NEW FIRST HAND LOOK AT HOW KNIFE STEEL IS MADE

what is up guys tc here with smokey mountain knife works snkw.com and behind me this is crucible industries so we made the trip up here to new york we are showing you some behind-the-scenes information trying to arm you with a little more knowledge of where your blade steel comes from and this is it right here we're gonna give you a shot at that now let's light it up [Music] all right guys as you can see in this video we are visiting uh crucible industries and niagara specialty metals um and what we want to do and the point of this video and the point of us traveling there is to show you what goes into making this blade steel because we get a lot of questions and our biggest questions revolve around why this steel is so expensive when it's put into knives um and there's a reason for that uh i guess the best analogy and i just came up with this in my head um people say all the time you know well 448 or 440c works just fine or you know i know somebody who made a knife out of a car spring leaf spring you know and it cuts just fine yes it absolutely does um a car from the 1940s or 1950s as long as it's kept up runs great and it's a lot of fun and it works great but there are still things that technology has improved on and that can make these blades very useful in harsh conditions whether you're using your knife a lot and you need uh edge retention or you want something that's easier to sharpen or you want something that's more corrosion resistant well with the cpm stuff you're getting something that's more structurally sound absolutely yeah and so we're showing you this process um not just to show you um how the steel is made but also to give you an idea and a perspective of why it costs what it does because it goes through a lot of hands it goes through a very lengthy process in addition to that what you're not going to see in this video is the science behind it and how long this stuff took to develop um so let's let's get right into it and see uh see how this deal is made so starting off we we are at crucible in uh syracuse new york and uh basically you're seeing the 60 i believe the 60 acre plant that they have so really this is us walking through all of these warehouses and because we came in the front and had to walk all the way to the back basically now these what you're seeing right here are ingots of steel that they start off with um and they that they pour up and and create um now we will go through the process of um how specifically their cpm steals are made um and again not giving away any secrets because we can't one two we didn't get to see the secret stuff because this stuff is proprietary and this stuff is is very specialized each company that makes these powdered steels and this powder metal there's just some m4 has their own uh has their own process so it was really interesting seeing all these big hunks of steel laying around here's the scrap metal at this point what they do this is how they put together um the different formulas of steel so that everything is weighted out and they put their iron in first and then they wait out based on how much that iron weight of iron that they've got in there they they measure out by weight how much of each individual element whether it's uh molybdenum uh vanadium chromium and they put those individual elements in with the iron and then it all gets poured up into a uh melting vat yeah and that right there it is to the right you can see they take the materials they put it in this uh i don't know what you would call that furnace thing but yeah it's a vat and here so i want to pause it right here and uh this is very important so they do this numerous times throughout the process and what they're doing right here is they're taking samples of um this all these elements that they've melted together they're taking taking samples to have them tested and they are tested immediately and they do this numerous times throughout the process and that is for quality control purposes and also to make sure that each batch of steel that they're making is is perfect is is free from any imperfections because you know they're not just making this stuff for cutlery they're making this for a lot of different industries whether it's aerospace um whether it's a big injection molded machinery so it's very important and and the testing process is extensive to make sure that each batch that comes out is as perfect as they can get it so and they take uh little test tube vials um of this steel they send it to be tested it is tested immediately and they come back whether they need to make uh slight modifications this is a fun part right here yeah this is what they're pouring into the spout that basically will end up spraying making the uh making the part the particle metal yeah so and that's that's part of the specialized process and here you can see this those little sparks aren't really sparks those are the powder being made yeah so everything is combined and melted together and then um it's basically formed into a powder through a special process that they have um and then um here you can see some of the powder and it's it's really really cool looking so that's that's some of the powder that ends up getting uh sifted if you will and that's before it's re-melted back down into a big ingot so this is the sifting process