80CRV2; what do you think about it?

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Ninja Blacksmith

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It's not exactly a request for advice, but I'll throw out here that while I haven't worked with 80CRV2 (Aldo's batch) for long, it's quickly becoming a favorite high carbon steel of mine. Many of the blades I make are medium size, around 7" - 12" blade length (with a wakizashi or small bush knife once in a blue moon), and like most of the 10XX series steels or carbon spring steels, 80CRV2 has proved a very good choice for the average size knife I crank out. I really like the semi-springy degree of toughness it seems to gain, the steel's wide heat treat parameters is always a plus, and though the initial razor edge isn't "forever", the working edge lasts a good while. Personally, I think it's an excellent "bowie" steel.

I've said my opinion, so other makers...if you use 80CRV2, what do YOU think about it?

Good or bad, I'll hear what you have to say about it.
 
I was watching a video of Dan Winkler talking about how much he liked it.

So I am going to keep an eye on this thread :)
 
It's great. HT is simple, very durable and decent edge retention.

I've been using it for a while for everything from small slicers to large choppers without any issues.
 
Have any of you guys compared to 5160 in the "field?" Aldo is pushing as pretty much a direct replacement and Dan Winkler replaced 5160 and 52100 with 80CRV2 in most of his knife line.
 
I have limited experience, I bought a Winkler in 80CRV2 for testing.
I don't have alot of experience in sharpening different steels, so I never was able to get the edge I wanted on it.
I used waterstones. Perhaps over time and with experience it would have sharpened ok the way I wanted it.

Anyway, It cut fine when it was sharp, wasn't amazing on 5/8" manila rope, that's my opinion.
Maybe that steel with different bevel geometry....
 
I bought one bar and made two Wakizashi inspired blades.The steel seems very tough, I stabbed and chopped up a big metal food can and it had minor edge damage. It seemed to have a lot more decarb compared to 1095.
27807999774_29460cb6aa_b.jpg
 
I recently destruction-tested a few 80CrV2 blades and feel like I'm getting to know the steel fairly well. There are a few things worth considering when working with it.

The decarb issue is one that has come up a few times with 80CrV2. I've experienced it too. It's possible, depending on the supplier or producer, that it comes from the mill this way, but I haven't been able to confirm that. Controlling your forge atmosphere of course helps to mitigate this issue, as does the use of an anti-scale compound, but if the surface is already decarbed by the time you first receive it, you'll need to leave a little more material there for post-heat treat grinding and finishing. I'll ask my supplier about this as well because it's come up enough times now that it may indeed be worth exploring further.

Another issue with 80CrV2 is that it comes heavily spheroidized (or, at least much of what has reached the knifemakers' market lately does), so in order to get good results you have to normalize and thermal cycle the steel before heat treatment. This is particularly important for stock removal makers.

Lastly, despite looking somewhat similar to 1080 (and sometimes being referred to as 1080+) the added chromium, nickel, and vanadium make it quite a bit different. If you compare TTT diagrams you'll see that 80CrV2 has a lot more time to get under the nose. In fact it looks a lot closer to O1 than it does to 1080, so if you use a very fast oil with 80CrV2 you risk microfracturing along the edge (I'm speaking from experience here).

In short, once you get to know the steel and get your heat treat parameters dialed in, it will perform very, very well. If you don't, you may run into some troubles.
 
Its my main mono steel now, Ive made a few dozen small EDC's and a couple big blades from it. I quench in canola, and yes definitely needs normalizing, been wanting to try parks with clay and see if I can get some hamon action I get a great hardening line from edge quenching. Forges well, grinds well and finishes well. Seems it benefits from a toothy edge and cuts great and last
 
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You can definitely get a hamon with 80CrV2 but I have not yet seen one with the crazy, whispy ashi activity you can sometimes get in shallow hardening steels like W1, W2, or 1095.
 
Great looking blade! Thanks for the feedback on the 80CRV2! What are the specs on this blade and what was your heat treat process? Thank you!
 
