Opinions on 80crv2 edge retention

Kentucky

Kentucky

Joined
Dec 13, 2008
Messages
2,986
Just curious what you all think about 80crv2 edge retention compared to other carbon steels? Heat treated to around 60rc.. what’s your testing shown?
 
Kentucky said:
Just curious what you all think about 80crv2 edge retention compared to other carbon steels? Heat treated to around 60rc.. what’s your testing shown?
Click to expand...

I’ve only done a few. Not impressed. I much prefer 15n20 and 8670 for simple carbon tough steels. I tend to run them at Rc62+ though, and 80crv2 is in its sweet spot at Rc60. I don’t like 15n20 or 8670 at Rc60 either. I haven’t tried 80crv2 harder, like Rc62/63 to see. No need at add anothersimilar steel to my offerings. Maybe the charpy samples coming up will tell us how hard we can run it.
 
I've had some puukkos in that steel at 62rc it really shines at that hardness with low geometry.


Willie71 said:
I’ve only done a few. Not impressed. I much prefer 15n20 and 8670 for simple carbon tough steels. I tend to run them at Rc62+ though, and 80crv2 is in its sweet spot at Rc60. I don’t like 15n20 or 8670 at Rc60 either. I haven’t tried 80crv2 harder, like Rc62/63 to see. No need at add anothersimilar steel to my offerings. Maybe the charpy samples coming up will tell us how hard we can run it.
Click to expand...
 
This is timely for me. I just finished my first 80crv2 blade, a large camp knife at 60 rc, and haven't decided how beefy to set the edge yet.
I'm also a 15n20 fan for most knives, but I have several heavy knives I plan on doing this year and 80crv2 seemed to be the best choice for a simple(ish) steel in the .1875 thickness range.
 
I don't particularly like it. It parkerizes nice and black. So there's that.
 
We use a lot of 15n20 for smaller knives. We have like 120’ x12” wide x .080 thick in the form of uddenholm bandsaw blade.
The problem is in anything larger than say 8”-9” by 1 1/4” it twists up tighter than a hogs pecker.. no matter the treatment. Sub critical, full normalization , clamped during temper, clamped after temper etc.. ive tried to make chef knives from it but the warp is horrendous. I can get it nice and straight right up til quench but even a edge quench curls it up when used in large sections..
 
Kentucky said:
We use a lot of 15n20 for smaller knives. We have like 120’ x12” wide x .080 thick in the form of uddenholm bandsaw blade.
The problem is in anything larger than say 8”-9” by 1 1/4” it twists up tighter than a hogs pecker.. no matter the treatment. Sub critical, full normalization , clamped during temper, clamped after temper etc.. ive tried to make chef knives from it but the warp is horrendous. I can get it nice and straight right up til quench but even a edge quench curls it up when used in large sections..
Click to expand...
I wonder if that has to do with its history as a bandsaw blade? I do all my chefs knives in .072 from Alpha. I get the exact same slight warp every time out of the quench. It pulls right out on the first temper.
 
Kentucky said:
We use a lot of 15n20 for smaller knives. We have like 120’ x12” wide x .080 thick in the form of uddenholm bandsaw blade.
The problem is in anything larger than say 8”-9” by 1 1/4” it twists up tighter than a hogs pecker.. no matter the treatment. Sub critical, full normalization , clamped during temper, clamped after temper etc.. ive tried to make chef knives from it but the warp is horrendous. I can get it nice and straight right up til quench but even a edge quench curls it up when used in large sections..
Click to expand...
I have made a 12" full distal taper chef with .095 stock. I have been buy new stuff from Aldo and it is by far my favorite simple steel. Its been way easier than AEB-L to deal with. I do have a big box from JT that I will get to explore used material.

I would think that the 80CrV2 would be better than 1084 for Damascus. I so far haven't been super happy with what I bought though that comes from having to normalize it before I bought my oven. It seems like it should be great for big knives but I'm not sure if I will buy more.
 
