Vanadis 4 kitchen knife

[Bruno]

This is my first knife in Uddeholm Vanadis 4 Extra Superclean. 1.4%C, 4.7%Cr, 3.5%Mo, 4.7%V. It was a learning experience. Forging it was brutal. Grinding was brutal. HT and cryo were done elsewhere because I lack the tools for high alloy steel. Normally I hand polish my knives but in this case that was not an option. I should have done everything before HT but didn't so I learned something. Still, the machine finish looks decent enough. The handle is stabilized fossil bone and buffalo horn. It has a truly wicked edge.

I have to say I am thankful to the folks at Uddeholm who deal with me directly and allow me to purchase small amounts of steel despite me being so small a customer that I probably cost them money. I did get a call from their technical rep when I first placed an order to see what was going on because my entire order fit in a shoebox instead of a shipping crate

[Bill31521]

Very cool. Diamond for the sharpening?

[Bruno]

No i used a 120 grit ceramic belt and then a shapton 1000 grit superstone

[spazola]

That is a sexy knife, the bolster and general shape rock. I bet it holds an edge just about indefinitely.

[spazola]

I am sure you are listed as " that crazy Belgian guy" in Uddelholm's contacts

[onimaru55]

Looks like your hard work paid off with a beauty.
I imagine it's a super tough steel. Could it break up a chicken & fish like a Deba with minor damage from bones or would you say it's strictly a slicer ?

[Bruno]

I am sure you are listed as " that crazy Belgian guy" in Uddelholm's contacts

That just may be. First time I placed an order I was called by different people just to figure out what was going on because I ordered 4 pieces (Elmax, Vandis 4, Vanadis 8, Vanax) that were between 4 and 8 inches, and either 35mm round stock or 3/4 thick and 2" wide. Most of their customers order by truck size. Still those 4 little pieces were about 700 USD together.

Aside from the cost: There is a reason you don't see knives like this in Vanadis steel with bolsters like that. Because it means you have to start with 3/4 thick stock. And this particular steel (Vanadis 4) has almost 4% molybdenum, chromium and Vanadium each. Moving it requires hydraulics and lots of patience. That steel with this design doesn't make any sense from an 'economy of effort' pov but I've made this design a number of times and imo that is just how my kitchen knives should be.

A phrase I sometimes like to use is 'too crazy / stupid to know when to quit'. So yeah 'Crazy Belgian guy' is a label I'd wear with pride

[Bruno]

Looks like your hard work paid off with a beauty.
I imagine it's a super tough steel. Could it break up a chicken & fish like a Deba with minor damage from bones or would you say it's strictly a slicer ?

When talking about such tests there is always the tradeoff between 'how thin do I want it to be for slicing vs how much abuse is it going to see. But given the few careful tests that I did, I fully expect you could hack a chick carcass to pulp or chop a T bone without seeing any damage on the edge at all.

That's something I would like to find out. Not with this one obviously because tomorrow it will go to its new owner, but I am going to make one for myself and see just how much abuse it can take and one of the tests I want to do is see if I can use it with a hammer to shear off a 3/8" bolt. Because honestly that is the level I expect from the datasheets.

[onimaru55]

Noice ! In essence one knife to rule them all

When the time comes please update with your test results.