Favorite 80CRV2 hardening methods

Karl B. Andersen

Karl B. Andersen

Joined
Jul 27, 2003
Messages
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After a couple years in the main stream now, what could we say is the go-to predictable method of hardening and tempering 80CRV2?
Please post - if you have time and desire - your methods you find most dependable and possibly reasons why.
Thank you for your time.
 
We typically ask you questions of this type. ;)
 
We have found that some is coarse spheroid annealed and requires a full normalization cycle to get everything back into solution. 1650
1550
1450 with about 2 minute soaks at each. Leaving extra thick before grinding because the decarb from multiple heat/cycles. . Aust around 1500 with a 10 minute soak works well, quenched in parks 50.
 
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I've only heat treated Aldo's at this point. I had terrible performance on the first blade I did prior to understanding how all his steel needs to be normalized. I have a pile of blades cut and ground from a piece of Chuck's steel but I have not heat treated yet and didn't intend to as the are part of a batch I intended to send out to Bos just to save myself some time but I could make an exception.

On Aldo's I have been normalizing at 1600f then cycling three times, 1500, 1450, 1400. Austentizing at 1500, ten minute soak, Quench in Parks 50. Temper around 375 to 400. 61 to 59 RC.
 
Thermal cycle as mentioned before. I'm not noticing much difference from 1475 to 1525f with a 10 min soak. I've only done a few blades at this point. I haven't gone through 10f increments to optimize it. Seems tough and holds an edge well without being finicky like W2 or 1095.
 
Heading into work now to do some heat treating. Taking a small blank from Chuck's steel. I will heat treat it without normalizing to see how it does.
 
So Chucks steel I just austentized 1500 Parks 50 and it was 65 out of the quench. Then I broke it and it looks as fine grain as anything I've broke. I'll upload a pic when I get home.
 
The little blob on the top right is gunk from my hammer.

Zqf4xO5.jpg
 
Sounds like it acts more like 1075 than 5160. Do you see any reason to temper any softer than 60 for most applications?
 
If you're asking me, no, I don't really. It's pretty tough at 60 in my opinion. Hell I had to hit it twice to break that blade off, not that I was swinging for the fences, but even with a cut it took a good shot.
 
No I did not, since I believe Chuck's steel is already finely spherodized. That was 10 minutes at soak.
 
I can't give any Rockwell numbers, but I've been happy with edge holding and toughness out of a similar heat treatment to what Kentucky mentioned. I had what I thought was a hardening issue last year right as I was trying to get ready for Blade Show (such a nightmare!) and ended up using 5160 for my show inventory instead. I had done several test blades, of course, and was quite happy with the performance, but then I noticed that when file testing after a quench, the file was still biting. I picked a lot of brains at Blade about the issue, and did research online afterwards. Eventually I realized that it was decarbing more than any alloy I'd worked with before, but that under that decarbed layer it was plenty hard. After continued testing, I am happy enough with it that almost everything on my tables at Blade this year will be 80CrV2.

I'm getting it from the New Jersey Steel Baron and have no experience with Alpha Knife Supply's 1080+.

What I do after forging is three normalizing cycles at 10 minute soak times each, first at 1650, then 1550, then 1450. After stock removal I quench in pre-warmed canola following a 10 minute soak at 1550. I temper at 425-450 degrees for three one-hour cycles.

Here's a brief video to show some performance testing:

[video=youtube;gvlknRrWrQk]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gvlknRrWrQk&t=13s[/video]

If you want to really push it, Joe Szilaski had an article in Blade a while back where he outlines a more complex heat treatment that yielded something like 2,000 cuts in manila rope. I can't find my copy; I need to see if I can get a back copy. I don't remember any details, but I think there might have been cryo involved.

Anyway, that gives you a ballpark that you can play around with and see what works for you best.
 
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