JE, just curious, did you bypass all the information in the article?
I read everything in the article and anything else I could find and did not rule them out in any way, just cautious when it comes to spending money on a custom rifle and trying something new in the heart of a accurate/custom rifle. having a better than average knowledge of metallurgy and plenty of experience with machining different alloys. I could better asses the material if I knew the components in the barrel material, But being proprietary that will never happen. So I will take a wait and see attitude and let others find out if the claims are true or not.
There has always been a trade off between machine ability and durability and In my opinion 416 R is the best to date. Some Other alloys have more tensile strength and still other alloys have better notch toughness, so a compromise has been made with all the alloys to come up with an alloy that fills all of these needs and with an alloy that is easy to machine. Tool wear is always an issue because it can dimensionaly change the tool rendering it worthless to some. (Poor chambers and rifling are normally caused by dull or worn tools).
All I am saying is that I am happy that someone is trying to improve barrel steel, just that I am willing to wait to find out if it is true or just a sales pitch. I have many questions and one of them is why it is harder on tools for instance. There are many factors that can cause this and not knowing why troubles me enough to wait an see what others find without destroying my reamers/tooling machining a few barrels.
I have had to replace some of these wonder material barrels because they just didn't work like they should, and even knowing there toughness and alloy, accuracy was unacceptable for our sport. they would have been great in severe duty rifles and accuracy would have been good enough for the service/use.
I'm Still in the "don't believe anything you hear, and only half of what you see" mode and have no problem waiting awhile.
J E CUSTOM