J
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jwhf said:
It means Scientific Precision Tempering - the edge is left much harder than the rest of the knife and takes a wickedly sharp, durable edge. The more I use this knife, the more I like it
There's a couple of threads over on British Blades discussing this knife in detail
BELOW IS A COPY OF WHATS BEEN SAID AT BRITISH BLADES IS SHOULD EXPLAIN
I ordered my Kellam knives Wolverine earlier this week (numbered version) & was sceptical of the so called "Scientifically Tempered Blade" with it's very clear "temper line". Well, I received my Wolverine this morning, & first inpressions (this is primarily a technical review) did nothing to allay my suspicions, whilst clearly a very competently assembled & finished knife, it still looked like a laminate blade to me. Sooo, I measured the width of the blade at the junction of the temper line & this proved inconclusive due to the forged aspect (clearly this knife had been forged to shape) I then ground the spine & applied some etchant to it in order to expose the laminate, this proved nothing, as I was unable to distinguish any lamination (it's possible that the Rc of the two steels were the same at this point, though unlikely) at this point I contacted Stuart again (our first contact since ordering) to inform him of my initial findings, whilst on the phone to him I plonked the first third of the blade into a strong etchant & we chatted for a bit, mostly me praising the beautiful curly birch handle I then had to go & promised to keep him informed. Upon returning to the knife & cleaning it up a bit, I was first of all surprised by the difference in hardness of the edge to the main body of the blade (I estimated @ 60 at the edge to the low fifties on the main body ) this was confirmed later by Stuart who had been told a claimed Rc62 at the edge & Rc50 on the main body, I can only concurr. But the main surprise came when I discovered the "temperline" followed across the spine, very near the tip from the left to the right (& vice versa) just as the claimed SPT process would show:quelblimminsurprise: Stuart was duly informed, & another deal was struck involving me buying another one:crikeyblimminblimey:
In conclusion:
Although I cannot rule out the possibility of a pattern welded blade (hard edge to soft body) I am leaning towards the possibility that, indeed, this Finnish 'smith has indeed, discovered a new HT process! This lead me to "eat my words" as I'd previously told Stuart "there was nothing new in steel"
I suspect that until the "secret" is out, these knives will continue to gain in popularity, & as I told Stuart, the beauty & layout of this knife might even encourage me to take up the bushy passtime
THIS WAS BY COLIN KC
ALSO
I've just received my Kellam Wolverine from Kellam Knives (UK). Wonderful service - even though I had sent my first cheque to them without signing it (...must...get...more...sleep...), they shipped the knife and trusted me to send them a signed replacement (which I duly did!).
The knife in sheath looks very cute (the picture on the website is a very good representation of the knife, appearing about half actual size on my screen). The sheath's tooling is very neat, the stitching tidy, the fit very tight, and the plastic insert protects the leather.
On drawing the knife the overwhelming first impression is of how tactile the handle is. The dyed curly birch feels as if it has a very fine nap, rather like moleskin. It fits my medium size hand perfectly, the first and little fingers slipping neatly into the sculpted areas of the handle, while it broadens nicely to feel very secure in the hand. Different grips also feel very secure, particularly the one where you put your index finger on the spine of the blade when doing fine work.
I then just had to see if it would shave hairs off my arm, which it did. The edge is very keen, though not as sharp as I keep my kitchen knives - it struck me as a hardworking, rather than an "impress your knife-knut mates", edge.
The flat grinds on the blade are clean and symmetrical, with just a hint of a secondary bevel. The temper line is easily visible and runs more or less parallel to the edge, about 5mm in towards the spine - this area has been hardened to 62RHC, with the remainder left softer
for increased durability. The unground portion of the blade has a nice patina. The Kellam and SPT logos are neatly stamped in this area, as is the number 117 - I was lucky enough to get one of the first 200 knives that have been numbered for collectors. The spine has a nice square edge which should make it easy to stike a firesteel (I don't own a firesteel so PM me if you want to send one over for a test...).
A brass ferrule makes the choil-less transition from blade to handle neat, and there's what looks like a leather spacer between ferrule and handle. The tang is peened fairly neatly onto a brass stud on the butt of the handle.
Enough ogling! The first thing I used the Wolverine for was to cut up my lunch of Edam cheese and a baguette (I normally use my Kershaw Rainbow Leek for this). The Leek's blade is very thin and glides through the cheese, and has a very fine point that makes penetrating the crusty bread very easy. The Wolverine has quite a thick blade at 3mm and needed a little more force to go through the cheese, and its point is not very fine so a little more effort was needed to cut the bread. However the Wolverine's handle is much more comfortable than the Leek's, making lunch preperation a joy.
The Wolverine then made short work of a number of boxes, the comfortable handle and sharp edge making this fun. After chopping the boxes into small pieces I was still able to shave hairs off my arm.
I'm now looking forward to getting this knife home and into the kitchen, and then outside into its natural habitat. The comfortable handle should make cutting feather-sticks very easy. The thick blade should be a good target when battoning. I'm also looking forward to carving my very first spoon - I'll report back when I've had the time to do these fun things.
So, my first impressions? Cute looks and a fabulous handle. I'm looking forward to discovering more about edge-retention and ease of sharpening.
