My heat treat schedule
1 - forge to shape, heat to red and stick in vermiculite.
2 - rough grind/ mill shoulders
3 - normalize 3 times. cool to room temp between heats.
4 - heat in furnace at 1500 for 10 minutes. quench in oil.
5 - cool to room temp, put in freezer until cool then in Liquid N2 overnight.
6 - 2 hour temper at 410
7 - use torch to draw back to blue with edge in water. cool to room temp. repeat for 3 times total.
8 - 2 hour temper at 415
9 - 2 hour temper at 415 (I will raise to 425 now that I see these tests)
The following is the met lab results for my first blade. 4" recurve hunter. The test blade has exceeded their expectations for ultra fineness of grain, fineness, dispersion, and amount of vanadium carbides. So far they are crediting the forging process, partly, for the excellent structure. It turns out this is new territory ( forgeable steel with vanadium carbides and not much else) The white spots in photos are vanadium carbides, the dark diamond shapes are the hardness test impressions. This blade was made from a small 3 lbs cast ingot, and they expect the blades made from the forged/rolled bars to be even better!
http://gallery.me.com/ddfarr/100032
This steel went through 4 formulations until it was easy to use, showed structure that gave it improved performance, and was very reasonably priced. It has been tested and refined for 3 years, and there is really no reason to fumble around with it. I know it is a little weird because as forgers we have never had a steel designed and presented to us this way, but the designers took into consideration our tools and methods. I know because I went to the research facility in Pittsburgh and forged a blade, heat treated a blade, and hand sanded a blade with my equipment while they watched. I pointed out things like steels that air harden stink for hand forging, and inclusions that show up when you get to 600 grit are more than a little frustrating. They saw our tools, and knew to design it to be forgiving, because we don't have perfect temp control with our forges. (I may have scared them a little when I lit the forge...poof!)
I guess what I am trying to say is lets not over-think Cruforge V, the hard work has been done by a bunch of metal minded Phd's, get the Spec sheet and trust it. Tweak it if you like and make it yours, but we are not starting from scratch with mystery steel. It is good, clean, engineered bladesmithing steel!
Dan
1 - forge to shape, heat to red and stick in vermiculite.
2 - rough grind/ mill shoulders
3 - normalize 3 times. cool to room temp between heats.
4 - heat in furnace at 1500 for 10 minutes. quench in oil.
5 - cool to room temp, put in freezer until cool then in Liquid N2 overnight.
6 - 2 hour temper at 410
7 - use torch to draw back to blue with edge in water. cool to room temp. repeat for 3 times total.
8 - 2 hour temper at 415
9 - 2 hour temper at 415 (I will raise to 425 now that I see these tests)
The following is the met lab results for my first blade. 4" recurve hunter. The test blade has exceeded their expectations for ultra fineness of grain, fineness, dispersion, and amount of vanadium carbides. So far they are crediting the forging process, partly, for the excellent structure. It turns out this is new territory ( forgeable steel with vanadium carbides and not much else) The white spots in photos are vanadium carbides, the dark diamond shapes are the hardness test impressions. This blade was made from a small 3 lbs cast ingot, and they expect the blades made from the forged/rolled bars to be even better!
http://gallery.me.com/ddfarr/100032
This steel went through 4 formulations until it was easy to use, showed structure that gave it improved performance, and was very reasonably priced. It has been tested and refined for 3 years, and there is really no reason to fumble around with it. I know it is a little weird because as forgers we have never had a steel designed and presented to us this way, but the designers took into consideration our tools and methods. I know because I went to the research facility in Pittsburgh and forged a blade, heat treated a blade, and hand sanded a blade with my equipment while they watched. I pointed out things like steels that air harden stink for hand forging, and inclusions that show up when you get to 600 grit are more than a little frustrating. They saw our tools, and knew to design it to be forgiving, because we don't have perfect temp control with our forges. (I may have scared them a little when I lit the forge...poof!)
I guess what I am trying to say is lets not over-think Cruforge V, the hard work has been done by a bunch of metal minded Phd's, get the Spec sheet and trust it. Tweak it if you like and make it yours, but we are not starting from scratch with mystery steel. It is good, clean, engineered bladesmithing steel!
Dan
