Knifemaking Archives

MagnaMax and Pop’s ProCut: The Next Super Steels?

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March 16, 2026

MagnaMax and Pop’s ProCut: The Next Super Steels?

Specially engineered for knife blades, the two alloys are at the cutting edge of metallurgy.

Editor’s note: The genius behind MagnaCut—arguably today’s most popular blade steel for both custom and factory knives—the author has helped create two new blade materials that he fully expects to meet with wide-ranging acceptance as well. Following is his story on his latest voyage into his favorite subject.

I pitched the idea of MagnaCut steel to Crucible Steel and Niagara Specialty Metals in 2019. I said I had an idea for a steel that would match the best of the non-stainless powder-metallurgy steels in terms of wear resistance and toughness. This would be a big deal because there has been a longstanding gulf between the performance of carbon steels and stainless steels. My team and I successfully turned the idea into MagnaCut, released in 2021, which had a microstructure like a non-stainless steel while being stainless—offering the best properties of both.

I intentionally sought balanced properties with MagnaCut so it was both tough and wear-resistant, similar to non-stainless grades such as CPM 4V, CPM CruWear and Vanadis 4 Extra. Knife enthusiasts, especially those into folders, often seek higher-wear-resistance steels for maximum edge retention. Instead, I tried to push for a more balanced set of properties so knife buyers could see the benefits of having high toughness in addition to good wear resistance. This can allow knives to be made with thinner edges for better cutting ability, because toughness helps thinner edges resist chipping. In my edge retention tests with the CATRA (Cutlery Allied Trades Research Association) edge testing machine, thinner edges with smaller angles lead to larger differences in edge retention than the steel choice, or even the heat treatment! It seems many knife buyers have seen the light as MagnaCut has gained quite a bit of popularity since its release.

MagnaMax Steel

Nonetheless, I also knew knife enthusiasts would ask for something more wear-resistant. The folder crowd is not as worried about toughness and are seemingly always asking for greater wear resistance and edge retention. However, when the wear resistance gets too high, the steel becomes “unbalanced,” and the toughness becomes a significant issue. I see images of broken folders semi-regularly from the most extreme wear-resistance grades.

MagnaMax shares the same high corrosion resistance and good hardness potential as MagnaCut, but has higher wear resistance at the cost of some toughness. Because MagnaMax shares a similar microstructure to non-stainless steels, its toughness level for that high wear resistance is excellent.

The “sweet spot” for higher-wear-resistance products seems to be in the family of non-stainless alloys such as CPM 10V, Vanadis 8 and K390. In particular, K390 has been building in popularity through Spyderco knives in recent years for its excellent combination of properties. I had actually proposed to Crucible and Niagara way back in 2019 that, after we were successful with MagnaCut, I had another idea I was calling stainless 10V at the time.

This led to a new product called MagnaMax, a higher-wear-resistance steel in the same family as MagnaCut. It shares the same high corrosion resistance and good hardness potential as MagnaCut, but has higher wear resistance at the cost of some toughness. Because it shares a similar microstructure to non-stainless steels, its toughness level for that high wear resistance is excellent.

Two of the highest-toughness stainless powder-metallurgy steels before MagnaCut were CPM S35VN and CPM 154. MagnaMax matches the toughness of those grades while being much more wear-resistant. In recent years, one of the more popular folding knife steels has been M390, and MagnaMax has over twice the toughness and substantially higher slicing edge retention. Spyderco used the second prototype heat of MagnaMax in a series of its Mule series knives intended for enthusiasts to try out different steels. A Spyderco Forum member known as vivi said he cut 325 gallons worth of cardboard strips with one of these knives. He reported, “Even without adding the numbers up, I can say this steel has the best edge retention of any steel I’ve tried.”

The author (left) and his father, BLADE Magazine Cutlery Hall-of-Fame® member Devin “Hoss” Thomas.

The development of MagnaMax was not without its issues, however. The first two test heats of the steel were made by Crucible, a longstanding U.S.-based steel company that unfortunately went out of business in 2025. Crucible is the company behind many of the industry’s leading knife steels like 154CM, S30V, S35VN and 3V. Crucible is the company that invented powder metallurgy itself, a significant innovation providing the excellent properties of all the “CPM” (Crucible Particle Metallurgy) grades. Crucible went under basically right while it was making the second test heat of MagnaMax. A couple of slabs were even recovered from a pile of scrap after the company was dismantled so my team could test it. We made the first test heat of MagnaMax back in March 2023, and we are just now approaching the product’s wide release.

Niagara Specialty Metals (NSM), the company that hot rolls, anneals and distributes the majority of the leading steel grades, has played a key role in keeping these steels alive. Crucible relied on NSM for hot rolling the high-end, complex grades, as it is the only facility in the United States capable of processing them.

Niagara had already assumed an active role in the knife industry many years before, taking over the distribution of blade steels over a decade ago after Crucible’s first bankruptcy in 2009. It pushed for new grades like CPM S45VN, and without NSM, I’m not sure MagnaCut would ever have been made. Niagara is working with other suppliers of powder-metallurgy steel, including Carpenter and Erasteel, to ensure these grades remain available. My team has been working closely with these partners on the development of MagnaMax, but that also means we almost had to start over after Crucible’s unfortunate demise. The good news is I have been testing MagnaMax made by Erasteel, and the properties look excellent, at least as good as the Crucible-made material. And it’s actually looking a little better.

Pop’s ProCut Steel

Perhaps sometimes I get carried away working on new knife steels that push the boundaries for wear resistance. Some knifemakers are looking for simpler grades that are easy to forge, grind and finish.

Pop’s ProCut’s toughness matched that of steels like 8670 and 5160, known for their excellent toughness. The edge retention was better than the majority of forgeable grades outside of ApexUltra, a high-performance forging grade.

