We had the great privilege of spending some time this weekend with John Cammenga Of White River Knife and Tool Inc. This is the first time I have had their knife in hand but I promise it will not be the last.

The quality of each of the knives I handled simply scream the pride and the passion that John Cammenga Sr. and his family have for their business and their creations. John shared with us a design and metal that are new to them. While I foresee more knives in the White River line utilizing this material in the future, the first was a filet knife. John had this filet knife with him at SMKW. What a fantastic tool. The weight on this is nothing, I have pocket knives that outweigh it.
The Rockwell is about 61 but it is far from brittle. As an avid fisherman Donnie and I both put this through the flex test and it passes with flying colors. The design and the corrosion proof metal make this the last filet knife a saltwater fisherman will ever need.  That says a lot because we typically buy a new filet knife every season and have for 30 some odd years. I understand a dive knife is in the works also. I am adding some information about the metal here but be sure to check out information about more of their knives at http://thewhiteriver.com. I will also be talking more about them in the fixed blade and survival groups

Found at Summit Materials site

Well, over the past several years we’ve developed our patented SM-100™ material to be that exact material revolution. For practical purposes, there will now be three main classes of knife materials – steels, ceramics, and SM-100.

SM-100 was originally developed for bearing and wear components for the United States Space Program, and it quickly became evident that we were onto something really important and relevant to the knife community. Along with lots of help from Duane Dwyer of Strider Knives fame, we worked tirelessly on prototypes and processing sequences to arrive at where we are today, which is the ability to provide you with the absolute best knife making material known to man.

So, what makes SM-100 such a phenomenal knife material?

Corrosion Resistance

Well, for starters, it will never rust or corrode for you. In fact NASA publically calls it “Corrosion proof”. And we’re not talking about corrosion proof like stainless is supposed to be, we’re talking about you can leave SM-100 at the bottom of the ocean for 100-years and the knife will look as good as it did the day you dropped it overboard.

Better Edge Retention and Longer Life

When used in the hardened state (60+ HRC), SM-100 has shown six times the edge retention of competing steels. An important point to make here is that the high hardness that SM-100 achieves is through-thickness hardness – in other words there are no coatings to chip off or surface heat treatments to break through.

On top of the lower friction pointed out in the plot below, notice that the SM-100 has twice the life of the 440C. The left of the plot shows some titanium results, which as expected do not wear well at all, but are of course quite corrosion resistant. So anytime you wish you could combine the corrosion resistance of titanium with superb wear resistance, call on SM-100.

Better Wear Resistance

In addition to the inherent material properties that SM-100 brings to the wear resistance discussion, our patented processing route also improves wear resistance by imparting a super-fine grain microstructure as seen in this micrograph. This type of microstructure ensures that the proper distribution of the all-important hardening phases is found along the entire length of the edge.

By contrast, we’ve seen other processing sequences result in elongated grains with segregated phases that result in decreased wear resistance and ultimately poor edge retention.

Lower Coefficient of Friction

SOT results for various balls running against 440C plates lubricated with Pennzane 2001A oil.
Another benefit of SM-100 knives is the lower coefficient of friction when compared to steels.

This means easier cutting (less force required) and a cleaner and safer working environment in general – whether you’re working in the kitchen or in the middle of the jungle.