Forging 3V?

J W Bensinger

J W Bensinger

Joined
Mar 26, 2009
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So I finally got a piece of 3V to play with, mostly for fun and to compare my stuff to-I'm going to send it out for HT...but I would like to forge it to shape (mostly because I could only afford so big a piece, and to have more freedom with the shape and distal tapers). How sad am I going to be as far asgrinding it afterward goes, and will I cause issues down the road with this particular steel?
 
Jim,

I believe you can drop Dan Keffeler a line about this.
My opinion is that you want to be careful not to compromise the performance of the PM steels but i also understand you want to maximize the use of the piece.

He forged this 3v knife:
bowie-S5001928.jpg
 
3V has a very narrow working range when forging. It will air harden if you forge too cold and that will introduce undue stresses.
You will want to fully anneal the blade after forging. Nick Wheeler has also forged a knife from a chunk of 3V.
 
This was unexpected:image.jpg
Forged from a 3-1/2"x1-1/2"x3/16" piece of the bar of 3V. Moved reasonably well, and air cooled still ground ok. Even managed a little simple filework...I won't be drilling holes in it anyway, since I'm going to do a cord wrap on this one.
 
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I'm pleased and a little surprised that worked so well. I suspect you'll want to give it a full anneal if you can - it wouldn't hurt. Then bring it right down to final dimensions and finish before sending it out for HT. 3V is very stable when the HT is done properly, and only requires the tempering oxides to be sanded off. More importantly, you do not want to be doing any more work on it than you have to once it's hard, unless you're just going to put a basic machine satin finish on it.
 
james terrio said:
I'm pleased and a little surprised that worked so well. I suspect you'll want to give it a full anneal if you can - it wouldn't hurt. Then bring it right down to final dimensions and finish before sending it out for HT. 3V is very stable when the HT is done properly, and only requires the tempering oxides to be sanded off. More importantly, you do not want to be doing any more work on it than you have to once it's hard, unless you're just going to put a basic machine satin finish on it.
Click to expand...
I will do that-not really in a position to properly anneal3V, but I'll take them both (I did a big stock removal fighter as well) down to finish dimensions minus sharpening.
Incidentally I'm really glad I don't have to grind distal tang tapers in on a regular basis..
 
That 3v sure has a nice gleam to it.
 
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