Joey Berry of Pop’s Knife Supply contacted me in March 2024 asking for an improved version of Pop’s most popular grade, 80CrV2, which is known for being very easy to work, high in toughness and low in cost. I told Joey I would need to think about it because I had no idea off the top of my head what version of 80CrV2 would fill the niche of bladesmiths who want something inexpensive and easy to work. However, I have always enjoyed working with Pop’s Knife Supply, so I gave some serious thought to what kind of steel would be ideal for Joey’s request.

Pop’s is growing rapidly and has been a big supporter of mine, selling copies of my books—Knife Engineering and The Story of Knife Steel. It has been expanding its steel offerings and its steel education base to better serve customers, and I knew a steel along these lines would be a good fit for it. One of the trade-offs with knife steel design is when you add some elements like vanadium in significant amounts, things like forgeability and finishability go down. How could I make something new and exciting without pushing so much it becomes difficult for knifemakers to work with?

I thought about how high-nickel steels like 15N20, L6 and 8670 are known for their excellent toughness—at the top of my charts—but also have very limited wear resistance. I also knew some relatively rare steels like Blue #1, V-Toku2 and Wolfram Special have small additions of tungsten and vanadium for wear resistance. In grades with higher amounts of those elements, I start to see complaints from makers about the difficulty of working with them, though they seem to be at a place where they hit the right balance before forging and hand sanding become issues. These tungsten-vanadium steels are relatively challenging to find, often expensive when you do, and their toughness is much lower than the high nickel grades. As a result, the idea was to combine the high nickel approach for toughness with the controlled additions of tungsten and vanadium for wear resistance.

The author (left) and Joey Berry of Pop’s Knife Supply.

Another major factor for this development was the ease of heat treating. Often, steels like 1084 are recommended to novice makers for heat treating in a forge because it is dead simple to harden—just heat it to nonmagnetic and dunk it in oil. However, these grades are also very easy to overheat; they come out hard, but the toughness is greatly reduced. Only a few seconds in a forge past nonmagnetic can lead to a reduction in toughness.

On the flip side are grades like 80CrV2 that have chromium and vanadium additions to limit grain growth, so overheating isn’t as much of an issue. But the chromium also means you must heat past nonmagnetic and hold it there to ensure the carbides dissolve. The chromium slows everything down. However, I thought if we kept the chromium content very low the new steel could still be quenched from nonmagnetic and achieve full hardness, while the tungsten and vanadium additions would create tiny carbides that “pin” the grain boundaries so overheating and grain growth are not issues. This would make the easiest-to-heat-treat knife steel ever. Just heat it past nonmagnetic and quench it, and you will get high hardness and toughness every time.

My team and I got a steel company to agree to try the composition I proposed and waited (im)patiently for the steel to arrive. This was a major investment for Pop’s Knife Supply, and there was no guarantee the new steel would work just because it sounded good on paper. Fortunately, however, when we tested the steel, its toughness matched steels like 8670 and 5160, known for their excellent toughness. The edge retention was better than the majority of forgeable grades outside of ApexUltra, a high-performance forging grade I developed with makers Marco Guldimann and Tobias Hangler. And in testing the heat-treating range, we found it could be quenched anywhere from 1400°F up to 1750°F—over 300°F! This met our target of making a steel that is easy to heat treat.

Reports from makers have been very positive for Pop’s ProCut. They have praised the ease of working as well as the tested performance. Dawson Knives related: “We found it to be an excellent steel that 1) Offers a razor-sharp edge on par or better than other modern steels; 2) Holds that edge cut after cut; 3) Displays excellent lateral strength (it flexed close to 20 degrees in either direction and returned to true); and 4) Extreme impact resistance (edge resisted chipping, cracking or rolling when driven into a piece of steel Unistrut with a sledge hammer). We are able to get our edge hardness to Rockwell C of 62-63 and still retain superb flexibility.”

Kurt Glatt forged Pop’s ProCut and ApexUltra steels for the damascus blade of his chef’s knife.

Another exciting aspect of ProCut is the high nickel content (2 percent like 15N20) allows it to be used in pattern-welded damascus as a “bright” layer. This gives a new, higher-edge retention steel for use in damascus. As noted, previous high nickel grades have very low wear resistance. It can even be used in combination with other high-wear-resistance grades to make superior edge-retention damascus. I have seen a couple of knives using both ProCut and ApexUltra for some excellent-looking and performing damascus.

More To Come?

I’m constantly working on new ideas, though it’s hard to predict which projects will pan out or when they’ll be released. It’s been incredibly rewarding to see the steels I’ve developed used by top knifemakers and major knife companies, and to hear from end users who genuinely love them. When my dad, BLADE Magazine Cutlery Hall-of-Fame® member Devin “Hoss” Thomas, took me to my first knife show as a teenager, I never would have thought I would be working on such cool stuff.

More On Knife Steel:

Best Steel For Knives: How To Choose
Knife Steel Trends: What To Look Forward To In 2025
Knife Steel Alloys: A Down-And-Dirty Guide
Damascus Steels: What To Use And When

Cool Custom: Robert Logan’s Tiny Fighter

BLADE Staff

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March 3, 2026

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Cool Custom: Robert Logan’s Tiny Fighter

Robert Logan had a scrap to pull off his Tiny Fighter.

ABS apprentice smith and member of the Texas Knifemakers Guild, Robert Logan, has developed a varied catalog over his nearly nine-year career. His work in kitchen cutlery has raised eyebrows in some corners of the knife world. Yet, his smaller projects are certainly worth consideration.

Such is the case with Robert’s Tiny Fighter, a minuscule fighter whose detailed execution is hard to miss—even if it’s no larger than a penny. The knife measures a scant 2.875 inches in overall length, with a 1.6875-inch damascus blade (192 layer 1084-15n20). Setting it all off is a mammoth-ivory handle and a beautiful guard featuring engraving by Alice Carter.

