Cold Steel Voyager Medium AUS8a Rope Cutting/Edge Retention Test

[camokid1ss]

thats good enough for EDC task. In reality you only going to cut maybe 2 to 3 pieces of rope one a good day.

[Sharpbevel]

Good job on the review/cut test

[jordub]

I think this knife will be my first cold steel. I dare you to eat your "salad" you just cut up. lol

[Nebulax123]

JD: I went and checked and the knife I have is the Benchmade H2o River Guide and while it is flat/saber ground it is not H1 but is X15 T.N not sure how it equates to H1 but Kristi from Spyderco has stated that for their purposes they liked H1 better.

[jdavis882]

@Nebulax123 Hey Bruce, thanks for checking. This could be totally wrong, but I think I remember (I am not sure at all) hearing that X15 had slightly better edge retention than H1. Since I haven't tested either I really can't say, but it would be a cool thing to find out. :)

[bfd210]

I have the large tanto and its a sweet sweet knife!! Just got an Emerson CQC 15 as well!!

[SezMan716]

love that steel on my cs recon 1. goes from dull to shaving sharp so fast with a kitchen steel and a strop. love it

[xxbryan715xx]

i never said it will hold an edge forever. it is a 58-60 on the rockwell scale. it simpily wont. i was saying it is a very tough steel. if you drop it on its tip or cut through an object and hit a hard surface you wont chip the blade.if you drop a harder steel on the pavment live s35vn or d2 they can loose their entire tip. it is by no means a super hard steel but it is super tuff and super water resistant. if ou can sharpen you can get an awesome edge on it in seconds also.

[ajrj925]

I think cold steel's AUS8 is very good. even a novice sharpener like myself can get it up and running again very easily. in my opinion cold steel is a very underrated company. I have never had any fit and finish problems with cold steel. Yet 2 of my 3 Striders were sent back for warranty issues. Nonetheless great all around knife and great review. I was wondering if you have done any testing or have any experience with N690Co... Any info would be greatly appreciated. Once again thanks for the

[jdavis882]

@ajrj925 Yes I have tested N690. Look back in my older uploads. It was a Fox Deimos. :)

[xxbryan715xx]

i would say aus8a and h1 steel are the strongest blade steels on the market. they are not the "HARDEST". cold steels variation of aus8a can be slamed through car hoods and i would never do that to s30v or d2.( i would never do it to any blade). strength and hardness are 2 very differnt things in knives and you should be sure to spereate the 2. strength is the abuse the blade can take and hardness is the abuse the edge can take.

[jdavis882]

@xxbryan715xx Are you making a generality or are you referring to me? I am well versed in tough vs wear resistant steels.

[xxbryan715xx]

@jdavis882 u said it is not the strongest steel and it is prob. the strongest steel you have tested. just not the hardest

[jdavis882]

@xxbryan715xx There is no "strength" category in metallurgy. The closest thing to that is "toughness", and yes AUS8a is very tough. It resist chipping and is able to withstand impact.

Hardness of a steel is directly dependent on the heat treat. Various steels aren't "harder" by nature. That is to say if both steels are un heat treated, S30V will be no harder than AUS8a, although S30V is much more wear resistant.

[bobmellon]

@xxbryan715xx its actually a proven fact that it isn't the strongest steel he has tested, as far as toughness, wear resistance, and hardness are concerned, the statements you have made are based on no factual evidence whatsoever, and mean absolutely nothing, cold steel does stab car hoods in their proof videos thats a fact, the simple other fact is that you can make almost any steel do that, given the right blade design

[bobmellon]

@xxbryan715xx if you thing h1 is one of the strongest blade steels on the market you have not done your research

[xxbryan715xx]

@bobmellon it can be bent to a 90 degree angle without breaking....

[bobmellon]

@xxbryan715xx yes and so can a spoon? does that mean i want it as a knife steel, absolutely not, h1 is a precipitation hardened steel, the inner steel is very soft, hence why it can do that, it is not a great performer, and bending it to a 90 degree angle has no practical purpose

[bobmellon]

@xxbryan715xx h1 was not created to perform, its sole purpose is to avoid corrosion, its overall performance is decent for what it is but by no means is it a strong performer

[DrWrongPaul]

omg, Thanks for upload !!

[BenTheDream1018]

Did you ever do rope cutting tests with any of the Kershaw Sandvik steels?

