Goodbye CPM 15V

Those dedicated knife aficionados amongst you will have heard that Crucible Industries is effectively, no more. The company has filed for bankruptcy a final time and the production of cutlery powder metallurgy steels will not continue under the Crucible name. Thankfully, a European company, head officed in France with it's major mill facility in Sweden, EraSteel, has swooped in to purchase the intellectual property of these PM cutlery grades.

Many of the steels that we know and love will continue to be produced by EraSteel, many even under the same or very similar name. A US company called Niagara Specialty Metals, who have always played an essential roll in hot-rolling steel grades from Crucible for utilisation by the knife industry, will continue to process these grades from EraSteel. Niagara Specialty Metals has gone to considerable effort to stockpile inventory from Crucible as well as other mills such as Carpenter Technologies so that the disruption in steel supply is minimised whilst production at EraSteel is getting up to speed.

It's important to note however that some specialty steels may not be produced again. Some speculation exists around REX121 and SPY27, the outlook on the latter seeming particularly grim but their future ultimately remains uncertain. One steel however that will almost certainly not be carried forward is CPM 15V. The production of CPM 15V requires a unusually high smelting temperatures that only the Crucible Industries facility was equipped to achieve. Unless a substantial investment is made at EraSteel, Carpenter or another mill, an investment that defies economic logic, CPM 15V will be consigned to the annuls of knife making history.

If you have your eye on anything CPM 15V, I encourage you to pull the trigger now. Spyderco 15V has been heat treated with a bespoke procedure developed by Shawn Houston.This steel is an industry leading performer with incredible levels of edge retention without a debilitating cost to toughness.

Knives in 15V are set to become extremely desirable, extremely collectable and ultimately finite. Don't miss out!