80CRV2 hardening fail

AddictChris said:
I was testing the hardness on a completely clean steel surface.
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Weird , 80CRV2 will harden quenched in whatever oil ,heated with torch ??
Clean steel surface , what do you mean by that ? Shine clean steel does not mean that you have passed decarb. layer ...something similar happened to me with 52100 . I forgot it was quenched -HT many times .i was doing some tests ..........so I have very deep decarb. layer before I reached to hard steel under ?
 
Natlek said:
Shine clean steel does not mean that you have passed decarb. layer ...something similar happened to me with 52100 . I forgot it was quenched -HT many times .i was doing some tests ..........so I have very deep decarb. layer before I reached to hard steel under ?
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I took the decarb off completely on my grinder down to bare steel. There is zero doubt here.

Unless this thing was solid decarb all the way through that looked exactly like steel :)

The softness wasn't just the surface. I took a file to the edge of the blade and it cut into the edge like butter. After I decided the blade was unsavable I put it in my vise and whaled on it with a hammer and the edge rolled over like a fruit rollup.
I could only bend the thing, I was unable to break it.
 
I think something is getting lost in translation. I believe what Natlek is trying to say, is just because you ground off the black scale and got down to shiny metal, that doesn’t mean you ground all the decarb off. That shiny metal could have no carbon left in it, thus it will not be hard. There’s a possibility that there is a thin layer of shiny metal with no carbon left in it that will need to be ground away to expose the steel that still has carbon in it, and thus is hard.

But, you say it just bends and won’t break, so that’s pretty good evidence that the blade is still soft. If you already understood all of this, I’m sorry for beating a dead horse. This is really weird as I’ve never had trouble getting 80crv2 to harden.
 
Can you drill holes through it? The few times I didn't think it hardened, it was plenty hard under the thick layer of decarb.
 
J. Hoffman said:
Can you drill holes through it? The few times I didn't think it hardened, it was plenty hard under the thick layer of decarb.
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I literally bent it in half, and a file carved several notches 1/16” into the edge.

I definitely don’t need to drill it. It’s not hard :-)
 
N.W. Gean said:
Pop's Knife Supply for 8670. Supposed to be tougher than 80crv2. I haven't heavily tested it yet but it grinds and drills real easy.
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I have a pile of 80CRV2 and W2 from NJSB sitting in the corner. After I got my 8670 from Pops I have no use for the other steels. I will say, however, I never had a problem with 80CRV2 but I heat treated to non magnetic in my forge, soaked for just a bit after nm, and quenched in room temp Parks 50. Never had a bad blade, not once. I'd have to check my notes and see what my tempering protocol was. My W2 from NJSB was the worst steel I ever worked with...it was the most inconsistent steel I ever played with. Period.
 
Just to add, I had trouble with aldos W2 a while back as well and it took me cycling at something like 1750 for a few cycles and then a few lower cycles to reduce grain back to a reasonable size to get it to harden.
 
Skiller1nc said:
Just to add, I had trouble with aldos W2 a while back as well and it took me cycling at something like 1750 for a few cycles and then a few lower cycles to reduce grain back to a reasonable size to get it to harden.
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We have gotten W2 from customers from NJSB and we can’t get it to harden. But a customer also should not have to pay double or Tripoli heat treating cost to fix the mistake of the seller.
 
JTknives said:
We have gotten W2 from customers from NJSB and we can’t get it to harden. But a customer also should not have to pay double or Tripoli heat treating cost to fix the mistake of the seller.
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I agree, and I'm not nearly as large a customer as you probably were for NJSB but they also told me that the issue was my fault and to pound sand. I took my business to AKS and Pops
 
Skiller1nc said:
I agree, and I'm not nearly as large a customer as you probably were for NJSB but they also told me that the issue was my fault and to pound sand. I took my business to AKS and Pops
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Same here. After talking with them at length during the Blade Show, they asked that I call them the following week. Afterwards the told me my ht process was flawed. I politely told them I followed Don’s protocol to the “T”. They backed off their offer to replace it (told to my face at the Blade Show). I told em what they could do with their steel and my future business.
 
AddictChris said:
tried it :)

sparks like carbon. Not super high, but enough flowering I’m sure it’s not mild steel
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Then there must be a reason why it will not harden ????? Maybe to small grain ? Heat that MF to 2000 F :D
When the grain size approach sub-micron sizes, some materials may however become softer. This is simply an effect of another deformation mechanism that becomes easier, i.e. grain boundary sliding. At this point, all dislocation related hardening mechanisms become irrelevant.
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AddictChris said:
tried it :)

sparks like carbon. Not super high, but enough flowering I’m sure it’s not mild steel
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What heat lot was your steel from. I only buy steel from one lot and it’s been ok.
 
JTknives said:
What heat lot was your steel from. I only buy steel from one lot and it’s been ok.
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I have no idea how I would be able to tell what heat lot its from. I'm not even sure what a heat lot is, although I can guess.

I thought you said you didnt buy steel from NJSB...
 
AddictChris said:
I have no idea how I would be able to tell what heat lot its from. I'm not even sure what a heat lot is, although I can guess.

I thought you said you didnt buy steel from NJSB...
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the ONLY thing I have bought from them in the past was .187 80CrV2 as I tested it and it was good. But the other thicknesses are diffrent heat lots so I can’t vouch for them. But with how long my last order took to process I’m looking other places as I can’t afford 2-3weeks just for the order to ship. Even after I contacted them and was told 3-6 days is the processing time.
 
Natlek was joking when he mentioned hardening your 80CrV2 to 2000°F, but there was a certain lot of W2 from NJSB that stock removal makers couldn't get to harden, but the forging guys had no problems. Stock removal guys figured out that after a normalizing heat of 1900°F (plus), and the subsequent thermal cycling, it would harden. Apparently that batch of W2 was extremely spheroidized. I just wonder if that's the case here. You might try it. 1900F air cool, then cycle it around 1500F a few times, then harden as usual.
 
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