Robert has tinkered with miniatures previously, making a couple of dozen scaled-down versions of his Mini Cleaver Belt Knife. But the Tiny Fighter, he said, was his first crack at venturing deeper than a simple slab handle in a miniature piece. Without special equipment for the job, it was especially tricky.

“Honestly, the most challenging thing about making tiny knives for me is just holding on to them,” Robert confessed. “I don’t use grinding jigs, so just holding on to the thing to grind, it was hilarious.”

More Custom Knives:

Bob Loveless’ Influence Still Touches Those Closest To Him

Mike Haskew

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February 7, 2026

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Bob Loveless’ Influence Still Touches Those Closest To Him

Robin Askew moves on, but her father remains there for her.

The constant, the heart and soul of BLADE Magazine Cutlery Hall-of-Fame® member Bob Loveless, was wrapped up in custom knives. There was little time for anything else and there were only rare occasions that he travelled. Bob and his wife, Yoshi, made a few trips to Japan or to Hawaii, on a rare occasion to Europe, but most often with some business purpose involved as well.

And over time, Robin Askew came to appreciate and understand the singular purpose, laser-like focus and personal intensity that drove her father. He was capable of kindness but often brutally frank. He was willing to entertain young knifemakers, share information and then criticize or dismiss flaws with stark, unvarnished perspective. With patience that was sometimes fleeting, he did not suffer fools gladly.

But then, his personality was a tapestry, like all of us, an amalgam of inherited traits and life experience. His mother and father had sent him to live on a farm with grandparents at a young age. According to Robin, he lived and worked with the hired hands, not as a grandchild. At just 15 years old, he joined the Merchant Marine when his mother told the white lie that he was of age.

In addition to the knife her dad made for her, Robin’s other favorite keepsake is a photo of him, a joyous grin radiating from his face, as a cluster of pigeons lands on his shoulders and arms during a visit to Rome many years ago. “It’s a beautiful picture,” Robin stated, “and I look at it every day.”

It wasn’t easy for Bob Loveless, right from the start. But he made something of his opportunities and his native talents, shared them in the way he knew how, paying the price along the way and leaving a body of work of insight into what is beauty and flow in a handmade knife, like no one else has. For the record, he never billed himself as the world’s best knifemaker. He wasn’t, and he freely acknowledged that others were much more deserving of applause for their skills. It was his eye, perspective and sense of beauty and design that thoroughly set him apart.

Four Careers

When Robin grew up, moved out and moved on, she carried the best and the most worrisome of life experiences with her. She made her own way and has come to understand and appreciate the journey.

“I’ve really had four careers,” she reflected. “I worked 11 years in the banking industry and 20 years as a correctional peace officer at Pelican Bay State Prison in Crescent City, California, with 12 years as a peace officer. Put that together with the work in Dad’s office and then when my husband, Jimmie Askew, and I had a restaurant in Crescent City, California.”
When she worked in banking, Robin went to Crescent City on business for her employer. While there she met the most eligible bachelor in town. “It was a 400-mile, eight-hour drive to Crescent City, and I was supposed to be there for a month,” she said. “It became one of those wonderful love stories. Jimmie and I were meant to be together.”

Bob Loveless photographed Robin’s son Nico during a regular visit while they were “out and about.” Nico was 9. The resemblance to his grandfather is striking. (Bob Loveless image)

Jimmie was an award-winning chef, and with Robin’s business background the couple put together a fine restaurant that served a variety of entrees.

“I met Jimmie in 1984,” she recalled wistfully. “We got married the next year, and he passed away 12 years later. He made prime rib, barbecue pork spareribs and fresh seafood. He would go out in the morning on his boat and catch 300 to 400 pounds of rock cod. He would clean the fish and then serve it that night. It was the best seafood in all of Crescent City—wonderful. We also had meat from our mesquite grill, chicken parmesan, grilled Italian sausage, vegetarian dishes and the deep-fried seafood platter.”

Nico

The couple had one son, Nico, who is now 36. When Robin speaks of those days, a tinge of heartache touches her words. But also during that time, she rediscovered the love and care that her father had always had for the family.

“Dad came up from Riverside to visit us a month before Jimmie died,” Robin recalled. He had been in touch by telephone continually and made himself the father figure that a 7-year-old boy needed during a tragic time.

“After Jimmie died, Dad would come up regularly,” Robin related. “He took Nico fishing four or five times a year. Grandpa was there for Nico. He taught him how to shoot a gun and would charter a boat on the Chetco River in Oregon and they would fish together. He came up to see Nico play soccer, baseball and football, and he stepped in to take care of my son.”

When Bob wasn’t physically present, he was always in touch with Robin and Nico. He worried that Robin worked in the toughest place at Pelican Bay State Prison. It was called the “shoe,” and he once told Robin how he worried for her safety. Her response was from deep inside, a manifestation of something she learned when her father made the introduction to that Japanese gentleman years earlier: “I told my dad, ‘I show them [the inmates] respect, and they show me respect. It’s really the safest place in the prison to work.’ I told him there were two officers for every inmate and that I really had no qualms about it.”

Bob took this picture when he visited Robin and Nico not long after Jimmie Askew passed away. Nico was 10.

That soft spot in Bob’s heart came through time and again as he cared for his daughter and grandson. “He would call us and say, ‘What’s Nico doing?’ He wrote a check to pay for Nico’s braces. He was there for both of us. Being a widow raising a young boy, I could call him anytime and we would talk. I also started to do that with my mother because I wanted to reach out and make sure that my contact with my family was really strong. Dad was so far away, but I talked to him at least once a week. He became the type of dad that my son needed.”