E.Carlson said:
I wonder if that has to do with its history as a bandsaw blade? I do all my chefs knives in .072 from Alpha. I get the exact same slight warp every time out of the quench. It pulls right out on the first temper.
Click to expand...
I would only guess yes. I’ve made plenty of large blades out of thin stock..and of course you get some warp but it’s always easily fixed. This steel, which is good stuff just likes to bend. And I mean like crazy bends:confused:
 
Kentucky said:
We use a lot of 15n20 for smaller knives. We have like 120’ x12” wide x .080 thick in the form of uddenholm bandsaw blade.
The problem is in anything larger than say 8”-9” by 1 1/4” it twists up tighter than a hogs pecker.. no matter the treatment. Sub critical, full normalization , clamped during temper, clamped after temper etc.. ive tried to make chef knives from it but the warp is horrendous. I can get it nice and straight right up til quench but even a edge quench curls it up when used in large sections..
Click to expand...
We've made around 50 jap style kitchen knives from 12" wide .080" thick bandsaw blade this year. 6 - 9" blades. They do warp, but easily straightened right out of the quench. I normalize once before profiling and bevel grinding, then heat treat.

No real trouble until this last bundle of sheared strips. 20 or so 1.5" x 12" strips warped & twisted like nothing I've ever seen. Kyle & I straightened about half of em then through the rest out.
 
So, back to the original question. Anyone gave anything positive to say about 80crv2?
Getting the feeling I may need to start looking at something like O1 for camp knives and choppers.
 
O1 is less ideal then 80crv2 for a chopper and camp knife.

You should make and test yourself to see. Geometry and HT go a long way.

Larrin Thomas has a cool blog called "knifesteelnerds.com" you can find answers to why .80 carbon would be superior for shock and tougheness prized by some on a chopper on his blog. He goes into the details about alot of metallurgy and you can use that to make decisions on what steel to use for what.
 
1080+ (80CrV2) is basically 1080CroVan. A deeper hardening, slightly "tougher", fine grain version of 1080. If you use it in kitchen knives, I would use it at 63HRC, thin geometries. But I wouldn't use it for kitchen knives (I did, but wasn't impressed at 60HRC, 63HRC would be much more preferable in that environment). It is probably best suited to impact type applications, but there are better choices there, too. Like others mentioned, I prefer 63HRC 15n20 for a eutectoid kitchen knife steel, or 8670 for applications that need more toughness. Overall a good steel, it's extremely easy to heat treat (probably more forgiving than even 1084!!!) and very affordable. Bottom line for me, if it's not going to see a ton of abuse like impact/edge torquing, use it at ~63HRC, like 15n20. If using it for more abusive tasks, keep it ~60HRC.
 
The things that affect wear resistance are blade hardness, carbide volume, carbide hardness and in some cases carbide size.

The things that affect carbides are the amount of carbon and alloy. This is a high carbon steel but it’s on the lower end for a knife steel. It is also a low alloy steel. 80crv2 steel will have low carbide volume so it’s best to run the hardness up if you want more wear resistance.

This steel is designed to have moderate wear resistance with very good toughness and simple heat treat.

Look for steels with higher carbon and alloy if wear resistance is what you need. I do like this steel.

Hoss
 
Yeah, I need to get my head out of the kitchen and into the woods. I've spent the last year dialing in my process with 15n20 for various applications, kitchen, small EDC, hunters, to where I hit what I'm after every time.
This year I've decided to focus on 80crv2 so I have a go to for something that is going to see more hard use. It's all a trade off after all and I can't expect the edge retention of 15n20 at 63rc that I run in the kitchen. I also wouldn't expect one of my chefs knives to do my campfire prep.
Got plenty of time to figure it out!20181229_191033-1209x1209.jpg
 
Don Hanson III said:
We've made around 50 jap style kitchen knives from 12" wide .080" thick bandsaw blade this year. 6 - 9" blades. They do warp, but easily straightened right out of the quench. I normalize once before profiling and bevel grinding, then heat treat.

No real trouble until this last bundle of sheared strips. 20 or so 1.5" x 12" strips warped & twisted like nothing I've ever seen. Kyle & I straightened about half of em then through the rest out.
Click to expand...
That’s me, I’ve never had trouble straightening anything I’ve ever heat treated. This steel above 9” just corkscrews. I’m going to reheat treat a big blank I got and take a pic just for fun
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top