and it goes through this process for a really long time and this gets out any of the larger pieces the imperfections and then at that point after it's sifted the powder is taken to be hipped um and we've talked about that uh in previous videos uh specifically in the s35vn video um we've talked about it uh it's called a hipping or uh hot isostatic pressing um and essentially the powder is then put um into a high heat circumstance um it depends on the specific uh steel they're making is what denotes you know what temperature they put it at and then pressed somewhere in the neighborhood and we don't we don't know exactly because that's part of their process but um somewhere in the neighborhood of 45 000 psi somewhere like that intense pressures intense heat and then it is all pressed together and what that does is it takes out any voids in the steel and taking a powder pressing it and heating it like that makes it a much more dense product and makes it a much stronger product and that's what we were talking about earlier is uh making it a much more structurally sound product um and and that's part of the process of of why this uh is so expensive um so now here they've taken it after hipping and um this is a bar i don't remember exactly what this one was but now they're forming it into a round slab of steel with this giant press and this was really really cool to get to see the scale of just everything here was massive oh yeah and very it's it's huge um and you'll you'll see here in just a second when this guy goes to uh goes to mike and measure um you can see just how big all this machinery is and it's fascinating and i'm here to tell you that things glowing you don't understand how hot that is that whole area was it felt like a hundred blazing or more and that little process right there from what i understand with the flame on it was just to kind of keep things dry from moisture gathering up if you guys were wondering what that was about uh i'm gonna go back real quick too to that shot uh this is what everything looks like you'll you're about to see the process but we don't tell you what this is it's not going to make any sense but this is a casing that goes around uh what were they calling these well that that on the outside is the well the whole slab what are they calling that cylinder thing they had some kind of name for it anyways that casing around it is just kind of what they use some shape and format without messing up the actual inside integrity um but they have this machine that will mill off that slag on the outside there um and makes pretty colors i thought that that was really cool it shows you how hot that it actually is from shaving the excess material off and you can see it right there shaves off all the outside imperfections there and right here you can tell it's having a beautiful baby boy yes absolutely we got to see each other up there um what they're doing is uh ultrasonic testing um that's another part and pause it just for a second there that is another part of the testing process to make sure that uh that this steel is is as perfect as they can get it so you know they go through and test it and then when they ultrasonic test it here that's another part of the process of making sure that there's no cracks there's no voids within the steel that you can't see deep inside again another hand that it touches making sure that it is as perfect as it can be and that's really important and and from there they it just depends on what you're getting you might get the cylinder you might get a flat slab right these flat slabs you know at crucible this is all we could get there i know it's not a huge amount of footage we got about five minutes of b-roll clips that we showed we're about to head to niagara in the next section but going to niagara this is how niagara receives right receives it from crucible and niagara especially metals is the one that really is what does what we know from now yeah and so crucible um then sends it to niagara who puts in the orders niagara does the finishing and shipping basically finishing and just distribution and here you can see more of those slabs sitting outside we asked them they were worried about anybody ever stealing these and they said they can actually lift it up and get it in their truck and take it and yeah it was worth them having it and the cool thing is when when you see these slabs on their yard um they've got numbers on the end of them and some of the numbers are you know what you'll recognize as you know m4 or uh 3v or 440 s35vn or d2 now here is where it all starts yeah niagara the um well it doesn't start with this roller but it starts in this room yeah where uh they'll typically cut off somewhere around a 200 pound block um with these band saws here the part that i found interesting is like right here how how many days or how much time did he say it takes to just cut through it takes a couple of days to cut through down one of these slabs and it's important because if they did it too fast it would mess the heat treats up on it yeah and it would also mess up um it wouldn't cut straight you guys want to know why these knives are expensive it takes a lot of as you can see we've not even got to the like yeah we're still at a slab here nothing's been heat treated nothing's been finished nothing's even been rolled out yet and it's