Traits & Quirks

All the while, the legend of Bob Loveless continued to grow. Tales were told. Knives were made and sold. Stories were swapped, and the maker slowly but surely grasped his own impact on the world of knives. At the same time, his various interests, personality traits and, yes, his quirks made him more than just a knifemaking phenomenon. They made him a marvel, a celebrity and an icon.

Bob always carried a gun. “Even when I was a little girl,” Robin laughed, “I remember that he would hang his gun on the towel rack in the bathroom.” For some time, he enjoyed rabbit hunting in the desert with friends. But then another fork in the road pointed a different direction when it came to outdoor activities.

It was his eye, perspective and sense of beauty and design that set Bob Loveless apart. Few if any of his knives capture these traits better than his Big Bear fighter in sheep horn and gold engraving by Dan Wilkerson. (from the John Denton collection; Eric Eggly/PointSeven image)

Robin commented, “They took a lot of hunting trips, and one day Dad decided to stop shooting animals with a gun. He started shooting pictures with a camera. He loved photography, and I have no idea how all that started—but, gosh, I remember when I was a young kid he would take me and Allison on the weekends to camera stores. He would go in and talk for a couple of hours, and we were bored out of our minds. He would take pictures like you wouldn’t believe.”

Adding to Bob’s repertoire of activities, he was also an accomplished gunsmith. If these endeavors sound like a lot to pack into a lifetime, then there is no hesitation in labeling Loveless a true “Renaissance Man.”

Nonetheless, he had pursued his passions, probably without seeking the fame that came along with them. “I do know he never liked living in fancy houses,” Robin remarked. “But he had sports cars, and his favorite car depended on his age bracket. He would drive the back roads to the Chinese restaurant in Riverside and hit 100 miles per hour. At one time, he had three cars and two airplanes. He was a pilot with a lot of camera equipment. He probably got his pilot’s license before he moved to Riverside. I forget what year he got rid of his planes. He had crashed and it was no fault of his own. It happened when a bigger plane was landing and he got banged up. He had a limp after that.”

Keepsakes

Writes Robin: “My handsome son Nico as he is today, shaggy beard and all. As a mother, I think his eyes and smile show what a kind and good man he is. I know his grandpa would agree with me and like this picture very much.”

Today, Robin’s heart is warmed by her memories, her strong Christian faith, and the knowledge that her dad truly became a father. His life was a mosaic of love and loss, turmoil and moments of calm, fiery and icy emotion, but always with a heart for the good and for his family. She clings to at least a couple of special items that symbolize the tie that binds.

He made a banana skinner for her when she graduated from high school. “It has a stag handle with intricate engraving that he had done by a silversmith,” Robin said, “and I think the handle is at least 6 inches long with the blade about 7 inches. It is absolutely beautiful.”

A few years ago, Steve Johnson cleaned the knife up and put an edge on it. Dave Ellis took photographs of the one-of-a-kind piece, and John Denton, likely the foremost authority on Loveless knives in the world today, offered powerful words and urged her to treasure it always.

His various interests, personality traits and quirks made Bob Loveless more than just a knifemaking phenomenon—they made him a marvel, a celebrity and an icon.

The other keepsake is a photo of Bob, a joyous grin radiating from his face, as a cluster of pigeons lands on his shoulders and arms during a visit to Rome many years ago. It captures a sliver of his enjoyment of life, a glimpse into the heart and soul of just who he was. He was the gruff guy that gave generously to the local animal shelter, the edgy and matter-of-fact curmudgeon who handed substantial financial support to the UPS driver who had served faithfully in the area for years when Bob found out the guy had fallen on hard times. He was simply their quiet benefactor.

“It’s a beautiful picture and I look at it every day,” Robin offered. She ponders exactly where his genius came from and concludes that he inherited it from his mother. She admits that the spark of “genius” has not emerged from any other family member and concludes, “It was meant to be. That kind of genius is created before birth. My father was extremely gifted, and I always knew that.”

True enough, he was gifted, and in some ways that only a relative few others were even aware of.

Growing up Loveless and living within the sphere of influence her famous father created has been an adventure for Robin Askew, a thrill ride that began so many years ago, one that continues well after her dad’s departure from this Earth.

50 Years Ago In BLADE: Buster Warenski

BLADE Staff

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December 29, 2025

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BLADE Magazine Cutlery Hall-of-Fame® member Buster Warenski was the subject of an extensive six-page profile a half century ago in the January/February 1976 issue of The American Blade. He was larger than life then and would get even larger in the years to come.

Unmistakable in the low-crowned Stetson and mutton-chop sideburns he wore back then, Buster was interviewed in his new Richfield, Utah, knife shop by then editor L.V. Baker. Richard Barney, co-author with Cutlery Hall-of-Famer Bob Loveless of the landmark How To Make Knives book, was along to take photos. The lead image of Buster holding one of his latest knives at the time is about as iconic as it gets.

Done about half a decade before Buster would go on to make his reproduction of the King Tut Dagger, the story and spread reflect how consequential Buster was to the handmade knife movement of the 1970s. It covers from his early influences, including Harvey Draper and Cutlery Hall-of-Famers Gil Hibben and Bo Randall, the first two knives Warenski ever sold, some invaluable magazine publicity from Cutlery Hall-of-Famer B. R. Hughes, Buster’s first Guild Show in 1973 and his position on the Guild Board of Directors at the time of the interview.

One of Buster’s best quotes: “I think the industry is going to get bigger and better, just as our customers and collectors are going to become better educated about the knives they buy and are going to demand a better product.”

Buster was right, of course—and would be among the vanguard of makers to supply the knives for which he predicted there would one day be such great demand.

More Knife History:

Walter “Blackie” Collins: Applying The Edge To BLADE Magazine
American Knives: Legendary Designs From The Land Of The Free
Antique Switchblades: World War II And Beyond

Knife Steel After Crucible Industries LLC

Steve Shackleford

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June 23, 2025

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Knife Steel After Crucible Industries LLC

Niagara will help fill the shoes of an industry icon.

