15N20 vs 8670 vs 80CRV2 thin stock for kitchen knife?

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shqxk

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Mar 26, 2012
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I plan to buy some thin steel to make a kitchen knife. And there is no thin stock of carbon steel sold here beside SK5 (JP equivalent of1084) which isn't very great from my experience. So I will need to import from USA.

These 3 steel seems to price very close and all of them is famous for its toughness.

I heard some nickel steel like 15n20 and 8670 can be temper very low like 300F and still plenty tough at high hardness like 63HRC which is IMO amazing.

I would like to have opinion from anyone who have experience working with these steel. How its compare to steel like O1 or 52100? which is less warp when heat treat? edge holding? etc.

Thanks in advance.
 
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15n20 would be great for kitchen knives. I have only made 2 from 15n20 but so far I've been happy with how they preform. 15n20 is easy to HT so it should not give you any problems.
 
shqxk said:
I plan to buy some thin steel to make a kitchen knife. And there is no thin stock of carbon steel sold here beside SK5 (JP equivalent of1084) which isn't very great from my experience. So I will need to import from USA.

These 3 steel seems to price very close and all of them is famous for its toughness.

I heard some nickel steel like 15n20 and 8670 can be temper very low like 300F and still plenty tough at high hardness like 63HRC which is IMO amazing.

I would like to have opinion from anyone who have experience working with these steel. How its compare to steel like O1 or 52100? which is less wrap when heat treat? edge holding? etc.

Thanks in advance.
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You can get from Germany 1.2519 steel . It is found in 1.6mm , 2.2mm and 5mm thickness .
 
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I've used 15n20 a lot for kitchen knives. You won't get the wear resistance of O1 or 52100, but it's not that far out. 10-20% difference. 15n20 at Rc62 performance about the same as O1 at Rc60. Of course, O1 at Rc62/63 will be better. I just skip over O1 now and go to 52100, W2, or the hitachi steels. Of the "easy to heat treat" steels, 15n20 has been my go to steel.

Chuck at AKS has used 8670 at high hardness with great results. I'm sending a pair of knives to an avid home chef in 15n20 and 8670 for testing to see what he thinks. His results are compelling.

I've not used 80crv2 for a kitchen knife yet. It's in my plans to test though.
 
Willie71 said:
I've used 15n20 a lot for kitchen knives. You won't get the wear resistance of O1 or 52100, but it's not that far out. 10-20% difference. 15n20 at Rc62 performance about the same as O1 at Rc60. Of course, O1 at Rc62/63 will be better. I just skip over O1 now and go to 52100, W2, or the hitachi steels. Of the "easy to heat treat" steels, 15n20 has been my go to steel.

Chuck at AKS has used 8670 at high hardness with great results. I'm sending a pair of knives to an avid home chef in 15n20 and 8670 for testing to see what he thinks. His results are compelling.

I've not used 80crv2 for a kitchen knife yet. It's in my plans to test though.
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Thanks you Willies, I think I may give both 8670 and 15n20 a try. From my experience with L6 nickel seems to rust a little less compare to other carbon which should be a minor plus for kitchen work.

Do you have any problem with warp from quenching? Do you do any differential hardening like edge quench or gas torching edge ?
 
My biggest problem with long thinner blades isn't warp during quench but warp when finish grinding. Working both sides in similar fashion helps keep that to a minimum, rather than grinding one side to finished depth and then the other like I would when rough grinding pre-heat treat.
 
shqxk said:
Thanks you Willies, I think I may give both 8670 and 15n20 a try. From my experience with L6 nickel seems to rust a little less compare to other carbon which should be a minor plus for kitchen work.

Do you have any problem with warp from quenching? Do you do any differential hardening like edge quench or gas torching edge ?
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These steels do better with a fully hardened blade. I quench after profile, and grind the bevels in when hard. There aren't any real carbide formers, or very minimal amounts, so they grind relatively easily. I find used 15n20 warps fairly easily (it follows the natural curvature of the bandsaw blade) but it straightens easily in tempering. New 15n20 is not hard to keep straight, or correct once warped.

15n20 and 8670 are straight forward to heat treat.
 
kuraki said:
My biggest problem with long thinner blades isn't warp during quench but warp when finish grinding. Working both sides in similar fashion helps keep that to a minimum, rather than grinding one side to finished depth and then the other like I would when rough grinding pre-heat treat.
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What temperature is needed to happen that ?
 
me and 15n20=:couple_inlove:
 
I will defer to the experts like JT and others who have more experience to confirm this,but the one thing that I have heard about 15N20 is that is VERY clean/pure. I have heard some say that Swedish iron ore is even more pure than the magical Japanese black sand. BU Strip now known as Voestalpine Strip's QC is also supposed to be top notch. When have you ever seen a bad batch of 15N20 or AEB-L discounting for a little bend form it being wound onto a huge coil?
 
^^^^. I've heard this as well. 15n20 and Aeb-l do seem to perform better than their chemistry suggests they should.
 
Natlek said:
What temperature is needed to happen that ?
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It's less about temperature, than the evenness of the temperature. Warp happens when one side heats faster than the other. Fresh belts (dull belts peen and rub the steel rather than cut cleanly) and dunking after each pass minimizes this.
 
15N20 makes a great kitchen knife.

I grind it wet to keep the heat down on thin stock.
 
I can only speak for 15N20, and it is a wonderful steel. Takes a great edge, holds it well and is easy to resharpen. I have heard good things about 8670, mostly that it was nearly identical to 15N20 and in my book thats high praise
 
8670 only has about 60% the nickel of L6 and 45% of 15N20. That is why folks were not happy about it being sold as an "L6 substitute" by Admiral. It just didn't etch bright silver in damascus. As a stand alone steel, I have heard good things about it. Some of the specialty manufactures like Southern Grind are using it for their hard use fixed blade knives. It is also about 1/3 the price of the L6 that we can get in flat bar and about 60% of the price of 15N20 which can't really be had any thicker than 1/8 at this point.
 
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8670 has a small amount of molybdenum in it 0.4% iirc. That's the same alloying element used in loader teeth, but in much higher quantities. That has me intrigued.
 
That may be .04. Admiral has there 8670M listed as having like .10 max moly.
Willie71 said:
8670 has a small amount of molybdenum in it 0.4% iirc. That's the same alloying element used in loader teeth, but in much higher quantities. That has me intrigued.
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