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MagnaMax is a new knife steel, officially announced to public by its creator Dr. Larrin on 01/15/26. However, as an idea it was conceived long before that, all the way back in June 2019, when well known and popular MagnaCut steel was proposed to Crucible and Niagara. At that time, the decision was made to focus on one steel at a time and MagnaCut steel was born. Then due to various reasons things were on hold, MagnaCut steel was gaining popularity very fast(somewhat delaying MagnaMax) and eventually in 2023 the work resumed. There was a post regarding MagnaMax on Larrin's KnifeSteelNerd's blog, but that was internal, for members only. Several makers made prototype mules out of MagnaMax initial batches, as I understand two of them, under different working names like - MagnaTuff, CPM Prototype, Proto X, etc. Although, Larrin himself referred to it as MagnaWear at that time. Now it's publicly announced and I expect MagnaMax knives will start appearing in 2026.
MagnaMax is targeting high wear resistance, high carbide alloy segment with improved toughness and stain resistance. As a baseline for comparison we could consider well known and popular(to various degree) knife steels such as Bohler-Uddeholm K390, Bohler-Uddeholm Vanadis 8, and Crucible CPM-10V, Crucible CPM S110V. MagnaMax carbide content is double compared to MagnaCut steel. Primary carbide formers in MagnaMax would be Vanadium(V) and Niobium(Nb). Both in the premium carbide former category. Niobium notable for very small and hard carbides. Stain resistance is reduced compared to MagnaCut steel, which I'd expect given higher carbide content. To me that's absolutely reasonable and acceptable tradeoff for the increased wear resistance. Toughness in on par with the Crucible 154CM, Crucible S35VN and Carpenter XHP steels. For comparison, that toughness is better than that of the popular high wear resistance stainless steels like Crucible CPM S110V, Bohler-Uddeholm M390, Crucible CPM S60V, and Crucible CPM S90V.
Overall, looks very promising and I definitely look forward to MagnaMax steel knives. Given its properties I'll be looking for high hardness folders and small/medium fixed blades optimized for high performance cutting. I am sure more than one makes will push it to 64HRC and beyond, it clearly has the potential.
As for the composition, at the moment(01/26) that's not published yet due to patent filing procedures. Larrin is very open and transparent about all his research and development, so no reason to doubt him on this. Once procedural hurdles are over, it'll be published as he stated, and I'll be certain to update the composition in the database.
Manufacturing Technology - PM
Country - United States(US)
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