already taken weeks to get it to this point and that's not even including the research and development going into the actual science um and the chemical makeup of this steel so um it takes a couple of days to saw through to make sure that they've got a good solid slab and it's straight this whole room is dedicated to just cutting these slabs because they have to have them on an automatic system because i mean you can't just pay somebody to sit there and watch it watch it cut for 24 hours a day yeah yeah so this was their big machine that they had they were proud of and then once they get it cut they put them in these ovens and and like i said before this is about a 200 pound slab somewhere in there um just that piece yeah and then they'll take it and then they spray it off get all the gunk off of it clean it up i was i was just more amazed at how fast they actually work yeah and that's part of the process too is you have to work quickly at this point because if you lose the heat in the steel then you lose the ability to form it the way you need to so this is a process that's called hot rolling you some of you might have heard of hot roll or cold roll steel this is hot rolling with these press rollers here and uh these guys are sending it uh back and forth through these rollers um to flatten out uh these slabs into sheet uh they're rolling it into sheet which is what will eventually um end up being distributed in various forms um didn't he say there was a six-man crew that that usually runs this whole process yeah that's all that was there when we were there too yeah so um also i've i've cut out a lot of things uh this takes multiple passes yeah it takes a lot of passes don't get confused thinking it happened this quick i've edited this a lot just to kind of help save we're not gonna we're not gonna make you sit here and watch uh them hot rolling this steel for 30 minutes or an hour um so eventually it comes out like this then they take it over to be formed it will cool gradually this machine straightens it out yep make sure that it's nice and flat and here he's measuring it as he goes down he's hitting measure marks um on it and now they'll take it over to a nice press break um which will break it off into certain length sheets that he just measured out so the forklift takes it over he hits those measure marks and then you'll see it drop off the sheet of steel on the back side there and those are specific size sheets that they're looking for at that point we're getting a little bit closer now we're still not done with what they're doing with these then they take them over and they have them uh run through again to make sure that they get the specific thickness of the sheets that they need so when people order these sheets they order them at a very specific thickness uh whether it's you know you know so many down to the thousands of an inch um just look how fast oh yeah and again you have to work fast when you're dealing with something that's hot like this because if you don't you lose the heat you lose the ability to form it correctly and you could end up with a crack um they're keeping them in these furnaces to keep them hot um then after they remember we thought all this stuff was automated and we found out they just kind of had like their own garage door open yes they were basically garage door openers yeah um so uh this is just another one shot of those so that was the roller that they were um yeah and right here just a part where they're measuring it out because even once it's flattened out again it's going to go in an oven one more time yeah and be annealed this is the annealer right here um and that's a process that takes a couple days because that was a that was a wednesday and he said it would be done on a monday yeah so so those will be annealed over the weekend so it takes about five days um that process does there's the world's strongest magnet right there yeah that was that was impressive and right here they're kind of from what i understand they were cleaning and making getting everything ready to be used by the water jet here yep and this is where it gets very specific so some customers order sheets some customers actually order blade blanks and you'll see the blade and these are the blade blanks that are ordered from you know different knife manufacturers i don't know who that one was from specifically but these are blade blanks that are cut out of those sheets some manufacturers request hole sheets and they cut the blade blanks out themselves and they're just there's where they end up in their scrap and then that scrap all gets recycled back i'm pretty sure a lot of it gets sent right back to crucible crucible yeah so and then right here we were just interviewing with bob shabala and uh the sound was awful and i apologize for that but uh to go ahead and explain why he's kind of talk he's just really explaining the whole process here of everything that they do in a day yeah um and so we were really talking here uh kind of to the point that we've already made about how many hands this process takes how long it takes um and how intricate the process is and how delicate the process is um he's got right around 30 between 30 and 40 people that work full-time here and that's how and he says you know every every hand ends up touching yeah every hand that works for this company