The recent demise of Crucible Industries LLC not only marked the end of a celebrated name in the manufacture of blade steels, it denoted the dawn of a new age—not only for the steels famously known by their CPM prefix, but other premium blade materials as well.

Used by Crucible and short for Crucible Particle Metallurgy*, CPM prefixed such Crucible steels as CPM S30V, CPM S35VN, CPM MagnaCut—today’s hottest CPM variant—and others among some of the most-used blade materials since Chris Reeve Knives popularized S30V on Reeve knives beginning in 2004-2005. S30V, in fact, was the first modern steel manufactured specifically for knife use. All other manufactured steels used in blades were originally made for purposes other than knives.

CPM S45VN is one of several of the old Crucible steels Niagara offers. The Defiant7 Auto Eagle has a stonewashed blade of the stainless steel and a black aluminum handle. Blade grind: flat. Weight: 4.4 ounces. Designed by Les George, it’s 4.75 inches closed. Country of origin: USA. MSRP: $285.

Crucible closed its doors earlier this year and sold most, if not all, of its assets at auction in February. So what happens to all those wonderful steels that both the factory and custom knife industries use in mass quantities?

According to Bob Shabala of Niagara Specialty Metals (NSM), NSM will do its part to have/supply most, if not all, of them, as well as other up-and-coming steels, to the custom and factory knife industries.

Among custom knifemakers especially, CPM 154 stainless is extremely popular. Craig Brosman employs it in a hollow grind and amber-dyed European red stag on his utility fixed blade. Overall length: 7.5 inches. (SharpByCoop image)

Opined Scott Devanna of steel service center SB Specialty Metals, “The majority of steel sheet in the U.S. comes out of Niagara. They’re the only [domestic mill] that can make it right now. It’s been that way for the last 25 years. They’re the only game in town.”

Erasteel And The Name Game

Erasteel, with state-of-the-art steel mills in France and Sweden, is owned by Syntagma Capital, a private equity group based in Brussels, Belgium. Erasteel acquired a part of the assets of the old Crucible Industries during the February auction, including working capital, steelmaking equipment and, perhaps most importantly, the trademarks for all the CPM steel names. A manufacturer and supplier of steels not only to the knife community but also the aerospace and other hi-tech industries, NSM had worked with Erasteel before the auction, processing millions of pounds of the Swedish mill’s steel for industrial applications.

The 4.75-inch blade of Jacob Gaetz’s Large Field Hunter is CPM 3V carbon steel cryo-treated to a Rockwell hardness of 60-61 HRC. Handles are Apocalyptic box elder burl (left) and vintage Micarta® (right). Overall lengths: 9.875 inches. (Jocelyn Frasier image)

“We’d been doing that for several years,” Shabala noted, “so we know the quality of their steel is good.”

Together with Crucible, Erasteel is the pioneer in gas-atomized metal powders and started with the process in 1969. Today, it has the largest installed capacity in the world to produce metal powders, with two large atomizers built and designed by Erasteel.

Shabala said NSM officials understood their knife customers wanted the assorted CPM steels to keep the old names to avoid confusion among knife-buying consumers.

“They didn’t want to change the names and have to educate consumers on what the new names would be and how they related to the legacy Crucible names,” he explained.

The Cold Steel Recon M1 sports a black-coated blade of MagnaCut stainless, which remains the hottest of the CPM steels used by both factory and custom segments of the sporting knife industry. Handle G-10. Lock: Atlas Lock. Weight: 5.2 ounces. Blade and closed lengths: 4 and 5.5 inches. Country of origin: Italy. MSRP: $309.99.

Meanwhile, the two companies reached an agreement where if NSM buys the steels exclusively from Erasteel, NSM can use the original names too, including S30V, S35VN, S45VN, MagnaCut, S110V, 3V and CPM 154. NSM and its customers can still use the full designation of CPM S30V, CPM S35VN and so on, though the customers can omit the CPM if they so choose.

“The reason we’re keeping the CPM 154 name is because everybody knows that it’s the powder metallurgy version of 154CM, so we want to keep that designation alive so people will know what’s going on there,” Shabala noted.

There will be a couple of exceptions. The steels formerly known as CPM Cruwear and CPM S90V will be renamed NSMwear and NSM 90PM, respectively.

Niagara is both a manufacturer and distributor, not only of knife steel but also steel for the aerospace and other industries. It is employee owned and employs 41. (NSM image)

“Erasteel already had an agreement with another distributor to buy Cruwear exclusively, so we worked out a deal with them where we can buy the steel, we just can’t use the name,” Shabala explained. “It’s on us to educate people and let them know they can still get CPM Cruwear, it’s just a different name.”

As for CPM S90V, NSM already had Carpenter Technology’s version of it in stock and wanted to rebrand it so that it’s not sole-sourced to one mill. By renaming it NSM 90PM, “hopefully people will understand that it’s coming from us,” Bob said.

Steel Tariffs

Concerning steel supplies in stock, Shabala indicated NSM officials had been aware of Crucible’s coming demise, and in January 2024 began ramping up purchases to build inventory for any future supply disruptions.

Dennis Friedly opts for CPM 154 stainless blade steel and a mammoth tooth handle for his Art Knife Invitational fighter. The copious engraving is by Ray Cover Jr. Overall length: 13 inches. (SharpByCoop image)

“We started placing orders with Carpenter and Erasteel in September 2024, though not knowing Erasteel would be the eventual owner of the CPM trademarks,” Shabala noted. “The steel we bought in September is starting to arrive. There will be some disruptions in MagnaCut and CPM 154, but everything else we still have a decent amount of and there should be no disruptions.”

In case you hadn’t heard, President Trump has instituted tariffs on most countries, including France and Sweden. At press time, the European tariff was 25 percent.