[jdavis882]

@BenTheDream1018 I tested 14C28N in the form of a Kershaw Skyline. Look back in my older uploads. :)

[spsilvgo]

I'm a fan of the triad lock. I'd like to try the medium voyager sometime. The ergos look pretty good.

[interista7878]

Sums up my feelings about the steel. Not the greatest edge retention by any stretch, but incredibly cheap compared to similar:ish performing steels (VG10, 154CM, Sandvik 12C27 et al) and touches up to a razor edge so easily the time you'll be spending bringing it back balances out the disadvantages. The only other "user friendly" steel that truly blows it out of the water is imo RWL34 (and by proxy CPM154?).

Coupled with the Tri-Ad you'd be damn picky to ask for more...

[Nebulax123]

I think for the money Cold Steel knives are a good value and AUS8 has always been one of my favorite mid grade steels.

[difflocktwo]

H1 seems to sharpen up in a similar way, I'm sure its on the list for this cutting test, right?

[jdavis882]

@difflocktwo I've tried it using my Pac Salt, but the grind just isn't conducive to this test. I need a full flat ground H1 knife to test.

If I can't find one I may just grit my teeth and do the test with the saber ground Pac Salt.

[1nvrknws]

@jdavis882 Back in 2010 SHOT show, either Ed or Sal from Spyderco told Nutn (in his video) that Spyderco cannot get H-1 in FFG, only saber grind/hollow grind. I am not sure if they have been able to find a way around that by now, but as of now such a knife is not for sale if it exists. In my impression, H-1 will lose its edge quicker than anything else, but you can sharpen it quicker too. Virtuovice has a cool vid sharpening the Pacific Salt on water stones and then stropping to mirror.

[jdavis882]

@1nvrknws I did not know that! Thanks for the info man. Looks like I need to just go ahead and get through the test with the Pac Salt. :)

[MrICSK]

@jdavis882 I don't own a blade in H1 but I've done quite a bit of research on it. Sal posted quite a bit about the steel in the past. Back on topic, it's because H1 is work hardened (hardened by the process of grinding). Because hollow grinding grinds both sides at once, it ensures that both sides of the blade are hardened at the same time to prevent warping. Flat grinding COULD be done but it wouldn't make sense from a production standpoint. Also, I hope you have the SE version as they pull...

[MrICSK]

@MrICSK ... somewhere between 65-68 HRC at the edge of the knife(I don't remember the numbers exactly). The grinding that is done on making a serrated edge hardens the steel. People on the forums have claimed that this hardening can also be done over time by sharpening the knife but I recall Sal stating that they're not sure whether or not it's true.

Hope that helps!

[jdavis882]

@MrICSK Yeah I knew that it was work hardened and also that the SE versions were MUCH better at holding their edge. Sadly, I have the PE version, although I will still test it since I feel it deserves it's chance.

Who knows, maybe cutting all this rope will have the edge at 65 HRC??? Haha, I kid..

[Nebulax123]

@jdavis882 I have a flat ground one I will try to do a test on it for you.

[1nvrknws]

A lot of people like to compare AUS8a to 8Cr13MOV. Do you think that is true from your experience? Specifically, when talking about edge-retention and rust resistance. I, personally, tend to favor AUS8a on both accounts though it is usually 1.5x or 2x more expensive it seems.

[jdavis882]

@1nvrknws AUS8a wins hands down in terms of stain resistance. In my experience edge retention is nearly the same. I would say that in my test 8cr out performed AUS8, but that could be due to edge geometry. Truth be told I've had good results with both in every day use. :)

[1nvrknws]

@jdavis882 I see, thank you. They both certainly offer great value for the money in EDC role. AUS8a should be especially rust-resistant with some type of coating, maybe not the cheapo paint we find on Cold Steel knives, but the one on, say, SOG knives (in my experience with the Aegis). I haven't seen knives with coating on 8Cr13MoV, but I am probably forgetting some.

[difflocktwo]

I have a crkt fulcrum with AUS8. With almost no effort I can get it hair whittling sharp. If anyone wants to learn to free-hand sharpen they should try with AUS8.

[jdavis882]

@difflocktwo True. I have gotten AUS8a blades sharper than I thought anything on earth could be. I absolutely love how it likes to take a keen edge. I will take the hit in edge retention for that trait gladly in this knife.