between 30 and 40 people um ends up touching each piece of steel uh that comes through there um and you know it takes about uh i want to say he said right now processing time six seven weeks yeah somewhere around six to eight weeks um processing time from the time they get uh the order and get the slab in to when it's processed when it's finished and ready to be shipped out to the manufacturer and again with this process too it's important to note that this stuff was not originally intended or originally made for the cutlery market now there are some steels that they're like hey i wonder what would happen if you added this much molybdenum and sometimes those conversations happen at a baseball game which is really cool uh really interesting little factoid there um no names mentioned but uh really cool how that comes about and they're like i wonder what would happen if you added this here and that there and then they rename it and it ends up becoming you know a thing and a really cool new knife steal but a majority of this stuff in the this whole process uh was not originally intended for the cutlery market and the cutlery market is a insanely small percentage a lot of this goes to more machines it goes to big machinery injection molded plastic machines and the aerospace industry and that's that's another thing that that we were talking about with bob here is the business that they do with aerospace and with the government as far as some of the stuff that they do goes to fighter jets i don't remember the specific manufacturer we talked about that boeing and boeing is also one of them but they make a lot of product that goes into the defense industry as well as aerospace industry as well as um injection molded plastic machines and manufacturing that kind of thing because though all those industries need the same qualities they need something that's going to be extremely hard extremely wear resistant and extremely corrosion resistant so they need the same things that the cutlery market is looking for but i'm here to tell you they need a lot more of it so the cutlery market really is a a small portion and a small percentage and so if you think about it from a business standpoint what they do for the cutlery market uh it is very specialized and and kind of difficult to be honest with you when you when you look at making something that specific um for that small of a group of uh manufacturers um it it makes the whole process even more difficult and take a longer period of time so again we're looking at another few weeks and another number of people and you know that's what business is all about that these people have mouths to feed they have families well that was one thing too that was really interesting and to kind of wrap this up was you know they care about their product because and niagara each employee owns a piece of the company yes and so uh the harder they work the more money they they earn the the better quality stuff they put out the more it ends up coming back to benefit them in the end so you know that each an individual person there cares just about as much about this product as the person receiving it yeah and that was another thing that we really we're able to witness going there is is just the care that it takes these guys were huge too they were they were massive they don't have to go to a gym and work out because they're tossing around 200 pound slabs of steel like it's nothing and um they take a lot of pride in what they do and it was it was very nice to see and uh aw inspiring it really was but yeah we just want to thank everybody that invited us yeah um we want to thank chris nally um for actually noticing our video on s35vn um really thankful for that uh john with crucible um bob with crucible uh you guys were fantastic and uh your hospitality was phenomenal and also bob shabala can't thank you enough um for your hospitality and showing us around showing us the process buffalo is a beautiful place buffalo's wonderful and so is syracuse and we had an absolute blast and uh it was a lot of fun we're looking forward to seeing you guys again at blade show coming up very soon very soon um and we just want to thank you guys so much make sure you get there early i hear we're giving out some swag bags and yeah it's going to be yeah it's going to be some really cool stuff so um be sure to join us at blade show if you can't stay tuned to the channel because we are going to be posting daily while we're there pictures and video of our experience at blade show this year so maybe even going live you know how much i love lives [Laughter] all right guys that's it for us thank you guys so much again this has been tc as always with isaac here at smokey mountain life works and remember if it cuts we carry it hey what's up turtles

Channel: Smoky Mountain Knife Works

Views: 48,862

Keywords: SMKW, SMKWarmy, SMKW Army, Smoky Mountain Knife Works, Knife, Knives, Benchmade, spyderco, olamic, CPMS35VN, S35VN, CPM 20CV, CPM M4, CPM, CPM 154, CPM S30V, CPM S90V, CPM 3v, CPM S110V, CPM Rex 45, CPM Cru-Wear, Kizer, Kansept, Civivi, WE Knives, Esee, Bark River, Medford, Microtech, Cold Steel, Forging, knifemaking, knife making, blade steel, crucible, industries, kershaw, Zero Tolerance, Hogue, Buck

Id: Fyp8-rZI_3I

Length: 25min 18sec (1518 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 02 2021