“Everything we buy from Erasteel as it stands right now is subject to a 25 percent tariff,” Shabala said. “Even the steel we buy from Carpenter, the powder for it is atomized in Sweden, so that’s subject to at least a 10 percent tariff.”

Another concern is whether knife companies can continue to mark their knives built with NSM steel “Made in the U.S.A.” Bob said he is up front with his customers, telling them that Erasteel will be supplying a “good chunk of our CPM alloys,” though it’s all hot rolled at NSM.

The question becomes if the raw materials are imported but don’t officially become a steel until they’re hot isostatic pressed, does that make the steel American made or imported? He indicated it will be up to his customers’ lawyers to hash out what the customers can and can’t do concerning U.S.A. markings on their knives.

NSM Innovaions

What’s on the horizon at NSM? One thing is a new grade developed by steel guru Larrin Thomas. Called Magnamax, it won’t be widely available until the end of the year. Since NSM has both patented and trademarked Magnamax, it can have it made by any mill it wants, and had it on order with both Erasteel and Carpenter at press time.

Meanwhile, along with Erasteel, Bob had high praise for the steel being made by Carpenter.

“We’re getting powder now that is atomized in a vacuum furnace. It’s a step forward in quality. We hardly ever had an issue with any CPM product from Crucible,” he qualified, “but I think Erasteel’s and Carpenter’s steel has a finer grain size. It’s a little microscopically cleaner than what we were getting before, so it really is an opportunity to provide a better product.”

As Shabala noted, Carpenter has made lots of cutlery steel, and NSM has processed a huge amount of it, hot rolling it into sheets and sending it back to Carpenter’s warehouse for sale to various customers. One of Carpenter’s best-known steels is CTS XHP stainless.

“It’s a grade that customers really like,” Shabala said, adding that NSM had over 20 tons of it and was in the process of preparing to make a big marketing push on it at press time.

Having steel manufactured in the USA remains a big selling point with many of NSM’s customers, so the company remains on the lookout for new melt sources, one of which is Prime Metals & Alloys (PMA) of Homer City, Pennsylvania. A manufacturer and supplier of a wide range of steels for assorted hi-tech and other uses, PMA was in the process of making steel for NSM at press time, which Shabala seemed to think holds great promise.

Larrin Thomas, metallurgist and knife writer

“We should receive it in a couple of months, but if it works out it’s going to be an ESR version of stainless steel that we’ve always supplied, so it should be a noticeably better product than what our customers were used to before,” he said. “It’s really a good find for us to be able to get a higher-quality steel with a shorter lead time, so we’re really excited about that.”

ESR stands for Electro-Slag Remelting, a process that results in a very clean steel devoid of contaminants.

“In a traditional melting process, you heat the steel up, get it in a molten state, pour it in an ingot and that’s it,” and later forge and finish it out, he explained. “With ESR you take that ingot and you remelt it again and all the slag and contaminants float to the top, and they’re skimmed off. What remains in the new ingot is a cleaner version of the original.”

Shabala added that two different grades of NSM stainless steels that had always been air melted will now be ESR melted.

NSM’s Role

People often misunderstand a company’s role in any endeavor, and Shabala said that seems to be the case with NSM.

“Larrin Thomas was concerned that people had the misconception that NSM is just a distributor, that we just got sheets from Crucible and resold them,” he observed. “He said we should emphasize the fact that we’re a lot more than a distributor, we’re a manufacturer, we buy slabs of steel, we process it into the final dimensions and ship it. Cutlery is a big part of what we do. We do a lot with the aerospace industry, so we know a lot about quality standards.”

NSM is 100 percent employee-owned, so all 41 employees in its mill in Akron, New York, just outside Buffalo, own a piece of the company.

“Everyone here has a vested interest in ensuring that we’re successful and doing everything we can to put out a good product,” Shabala said.

A last point of emphasis Bob made was that just because Crucible went out of business doesn’t mean NSM is going out of business—in fact, far from it.

“We’re very financially sound. We just put out a $7 million upgrade in our sheet mill, we’re rolling out finished product, it’s the biggest expansion we’ve ever done and we’re getting ready to expand our grinding and laser-cutting capability,” he noted. “We’re really, really in good shape.”

*Editor’s Note: For more on the particle metallurgy process, visit Knife Steel Nerd’s post on powder metallurgy.

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Collaboration Knives: How Do They Come Together?

Mike Haskew

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April 17, 2025

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Collaboration Knives: How Do They Come Together?

Top makers explain how they collaborate with knife companies.

The old cliché of the win-win holds a real grain of truth. Any successful partnership must be mutually beneficial, and in the knife industry the phenomenon of the collaboration has come to exemplify the upside of working together.

Years ago, a veteran custom knifemaker described his relationship with a major manufacturer as serving as the company’s research and development department. Such a description is accurate in that the manufacturer often relies on the custom maker for new design inspiration, from good looks to materials and mechanics. The collaboration has emerged in the last 35 years or so as an outstanding means of bringing innovation to the public and putting first-rate knives in the hands of the mass market.

The ins and outs, nuts and bolts, and give and take of the collaboration process raise questions for makers interested in striking deals of their own. A few comments from makers who have achieved great success on the collaboration frontier offer helpful insights.

“It goes both ways,” observed BLADE Magazine Cutlery Hall-of-Fame® member Bob Terzuola, who indicated he completed his firstfactory collaboration with fellow Cutlery Hall-of-Famer Sal Glesser and the design team at Spyderco in 1989. “You can go to the company or the company can come to you depending on your notoriety. If you are just starting out, you probably have to go to the company.”

On the business side of the ledger, Suzi Terzuola takes the lead and has demonstrated proficiency in making the deal work for everyone involved. Her flair for negotiation and finding the right blend of maker-manufacturer cooperation has been demonstrated through the years as Bob has worked not only with Spyderco but also the old Camillus, Boker, Fox, Pro-Tech, Tactile Knife Co. and others.

