80crv2 hardening

A

Allenblood

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Apr 4, 2018
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I'm considering to start making knifes out of 80crv2 and selling them but how do you heat treat it? The blades are going to be .125 inch thick. Im going to buy a Propane Forge Fire Brick and I'm going to use canola oil. Does the oil have to be a certain temperature before you dip the blade in? How hot does the blade need to be before you dip it into the oil? Is their anything else to heat treating than just heating the blade to a certain temperature then putting it into the oil? Is their a way to make the blade a certain hrc?
 
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Thermal cycle at 1600, 1400, 1250 (dull orange, just post decalescence, dull red) hold at the first and third steps for 5-10 min (longer for the final step if you get a HT oven) or so. Air cool between cycles.

Austenitize at 1550-1575 for 5-10 min depending on thickness and quench in a medium speed oil. Reqd temp for oil depends on the quenchant. Because you will be going with canola, which isn't designed for the purpose, no specific ideal temperature exists. Warm it up a bit seems to be the prevailing wisdom.

Judging everything by eye and quenching in canola, I suspect that you would get better results from 1075 or 1084. Why not use one of those steels?
 
Ok so heat to 1600 hold 5-10 mins then air cool then heat to 1400 then air cool then heat to 1250 hold 5-10 mins then air cool then heat to 1550-1575 hold 5-10 mins then quench. Are you supposed to hold it in the oil for a certain time? I'm going to buy a temperature Gun by ennoLogic it can read up to 1922°f so ill be able to get the temperature right.
 
Forget the temp gun. They are almost worthless for measuring forge temps and red hot blades. They are good for checking temper temps and the oil temp.

Heat the canola to about 120F.

Once quenched, move the blade up and down ( not side to side) for about 8 seconds, then pull out, wipe off quickly with an old towel, and straighten any warp IMMEDIATELY with gloved hands or a wooden mallet with the blade placed on a 2X4. You have about 15 seconds to make this adjustment. When you feel it stiffen, stop straightening.

Temper twice at 400F.
 
I'm going to be cutting the billet to the shape I want. How long do I have to temper it at 400°f 1 hour each time?
 
Yeah. 2x 1 hr is fine. Cool to the touch between cycles. If you use the temper to straighten any warps, do so on the 2nd temper cycle.
 
I straighten on the first temper. After the first temper all corrective straightening takes a lot more counter bending.

I will talk about the elephant in the room that everyone else has skipped over. Don’t take this the wrong way and I don’t mean any offence by what I’m going to say. If your just starting out and you don’t know how to properly heat treat a blade you have zero business selling knives. Making a knife with the quality needed to be sellable takes more then just rounding up information and numbers. It takes time lots and lots of time practising to get better. Not to mention thousands of dollars in tools. That’s not to say you can’t use hand tools, But using hand tools requires even higher skill levels to make a quality product. One question to honestly ask your self when looking at a hand made knife is why should someone buy this over buying a production knife. You need to first off remove the “becaus it’s handmade” from your answer. Just becaus somtging is hand made does not mean it’s good. I use to get asked all the time why my knives cost what thy did. You need to have an answer that actualy adds value to the product.

But as your just starting down this path I will give you a free tip. Do not start making knives because you want to make money. You most likely won’t make any money and money that you do make will have to pay for shop equipment. I make Knives becaus I love the craft. I’m finely in a place where I make ok money but if you calculate how much I make per hr it’s quite low. And this is after a good amount of time in this field. I made my first knife 25 years ago and been addicted ever since. So try it out and see if you like it. If you do then make 100 knives and then think about trying to sell some.
 
Alpha Knife Supply said:
If you are making stock removal knives, our 80CrV2 does not require thermal cycling before heat treating.

Chuck
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I buy from you guys for years now and I always have thermal cycled the 80crv2. Just always have and have had zero issues with you guys steel. Been great.my heat Treatment is unorthodox but for some reason it’s works well. Cut through mild steel flat stock with a single jack and still shaves. Great steel
 
This is almost a 2 year old thread but I need to post in response to the last 2 posts.

Be VERY!!! carful thermal cycling simple carbon steels from NJSB. Some of there steels have harden ability issues and depending on what’s causing it more thermal cycling could make it worse. If anything my last conversation with them about this lead down the path of them recommending over temp quenching to blow up the grain and using a faster quench (hotter oil) to try and catch this mythical hardness unicorn that lays dormant in the steel.

As for steel from AKS, I could not recommend them more. Thy are always pleasant to deal with and their steel is always 100% spot on. When I need small quantity’s of steel for plasma orders thy are the only place I deal with. Thy have never let me down and thy won’t let you down either.
 
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