Heat Treating Vanax - How Hard Does it Get?

Interesting. I maxed out at Rc60 with z-finit. I have a knife I made in vanax and when I tested it this week, I got Rc61/62. (My tester read Rc60x1, Rc61x2, and Rc63x7) but I know my tester reads between 1/2 to one point high.

I used 1975f for 30 min, and tempered at 350f 2hx3. Cryo was overnight. I’m curious that see what hardness the samples I made test at.
 
So compared to AEB-L. what do you get out of this steel other than some enhanced corrosion resistance at the expense of a bit of toughness and hardness? Does it have abrasion resistance similar to say 440C?
 
jdm61 said:
So compared to AEB-L. what do you get out of this steel other than some enhanced corrosion resistance at the expense of a bit of toughness and hardness? Does it have abrasion resistance similar to say 440C?
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The wear resistance is more in the S30V/Elmax range.
 
This has been my experience over the past year of trying to figure this steel out.

It is a very enjoyable steel for a wide audience of users. Like a rust proof Elmax but has more stability, so it can take more advantage of thinner geometry with a wider range of users and not be prone to microchipping.

It's also much easier for a wider audience to sharpen.

Seems any attempts at maxing Vanax out with hardness pulls it away from it's purpose and into territories that other steels will have more advantages. It's also not very capable of high hardness anyways

60rc seems to be the sweet spot for this one for it to be what it's designed for, the highest balance of attributes.

So it's a very friendly steel to a wide range folks, it just costs a lot.
 
It's still got amazing properties namely corrosion resistance and wear resistance. It's been tested to survive dishwasher use without any issue, and can be used deep under the ocean. I would happily take that 61 rc. Other stainless steels I've used do get occasional rust spots, whereas Vanax would not rust.

It does seem like a difficult steel to heat treat consistently if the nitrogen just escapes from the steel with a few minutes extra holding time. This is the biggest mark against it. Would a salt bath kiln help in this regard?
 
Best practice is to HT full thickness, grind after HT.

Nitrogen loss is on the surface and is ground away.

A good foil wrap is sufficient.




cotdt said:
It's still got amazing properties namely corrosion resistance and wear resistance. It's been tested to survive dishwasher use without any issue, and can be used deep under the ocean. I would happily take that 61 rc. Other stainless steels I've used do get occasional rust spots, whereas Vanax would not rust.

It does seem like a difficult steel to heat treat consistently if the nitrogen just escapes from the steel with a few minutes extra holding time. This is the biggest mark against it. Would a salt bath kiln help in this regard?
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jdm61 said:
WHICH version of Elmax, the sub 60Rc version or the harder version?
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Vanax, 60rc, 15dps, 13% MN type hard phase particles (Vanadium Nitrides)


−157+15.8×60−17.8×30+20.9×13
= 528.7 predicted Total Cards Cut.

Elmax, 60rc, 15dps, 16% M7C3 carbides, 2% MC type particles ( Vanadium Carbides)


−157+15.8×60−17.8×30+14.6×16+26.2×2
=543 predicted Total Cards Cut.


All the information is in Larrin's articles.

His formula is excellent at predicting CATRA wear resistance testing results.

https://knifesteelnerds.com/2018/11/19/steel-edge-retention/



*S35VN is 502 TCC, less than Vanax
 
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I’m finding both z-finit and vanax can support a zero edge even though the Rockwell hardness is lower than we typically use with a comparable carbon steel. Wear resistance is better than the Rc numbers would suggest too. That’s just anecdotal at this time. I can’t think of any obvious reason as to why that would be.
 
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