BLADE Magazine Cutlery Hall-of-Fame® member Bob Terzuola has done collaborations with many companies, including the Bob Terzuola ATCF Auto Ultimate from Pro-Tech, the BLADE Magazine 2022 Investor/Collector Knife Of The Year®. (Eric Eggly/PointSeven knife image)

“I was raised by parents with their own successful businesses,” Suzi observed, “and I saw Bob receiving passive income from Spyderco and Camillus, and of course passive income is how you survive after having only so many years to make knives. I began looking at the knife designs Bob had and tried to match the design to the company. Bob has patents lining the walls, and when he lends his name to a knife he should receive a signing bonus and a bonus against the royalties.”

In return for his design skill and the use of his name in promotions, Bob has certainly established himself as a leader among successful custom collaborators. His contribution to a company’s success has enhanced his reputation of excellence across the industry, while Suzi has forged a business posture that results in security for the future.

Knife Collaboration Contracts

The contract is the key component of a collaborative deal, and depending on the circumstances everything is negotiable. Although early agreements made among friends were sometimes done on a handshake, it has become a “best practice” to hammer out the terms of the collaboration on paper, invest in an attorney’s review, and formally memorialize the discussions. Standard royalties run roughly 5 percent of the price at which the company sells the knife.

The Terzuolas include a period of time in which the company is allowed to produce the knife; the period may be extended at maturity with the agreement of both parties. Further, there may be a requirement that the company produces a certain number of knives in a given time period, also renewable. Restrictions on wholesale pricing or discounts that affect royalties may also be negotiated.

For those considering a foray into collaborations, Bob and Suzi offer some advice: “If you’re a new maker, you shouldn’t just walk up to [the company’s] booth at a show. Make an appointment to see them because they are at the show to deal with customers. Approach a company with one or more finished designs. They want a package presented to them, a prototype or existing model, something they can hold in their hands, and in the case of a prototype it’s good to have as many innovations and design creations as you can—anything that will set the knife apart from other potential deals out there.”

Lucas Burnley has designed several iterations of his Kwaiken for Boker, including the Kwaiken Auto Frazetta.

Suzi added that a higher profile in the industry can drive success.

“We are the R&D for a knife company,” she noted, “and when you approach them for a collaboration your social media resumé is very important.”

Making custom knives since 1994, Darriel Caston has concluded collaborations with numerous companies, including CRKT, Spyderco, Boker, V Nives, Kansept Knives and more.

“I’m prolific when it comes to designs,” he affirmed. “There are probably about 300 that I will never get to making. I’m an engineer by trade and my 3D drawings are almost ready for production, and that helps with the deals. They ask for STEP files [standardized 3D model data files for CAD and 3D printing] that can go right into machining. Sometimes we work with a prototype, and sometimes we work with a knife that I have been doing for quite a while.”

According to Darriel, one significant element of the collaboration is the retention of the rights to the design.

“Anybody who wants to do a collaboration must put footprints in the sand, get their work out there and show a story,” custom knifemaker Darriel Caston observed. One of his latest designs for CRKT is the blacked-out MinimalX framelock folder, an evolution of a knife originally made for SpaceX to commemorate a rocket launch.

“You never want to give up your design,” he warned. “I would license the design to the company usually up to four or five years, and the average is three years. After that, you can discuss if you want to continue if the relationship has been good for both parties. License the design and never sell it. If a company buys the design, then they own it forever. If it became their best seller, I could never make the knife again, and I would have to stay away from anything that looks like it.”

For Caston, every deal starts with a friendly conversation. As progress is made, attorneys draw up the contract. He sees the process as straightforward, whether dealing with an American manufacturer or a company headquartered in a foreign country.

“I find the knife community for the most part to be very honorable,” he commented. “I haven’t run into any bad juju. When you want to do a collaboration, I tell people they need to have a name and a track record of good designs with people following them on social media and stuff.”

Since his first collaboration—with Spyderco in 2015—Darriel can speak with confidence regarding the potential for success.

“It would be rare for someone to take a design to a company without a history or a footprint there. They look for your story,” he noted. “Anybody who wants to do a collaboration must put footprints in the sand, get their work out there and show a story. Then it becomes easier.”

Getting A Collab Off The Ground

Darriel Caston has concluded collaborations with several companies. “I’m prolific when it comes to designs,” he affirmed. “There are probably about 300 that I will never get to making.” Now discontinued, the Squarehead was one of his early collaborations with Spyderco.

Custom maker/U.S. Marine Corps veteran Les George found early collaboration success at the SHOT Show some years back. He approached Pro-Tech a decade ago, and the association has continued since then.

“I had just finished my first batch of VECP [Value Engineering Change Proposal] mid-tech knives,” he remembered, “and I thought it would be cool to see Pro-Tech make the knife in an automatic. So, I did the CAD work to change the knife to an automatic and walked up to their booth at the SHOT Show. I asked to speak to the owner, and Dave Wattenberg came over and shook my hand. I drew a big breath and told him, ‘My name is Les George and I am a knifemaker and I have a design I think would be a great knife for you to make as an auto and I already have the CAD done would you like to see it?’ I said that all as one sentence in one breath!”

Still, a pragmatic view of the collaboration landscape demands preparation and planning. A so-called “cold call” may not meet with success.

“It depends on the company whether a direct approach will work or not,” George conceded. “Don’t walk up to a company at the BLADE Show and tell them you’re a hot maker and they should pay you to make one of your designs. Instead, walk up, introduce yourself, and show them with CAD pictures, a 3D printed model, or a real knife, and tell them why you think it would be awesome to work with them on a production project.”

