Cowry steel

[Darrin Sanders]

Saw some steel for sale in the Jantz catalog, it's called Cowry X & Cowry Y. It is very expensive, $99.00 for a 5/32x1x12 bar. Anybody here used it or know anything about it?

 

[Antonio_Luiz]

Never used it but seems to be one of the proprietary Jap supersteels used by some makers - better than VG10 and possibly on a par with R2 and ZDP189 - and yes, very expensive.

Bit more info here - suggest you save this link as it's full of really useful info
http://www.zknives.com/knives/steels/steelchart.php

 

[Robert Mayo]

Antonio
Thanks for posting that link it is an exellent piece of info.

Bob

 

[Les Voorhies]

The Y looks very similar to S30V,

 

[bubba-san]

I have used cowry -x on one occassion. The material is extremly hard to work , I tried forging it ??? a tough proposition. I ended up grinding it with a cubic boron nitride grinding wheel . my opinion !!! it s not what I consider a knife steel , too hard to sharpen and can be extremly brittle . Faulkniven uses some of it on thier laminates . Its definitely not for the weak of heart . I think it must be laminated to ensure the blade has some flexibility and strength. just my opinion ??? I f someone has a pic of a larger blade made from a solid piece , I sure would like to see a pic or two .

 

[John Andrews]

Thanks for that info. My ears always go up when I hear of a new "super steel".

 

[Jim Adams Customs]

Just think 440c was a super steel