THIS WAS WRITTEN BY BOATY
I ordered my Kellam knives Wolverine earlier this week (numbered version) & was sceptical of the so called "Scientifically Tempered Blade" with it's very clear "temper line". Well, I received my Wolverine this morning, & first inpressions (this is primarily a technical review) did nothing to allay my suspicions, whilst clearly a very competently assembled & finished knife, it still looked like a laminate blade to me. Sooo, I measured the width of the blade at the junction of the temper line & this proved inconclusive due to the forged aspect (clearly this knife had been forged to shape) I then ground the spine & applied some etchant to it in order to expose the laminate, this proved nothing, as I was unable to distinguish any lamination (it's possible that the Rc of the two steels were the same at this point, though unlikely) at this point I contacted Stuart again (our first contact since ordering) to inform him of my initial findings, whilst on the phone to him I plonked the first third of the blade into a strong etchant & we chatted for a bit, mostly me praising the beautiful curly birch handle I then had to go & promised to keep him informed. Upon returning to the knife & cleaning it up a bit, I was first of all surprised by the difference in hardness of the edge to the main body of the blade (I estimated @ 60 at the edge to the low fifties on the main body ) this was confirmed later by Stuart who had been told a claimed Rc62 at the edge & Rc50 on the main body, I can only concurr. But the main surprise came when I discovered the "temperline" followed across the spine, very near the tip from the left to the right (& vice versa) just as the claimed SPT process would show:quelblimminsurprise: Stuart was duly informed, & another deal was struck involving me buying another one:crikeyblimminblimey:
In conclusion:
Although I cannot rule out the possibility of a pattern welded blade (hard edge to soft body) I am leaning towards the possibility that, indeed, this Finnish 'smith has indeed, discovered a new HT process! This lead me to "eat my words" as I'd previously told Stuart "there was nothing new in steel"
I suspect that until the "secret" is out, these knives will continue to gain in popularity, & as I told Stuart, the beauty & layout of this knife might even encourage me to take up the bushy passtime
THIS WAS BY COLIN KC
ALSO
I've just received my Kellam Wolverine from Kellam Knives (UK). Wonderful service - even though I had sent my first cheque to them without signing it (...must...get...more...sleep...), they shipped the knife and trusted me to send them a signed replacement (which I duly did!).
The knife in sheath looks very cute (the picture on the website is a very good representation of the knife, appearing about half actual size on my screen). The sheath's tooling is very neat, the stitching tidy, the fit very tight, and the plastic insert protects the leather.
On drawing the knife the overwhelming first impression is of how tactile the handle is. The dyed curly birch feels as if it has a very fine nap, rather like moleskin. It fits my medium size hand perfectly, the first and little fingers slipping neatly into the sculpted areas of the handle, while it broadens nicely to feel very secure in the hand. Different grips also feel very secure, particularly the one where you put your index finger on the spine of the blade when doing fine work.
I then just had to see if it would shave hairs off my arm, which it did. The edge is very keen, though not as sharp as I keep my kitchen knives - it struck me as a hardworking, rather than an "impress your knife-knut mates", edge.
The flat grinds on the blade are clean and symmetrical, with just a hint of a secondary bevel. The temper line is easily visible and runs more or less parallel to the edge, about 5mm in towards the spine - this area has been hardened to 62RHC, with the remainder left softer
for increased durability. The unground portion of the blade has a nice patina. The Kellam and SPT logos are neatly stamped in this area, as is the number 117 - I was lucky enough to get one of the first 200 knives that have been numbered for collectors. The spine has a nice square edge which should make it easy to stike a firesteel (I don't own a firesteel so PM me if you want to send one over for a test...).
A brass ferrule makes the choil-less transition from blade to handle neat, and there's what looks like a leather spacer between ferrule and handle. The tang is peened fairly neatly onto a brass stud on the butt of the handle.
Enough ogling! The first thing I used the Wolverine for was to cut up my lunch of Edam cheese and a baguette (I normally use my Kershaw Rainbow Leek for this). The Leek's blade is very thin and glides through the cheese, and has a very fine point that makes penetrating the crusty bread very easy. The Wolverine has quite a thick blade at 3mm and needed a little more force to go through the cheese, and its point is not very fine so a little more effort was needed to cut the bread. However the Wolverine's handle is much more comfortable than the Leek's, making lunch preperation a joy.
The Wolverine then made short work of a number of boxes, the comfortable handle and sharp edge making this fun. After chopping the boxes into small pieces I was still able to shave hairs off my arm.
I'm now looking forward to getting this knife home and into the kitchen, and then outside into its natural habitat. The comfortable handle should make cutting feather-sticks very easy. The thick blade should be a good target when battoning. I'm also looking forward to carving my very first spoon - I'll report back when I've had the time to do these fun things.
So, my first impressions? Cute looks and a fabulous handle. I'm looking forward to discovering more about edge-retention and ease of sharpening.
THIS WAS WRITTEN BY BOATY
J
jwhf
Guest
wow....who would have thought that 3 letters like spt would elicit so much!!
thanks for all the feedback, now gotta find the readies to buy one!
Jonny
thanks for all the feedback, now gotta find the readies to buy one!
Jonny
jwhf said:
Well, the concept of scientific precision tempering - in fact any "secret" tempering process is generally met with huge dollops of scepticism from the knife making community. Carbon steel blades have been tempered into knives for thousands of years and almost certainly, every concievable variation on the theme has already been done and documented. So, little wonder when a manufacturer claims a *new* tempering process, that it is met with a slightly curious raise of an eyebrow. There are limits of physics which, try as we might, simply cant be transgressed, short of tempering the blade under a full moon in the breath of a dragon and quenching in virgin's milk. What does seem different about the wolverine blade, is the very clean and accurate way in which the blade has formed the temperline. This is what led colin to speculate it may be a laminated blade. His findings seem to discount this and have lead to further speculation about some sort of custom manufactured *brevil* style sandwich toaster (sorry - blade tempering device). Alternatively, perhaps it is done with the application of some sort of heat resistant clay - a la japanese blades. Until kellam reveals all, we remain in the dark.
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