When it comes to her husband Bob’s collaborations, Suzi Terzuola takes the lead and has demonstrated proficiency in making the deal work for everyone involved. An example of several overseas Terzuola collaborations is the Clap from Italy’s Maniago Knife Makers.

Les sees the components of a particular collaboration deal varying. Of course, some of the structure depends on the negotiating skills of the parties. Commonly, the compensation may revolve around a percentage of dealer or distributor pricing on each unit, and particular deals may extend as long as each party is pleased with the progress.

“Collaborations should run as long as they are profitable,” Les remarked. “Companies don’t generally kill a successful project unless there is a capacity constraint issue or something else outside hindering it. Both parties can end the deal at any time with some allowances for production to finish with the things they have in progress already. Every contract I have ever seen gives one company the rights to exclusively make a particular model. My contracts have a provision that I can make as many customs of my models as I want. In the end, it would be counterproductive to license the same model to multiple companies. The maker would be competing with himself at that point, and it’s not helping the companies.”

Priming The Pump

Award-winning maker Lucas Burnley appreciates the help of friends in establishing a firm footing for collaboration.

“In general, I’m a big fan of pulling on my network,” he said. “If you have someone you can reach out to for an introduction, that’s always a strong move. If you don’t have someone to make an introduction, you might be able to ask around and at least figure out who you need to talk to. Regardless of how you get your foot in the door, I highly recommend going to a knife show and trying to set up a meeting in person.

“A design is only one part of a collaboration,” he continued, “so bring your ‘A’ game and think about what other value you can provide for the company. I was introduced to Boker by Jens Anso and Jesper Voxnaes, and Ken Onion put in a good word for me with Columbia River Knife & Tool. I’ll be forever grateful for those introductions and the relationships behind them. I’ve been able to pay it forward a few times, and hopefully I’ll be able to do it many more times in the years to come.”

Les George’s V14 dagger design for Spartan Blades was the BLADE Magazine 2014 Investor/Collector Knife Of The Year®.

In Burnley’s experience, contracts provide compensation most often in the form of monthly or quarterly royalties based on a percentage of sales. One-time lump sum payments are also seen; however, the income generated depends on the goals of the two parties involved.

“I want my designs to run until my grandkids are old enough to thank me for my good decisions,” he laughed. “If a model is selling, I want it to keep selling. On the flip side, I will routinely ask what models we can kill if they aren’t pulling their weight.

“One caveat here is that if a design is still in production, I want to get paid for it,” he concluded. “Some companies will offer a contract for a set period of time but have the option of continuing to produce the model. I view this as somewhat akin to a one-time payout. If it works for you great; just make sure you are paying attention.”

George specifically limits the number of companies he works with in order to give the relationships the priority he believes they deserve. Consistency, he says, is huge. Real, solid collaborations are not “get-rich-quick schemes.” He remembers getting his first collaboration check in 2014 totaling a whopping $6.

“A design is only one part of a collaboration,” Lucas Burnley observed, “so bring your ‘A’ game and think about what other value you can provide for the company.” His Tuna Compact framelock design for CRKT is one of his latest collaborations. “A design is only one part of a collaboration,” Lucas Burnley observed, “so bring your ‘A’ game and think about what other value you can provide for the company.” His Tuna Compact framelock design for CRKT is one of his latest collaborations.

Times change—and checks change with good business practices, commitment, follow through, and most of all a process from contract to design and product that proves profitable for everyone.

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ABS Lose Two Long-Time Leaders In Passing Of Steve Dunn & Hanford Miller

BLADE Staff

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June 26, 2024

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ABS Lose Two Long-Time Leaders In Passing Of Steve Dunn & Hanford Miller

Dunn and Miller left lasting impressions on ABS, students and custom knifemaking.

The American Bladesmith Society lost two of its finest leaders and bladesmithing instructors recently with the passing of ABS master smiths Steve Dunn and Hanford J. Miller.

Steve Dunn

Steve died on May 21. He was 68. Outgoing chairman of the ABS, he was a longtime Society member, receiving his master smith stamp in 1994 before going on to serve on the ABS board of directors and eventually being elected chairman.

“He was a craftsman of the highest level, as evident in the exceptional blades he made, and unsurpassed as an engraver, which he passed on to so many with his teaching,” americanbladesmith.org reported.

Many in the ABS were still recovering from the shock of the news as BLADE® was going to press, ABS master smith Billy Bob Sowell among them.

“I was stunned,” he wrote. “Steve was one of my judges for my master smith stamp. I took his engraving class and his folder class. I’ll miss him.”

According to his bio on the ABS website, Steve began making knives as a hobby in 1988. In 1990 he enrolled in the basic forging class at the Bill Moran School of Bladesmithing, where he started forging damascus. After achieving master smith, it wasn’t long before he began teaching at the Moran School. In 2003 he was selected to serve on the Society’s board of directors.

A strong believer in sole authorship of his knives, he enrolled in a basic engraving class at GRS Tools in 2002. He later studied with Chris DeCamillus on Bulino style engraving and was asked to be an instructor at the GRS school in 2005.

Hanford Dunn

Hanford passed away on March 25. He sold his first knife in 1968. He made knives in the Moran style, including bowies, fighters, camp knives and other large fixed blades, and also period pieces such as reproductions of the cinquedea. His mark was his initials or name within a bowie logo.

In addition to being an outstanding maker of forged knives, Hanford served on the ABS board of directors as treasurer for many years. According to americanbladesmith.org, he was best of friends with BLADE Magazine Cutlery Hall-of-Fame® member Bill Moran, with the pair being “like two peas in a pod.”

They first met in 1974 in Bill’s shop. Hanford read about Bill in a library book about knives and realized he was only a short drive away from Hanford’s home in Randallstown, Maryland.

“Bill was a great mentor,” the site observed, “and their friendship lasted long after Hanford moved to Colorado in 1976.”

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