80crv2 hardness for one batch, different styles?

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wilderness

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Mar 10, 2015
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Hello,
I have acquired some 80crv2, and am planning to make some knives for myself from it. If I wait until I finish mulitiple knives of different styles and send all the knives to peters heat treat, my understanding is they just do one hardness for the batch.
So, if I'm sending knives in from 8.5 inches to 13.5 inches, utility / do everything knives to choppers, what hardness would be a good compromise for edge holding and toughness? They would be all outdoor knives, 3/16'' thick and possibly thinner.
I'm thinking 58 ish? Looking for people who know about 80crv2 specifically.
Thanks!
 
Ask for 62rc. If possible make a test blade per style to test and zeroing a working hardness. Non-chopping knives (i.e. thin sub 4" blade) can benefit from extra strength at 60-62rc.
 
Ok, thanks for the suggestion. You don't think 62 would be too hard/brittle for the edge on a chopper type knife?
 
I made a 80crv2 chopper at 59.5rc. It works very well at quite thin geometry (iirc, 0.022" behind edge thick and 15dps). Knowing what I know now, I can probably make a 61rc chopper and that would be an upper working limit for this steel. At any rate, coming back from Peters' ht at 62rc. Aim for 59-60rc, I would temper choppers at 475F (best use kitchen oven, stabilize temperature at 475F with a cookies tray full of sand, use middle rack) for 2x 1hr. If edge is chippy, use oven rack close to element to temper at 475F, which will spike to around 500-525F ish, 2x 2hrs <= long enough to get mitigate some temper embrittlement zone.
wilderness said:
Ok, thanks for the suggestion. You don't think 62 would be too hard/brittle for the edge on a chopper type knife?
Click to expand...
 
If you have the ability to temper, you could get the whole batch done at your highest target hardness, then select a few knives to draw down to a lower hardness in your shop.

The best way to do this is:
1. Send a few test coupons to Peters along with your main batch.
2. Temper each coupon at a different temperature that is in the ballpark.
3. Find a machine shop or knifemaker in your area that can do hardness tests on the coupons.
4. Use those hardness tests to precisely dial in your tempering temperature on the knives you want to draw down.
 
I agree, get them done at Rc62, and temper the ones you need tougher back to Rc60. You could do the whole batch at Rc60, but you give up some edge holding on the knives that don't need to be that tough. There's not much point going below Rc60 with this steel. It's plenty tough to start with. Geometry is more important than softer steel. This is a great steel, btw.
 
Oh great, thank you guys. I didn't know or didn't put it together that I could temper them down after I get them back. That makes everything much easier.
Bluntcut - thanks for the specific instructions.
P.Brewster - great idea, I'll do that, thanks.
Willie71 - thanks for your input. Ya, it took me a while to decide on a steel, but 80crv2 seems like just what I want.
 
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