Recommendation? Could anyone give me some advice about Z-WEAR 62.5HRC

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blzwow

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Nov 26, 2016
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I got a piece of Peter's HT Z-WEAR,Plan to make a 14in chopper.But the hardness is 62.5HRC and the thickness is only 3 mm,I do not know whether the material with such high hardness is suitable for making chopper even for a toughness steel like Z-WEAR.
please give me some advice guys.
 
It's a great steel with the same composition as Vascowear, Cruwear and PD#1. It is pretty tough but I wouldn't pick that high a hardness for a large heavy chopper. It does great down at rc 59 and still is pretty wear resistant. I'm curious. Are you saying it came to you already heat treated? It should rc in the 30's if it wasn't.

Joe
 
blzwow said:
I got a piece of Peter's HT Z-WEAR,Plan to make a 14in chopper.But the hardness is 62.5HRC and the thickness is only 3 mm,I do not know whether the material with such high hardness is suitable for making chopper even for a toughness steel like Z-WEAR.
please give me some advice guys.
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Zwear is ZAPPs version of pm Cru-wear Tough stuff. Not as tough as 3v but more edge holding.
Cru-wear is used on competition choppers like other pm tool steels such as m4 and 4v and v4e for the best blend of strength and Toughness.

Your big problem is 3mm thickness.

I don't think you should make a 3mm chopper. That's 0.111 inches man.

A spyderco Paramilitary 2 folder is 4mm stock my man.


It's not that you have to worry about it exploding while chopping it's fairly durable stuff. That stock is too dang thin.

The real issue is just that it will suck at chopping at that thickness. It won't be very effective. It will bounce or stick in wood depending on the blade grind.
Very anemic.

Might be a good machete for grassy stuff but idk, that's kinda a waste of zwear imho.

Make some hunters man, or make some Bushcrafting blades.

You need 7mm thick and up for a good chopper.

Or do what you want hahaha I'm just a random guy on the internet lol
 
The Mastiff said:
It's a great steel with the same composition as Vascowear, Cruwear and PD#1. It is pretty tough but I wouldn't pick that high a hardness for a large heavy chopper. It does great down at rc 59 and still is pretty wear resistant. I'm curious. Are you saying it came to you already heat treated? It should rc in the 30's if it wasn't.

Joe
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YES,it came tome already heat treated,Im chinese I bought it from a middleman,They buy a variety of steel and give these steel to BOS or PETERS for heat treatment then sell them to customers like me.
 
As for thickness for a "chopper" Bob Kramer successfully performed the ABS performance test on CBS Sunday morning with one of his 52100 chef knives. No damage, hair shaving sharp after the rope and two 2x4 chop and the blade bent to 90 and went back to dead straight. The late Bill Moran used to make a model called the Colorado Camp Knife. it was rather large and made from 1/8" W2 IIRC. How thick is the typical machete? ;)
 
I would not make a hard use chopper but that is just my opinion and others may differ. It's pretty tough alright but that steel is heat treated more with camp type medium or slicing work in mind. It's not going to let you down in that regard. I'd imagine after buying and shipping it to you it's not inexpensive so maybe don't take chances of chipping out the edge and having to remove more steel. That is my advice anyways. It has pretty good abrasive wear resistance at that hardness and would make a great camp knife, skinning or even fighting type knife.

Joe
 
My Huntsman Fell Beast in Nitro V steel is 3 mm thick, with just 0.030 inches behind the edge. It chops incredibly well for woody material beyond what's optimal for a machete. The hardness is 59-59 Rc.

The geometry of chopping is more task-specific than people think. Just look at all the edge and blade geometries for axes -- all much different for different kinds of wood and tasks. So if you want to make a chopper, you might want to consider what kind of chopper and what it will be chopping. Match the steel, hardness, balance and geometry to the task.

My sense is the you could make a good chopper out of it, depending on what you want to chop. For chopping branches and small shrubs and trees, a harder steel can be an advantage because it can resist the lateral forces of changing grain patters in the wood without half-mooning on you.

Also, it's not just hardness that you have to worry about, it's also grain size. Two steels with equal hardness can have much different toughness ratings if one steel has fine grain and the other more coarse grain.
 
I'm still trying to figure out how you will cut and shape the heat treated steel and maintain your sanity? Maybe you are lucky that it is only 3mm and not 7mm thick...
Maybe you should post a work-in-progress thread?:)
 
foofie said:
I'm still trying to figure out how you will cut and shape the heat treated steel and maintain your sanity? Maybe you are lucky that it is only 3mm and not 7mm thick...
Maybe you should post a work-in-progress thread?:)
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That's what the knifemaker needs to worry about,not me haha
 
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