Home Forums Gear Knives and Blades Crucible CPM Rex M4

Great thread!

OK guys, there ought to be some initial reports back now.

Mannlicher and I are the only ones that have a knife in hand.

Journeyman's is out for a sheath. He is going to do the more extensive (more lab like) testing plus
field work. His is the second blade from the right.

Sam and I will be more along the lines of field use experience.

I have used the far right knife in the pic of 8 above to do some whittling and batoning.
I am quite impressed with the edge holding, but that is just user impression not
data based. Still a pretty good edge after 15 minutes of whittling and chopping dry and hard
oak and beech wood.

The second and third blade from the left can be available is some one is interested.
Tim

it works fantastic as a kitchen knife. I'm down in Miami again, with no opportunity here to use the knife. Hope to try it out before too long, after I get back to my North Florida home.

No further reports on this steel yet?

Was thinking the same thing. Would like to hear how sharp users are getting their knives. Are they reaching "scary sharp" levels, and how long does it last and how long does it take to sharpen verses 1095.

I have been procrastinating. I bought this one to use with dead animals, and I just have not killed anything this spring. I am not going to chop wood, carve spoons or baton firewood with it.
So far, I know it works well with supermarket meat, and with Antelope, pork and venison from the freezer.

I know--no pics, so it did not happen.

I got to bloody one of the knives I made using CPM-4 on a deer opening morning.
The cutting edge showed no deterioration, but I would expect that with use on just one animal.

The blade I used was .160" thick at the spine and the blade bevel about 85% of the width..
That did prove to be more wedge than ideal for cutting meat.
I would think (as with any steel) that something in the .100" to .125" is a better
thickness for processing meat and skinning.

Hope the three 24hr members who have one of this batch (M4 at 63.5 Rc) get to use them more extensively and
can report on the results.
Tim

Tim, My son shot a fat four point this morning. I used the M4 skinner, along with two of your other knives. The lad and I were very impressed with the performance of the M4 blade. Deer zipper. Shaving sharp after finishing up.

From Frank on M4 blade I made for him
"Tim,

Finally had a chance to use the M4 knife you made me. I used it to skin a frozen whitetail doe and bone it out. The blade held an amazing edge through the skinning to the point where I felt I had to be careful with it. I've cut up quite a lot of deer with quite a few knives and usually don't feel like I have to unduly careful. I was more cautious with your knife. I don't know if you've ever skinned a frozen deer or not, but it's no fun and not far off from skinning an ice cube. The blade had lost some edge by the time I had the deer boned out. I cut against a fair amount of bone while cutting off the fore legs and boning out the loins. Also you end up cutting through the hide and hair pretty often when trying to peel the hide off a frozen carcass. I ended up taking the hide off in 2 pieces just to make it easier, so cut through quite a lot of deer hair. I use a DMT Diafold sharpener in fine grit that's pretty well worn out. 4 strokes per side brought it back to hair shaving sharp.

I have knives in D2 (Ingram and Dozier), S30V folders mostly, Elmax (another maker here), CPM-154 (Page, Hendrix, Davis) and some others. I don't think any of them would have done as well as your M4 blade at Rockwell. I think a thinner blade like 3/32 in a 3.25 inch or so in that steel and temper would be an incredible cutter and take up no room in a pack.

Thanks for making it fore me. I'd be happy to give you more specifics if you'd like, either my message or telephone."
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PS:
I am thinking of doing one more run in a couple months using M4.
If so, I will be going thinner with the material, and smaller with the blades in general.
I went a little on the thick side with the first run thinking the blades were more for heavy duty.
A thinner blade and cutting edge and a 63.5 Rc should be a great cutter and skinner.

Thanks
Tim

MRK, if the second blade from the left in the picture is still available I would like to claim it. Send me a PM please.

Crow

Crow
Yeah, the second from the left and the big one in the center are not handled yet.

I had thought I would make myself a set out of them using a large elk tine to handle them both with.
But, I have "personal" knives up my patootie, so PM coming your way.
Tim

Tim, I think I might be interested in the big semi skinner if that is the last one available. If it is, can you PM me to discuss dimensions and such?

Sure.

Patiently waiting and drooling over pics here.

local
The blades just mentioned recently above are in the pic posted by Mannlicher in the middle of page three of this thread.

The pic of your blade that is in queue for heat treat I sent to you. Blank plus ground along with 10 other blades

I have not mastered the posting of pics here, so once in a while a member helps with that.

Thanks
Tim