80CrV2 has been sold here in the US for 10 years by Alpha Knife under the name 1080+. It is also known as 1.2235 as is used for saw blades, carbide saw blade bodies, pruning shears, and other cutting tools. my experience is with thin section, <1/8", HT was 5 minute soak at 800C, quench in 12 second oil, temper and go. at the suggestion of R.Landes,(http://www.hypefreeblades.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=640) one blade was tempered twice at 375F for 15 minutes with cold water quench between. outcome was Rc62 and no change in performance. the steel from Alpha Knife is ready to grind and heat treat. scale after heat treat was about the same as O1 or 1084. here is a link to 1.2235 data sheet that includes TTT diagram. http://www.dew-stahl.com/fileadmin/...zeugstahl/Kaltarbeitsstahl/GB_Cryodur2235.pdf don't over think the HT, less time at high temps is less scale and decarb.
scott
 
Scott, how would you describe the stuff? To me it sounds like a good compromise/combination of the toughness properties of 5160 and perhaps the slightly increased abrasion resistance of say an "enhanced" 10xx steel like 1086M.
 
Wulf said:
I recently destruction-tested a few 80CrV2 blades and feel like I'm getting to know the steel fairly well. There are a few things worth considering when working with it.

The decarb issue is one that has come up a few times with 80CrV2. I've experienced it too. It's possible, depending on the supplier or producer, that it comes from the mill this way, but I haven't been able to confirm that. Controlling your forge atmosphere of course helps to mitigate this issue, as does the use of an anti-scale compound, but if the surface is already decarbed by the time you first receive it, you'll need to leave a little more material there for post-heat treat grinding and finishing. I'll ask my supplier about this as well because it's come up enough times now that it may indeed be worth exploring further.

Another issue with 80CrV2 is that it comes heavily spheroidized (or, at least much of what has reached the knifemakers' market lately does), so in order to get good results you have to normalize and thermal cycle the steel before heat treatment. This is particularly important for stock removal makers.

Lastly, despite looking somewhat similar to 1080 (and sometimes being referred to as 1080+) the added chromium, nickel, and vanadium make it quite a bit different. If you compare TTT diagrams you'll see that 80CrV2 has a lot more time to get under the nose. In fact it looks a lot closer to O1 than it does to 1080, so if you use a very fast oil with 80CrV2 you risk microfracturing along the edge (I'm speaking from experience here).

In short, once you get to know the steel and get your heat treat parameters dialed in, it will perform very, very well. If you don't, you may run into some troubles.
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Excellent post and excellent advice. I agree completely....with all of it.

I've said for a while now that calling it 1080+ didn't do this steel any favors. It's not really all that much like 1080 and simple 1080-like treatments of it will leave some performance on the table.
 
Karl, I've used 80CrV2 with 75Ni8 and O2. Performance-wise it's great, but doesn't etch that dark; not a ton of contrast. It's more like a light grey.
 
I have been looking at this steel for a while. Would you think it is much different from my much loved O1 Derrick?
 
I think that the 1080+ was devised because of the carbon content. It really doesn't resemble 1080 beyond that. It has the chrome content of 5160, the vanadium content of W2 and manganese content somewhere in between W2 and "traditional" 1084. I have seen some specs that say it has a pinch of moly like O1 or L6 and a little silicon. Knives said that some batches have like .4% nickel, but Chucks specs do not list that for his 1080+ Basically, it looks like it has little pinches of a number of alloying elements that we normally associate with producing fine grain, fairly easy hardening characteristics and good toughness. Of course, the contrarian position could be that "it doesn't have quite enough of this or that to do this or that" but we have seen in stuff like Don's W2 than even a small amount of an alloying element like V can do some things that you don't expect like give some fairly good abrasion resistance at high hardness levels. That property may be the result of the V allowing fine grain and stable edges at those high hardness levels, but you still get the benefit even if v carbides are not "directly" contributing.
I wonder why people just don't call it L2 Modified, because it does kinda sorta fit into the broadest L2 specs if you stuff it in.
Wulf said:
Yup. More accurate would be O1- (less manganese and no tungsten) but pluses sell better than minuses ;)
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