestalpine) claim their process is “3rd generation” for a finer powder size and lower “inclusions” in the steel [1]. I previously compared the inclusion content and properties of Bohler, Uddeholm, Crucible, and Carpenter powder metallurgy steels in this article. Bohler-Uddeholm has previously claimed that Erasteel uses “2nd generation” technology, though Erasteel has since made improvements to their process which they call Dvalin which makes similar claims to reduction in inclusions to Bohler-Uddeholm…

Read the whole thing at KnifeSteelNerds.com:

USA vs Europe – Powder Metallurgy Knife Steels

Or you can watch the video: