Anyone know sword stuff, I need some help

R

running bird

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Sep 29, 2015
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So I'm making a sword for a YouTuber to do a test video on, and well, it just hit me that, 1) I haven't worked with the steel I'm making it out of before (80crv2) but I have worked with 5160 plenty, are the two steels similar? I heard somewhere that they are. And 2) I'm kinda nervous about the HT of a sword, cuz ya know it would kinda suck to have my blade snap for 500,000 people to see! And I've never HT a sword but I have HT large blades before (20")
Will my experience with 5160 be enough? If so then I might be fine, but I'm still a little nervous! Any help and advice would be great, I'm mostly worried about messing up the HT
 
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Unfortunately no steel advice from me, but I can tell you three things that may become very important down the road:
INDEMNIFICATION, INDEMNIFICATION, INDEMNIFICATION.

If something happens and that YouTuber gets hurt, you could lose everything to the legal system (well, maybe a small portion of the everything to the YouTuber).


Exhibit #1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7e77oXjFkIs
 
I have most of that covered with him so I don't really have to worry about that.
Also someone beat me to it! He was in an accident a while back and is still healing back to normal, so I have a lot of time to plan and work on my project.
 
First off, I suspect you will be using 80CrV2, not 8crv2. It is similar to 5160 with more carbon, or similar to L6 with less nickel. Here is a chart I put together on them:
http://zknives.com/knives/steels/steelgraph.php?nm=5160, 80CrV2,L6&hrn=1&gm=0

Forge hot like 5160, and quit at red. Normalize before HT. Austenitize at 1500F and soak for 15 minutes ( if possible). Oil quench in medium speed oil and temper at 450F twice.
 
Double edged or single edged? If single youcan temper at a lower temp and draw the spine-below is flatground 80CrV2 differential hardened with an oxypropane rig (to where my el cheapo rockwell 65 file won't scratch it)and tempered @375 for two one hour soaks:

That's not a super thin flat grind, but it's about 18 degrees per side, and the chip/roll from cutting the nail is about .007 deep. With a convex grind that stuff's even tougher.
EDIT:that ^ is supposed to be a video, dunno why it won't play.
 
JW, I was planing on a double edge sword, specifically a long sword with a very slight leaf shape

With the leaf shape change how I HT? the blade won't be as wide near the hilt as it is at the belly of the leaf
 
I would actually temper it past 450 for the same reason consumer cutlery is tempered so soft. In most people mind, not holding a great edge is better than the risk of catastrophic failure like a snap
 
running bird said:
JW, I was planing on a double edge sword, specifically a long sword with a very slight leaf shape

With the leaf shape change how I HT? the blade won't be as wide near the hilt as it is at the belly of the leaf
Click to expand...

I tend to stick to single edged stuff both by preference and because I can differential temper it. For a double edged sword proceed as Stacy suggested-it's very hard to differential temper unless there's a wide, deep fuller. I have found that if 80CrV2 doesn't get a soak it will still harden correctly, especially if it's been thermal cycled.
 
Good point.
450F will put you around Rc57-58. With a thick spine drawn to blue, that would be one heck od a cutter. 500F will drop that about a point. Depending on the projected use and length/geometry it could be tempered as high as 600F and still be a good sword. Many were only Rc 53-54.
 
Thanks so much for then help everyone. I feel a little better about the whole thing now and I'm pretty confident my sword will turn out great now.

Thanks for the advice
 
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