Hardening of 80CrV2 in Blade smith Forge

[Juha Perttula]

I published a study "Hardening of 80CrV2 in Blade smith Forge" in a Japanese scientific journal ISIJ International. You can find it here

Hardening of 80CrV2 in Bladesmith Forge

Access full-text academic articles: J-STAGE is an online platform for Japanese academic journals.

www.jstage.jst.go.jp

My conclusions were as follows:
(1) Commercial steel plates are often soft annealed. It is not a suitable starting microstructure for forge hardening. The material shall be forged (or solution treated) and normalized before hardening.
(2) Normalizing with cooling on anvil or in air.
(3) Cr alloying increases the required austenitization temperature. The optimal forge hardening temperature is 820–860°C, which is one shade brighter heat color than non-magnetic.
(4) Oil quenching (water quenching may result in cracks).
(5) Low tempering temperatures of 170–200°C (340-390°F) can be used because of superfine grain size and good ductility.

Do you use 80CrV2 and have similar experiences? Particularly the low tempering temperatures 170–200°C (340-390°F) which I have tested for wood carving puukko knives. Do you think low tempering temperature and high hardness is OK in your knives?

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

Moved to Shop Talk

 

[Rick Marchand]

I can't help but be concerned about judging temperature in an open forge, by eye or even IR pyrometers. 820F-860F seems like too narrow of a window to compare it to "one shade" over non-magnetic. What is a "shade"? My thoughts are that when heat treating in a forge, once you hit non-magnetic, don't push your luck. Conditioning cycles, prior to the final hardening will mitigate the need for a soak(dont get me wrong... a soak is always better). In my opinion, there is nothing wrong with heat treating in a forge, as long as you are transparent in your methods(to clients) and don't assume you are getting the same consistent results that an oven/furnace is capable of. I also believe you are leaving performance on the table and are probably better off using a steel, better suited for simple heat treatment in a forge.

 

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I published a study "Hardening of 80CrV2 in Blade smith Forge" in a Japanese scientific journal ISIJ International. You can find it here

Hardening of 80CrV2 in Bladesmith Forge

Access full-text academic articles: J-STAGE is an online platform for Japanese academic journals.

www.jstage.jst.go.jp

My conclusions were as follows:
(1) Commercial steel plates are often soft annealed. It is not a suitable starting microstructure for forge hardening. The material shall be forged (or solution treated) and normalized before hardening.
(2) Normalizing with cooling on anvil or in air.
(3) Cr alloying increases the required austenitization temperature. The optimal forge hardening temperature is 820–860°C, which is one shade brighter heat color than non-magnetic.
(4) Oil quenching (water quenching may result in cracks).
(5) Low tempering temperatures of 170–200°C (340-390°F) can be used because of superfine grain size and good ductility.

Do you use 80CrV2 and have similar experiences? Particularly the low tempering temperatures 170–200°C (340-390°F) which I have tested for wood carving puukko knives. Do you think low tempering temperature and high hardness is OK in your knives?

I dont feel like 340-390 are particularly low temperatures for tempering. Those are about average. You can get away with even lower, depending on the steel, the austenizing temp, and the intended function of the steel being used.