L6 confusion

[jdm61]

I was checking out Kevin Cashen's website for about the 1000th time and reading up on L6. He was saying that L6 with moly, like the Champaloy that he uses IIRC, is deeper hardening and requires higher temperatures in tempering. His chart says that the Aq hardness is around 63 and 400F gives you about 60-61 Rc. Now here is where it gets confusing. From what I have read and been told, the L6 that we can get from Aldo is Carpenter R.D.S. which does not contain moly. So, curious lad that I am, I pulled up Carpenter's data sheet. Not only does their info seem to imply that R.D.S. may not be quite as finicky, it also more importantly says that the AQ hardness is 61/62 and at 400F, you should get hardness levels of 56/57 using the same austenizing procedure that got you 60-61. Hence my befuddlement. Does anyone have any experience with the R.D.S.?

 

[Russ Andrews]

I was using Carpenter's L6 sometime in the late 90's and found that it didn't harden as well as
I had hoped....I discussed this with Kevin,and called Carpenter and Crucible and
found that Carpenter specifies .75 carbon max and Crucible's is .75 nominal...which means that
Crucible's L6 may have more carbon as well as the moly. The RDS actually had .69 C.
In practice, I found that Champaloy did get a bit harder out of the quench, and remain harder after 350-400f temper.....
though I can't recite numbers, as I didn't have a tester then.

 

[jdm61]

Thanks, Russ :thumbup:

 

[Jrmysell]

Where can you buy Crucicble's Champaloy? Everywhere I've looked the specs are far enough off from what Crucible says that I don't think they're the same thing.

 

[Russ Andrews]

Where can you buy Crucicble's Champaloy? Everywhere I've looked the specs are far enough off from what Crucible says that I don't think they're the same thing.

I'd suggest calling Crucible. If they don't have it in stock, they may be able
to direct you to a service center/distributor that has some.

 

[Kentucky]

Ive still got some republic L6 that I got from Aldo a long time ago. Its got Moly like champaloy. I love the steel but it can be a pain to work with. It came in 3/4" thick, 2 " wide, 4" long chunks so it needs a hammer or press work up.. It will air harden to a good degree so it must be spheroidized after its forged to shape to do much grinding on. id say it will hit high 50's just laying on the work bench..
I accidentally put a 1/4" thick piece in the middle of a 15n20/1084 billet once and it ripped the billet in two while laying on the bench cooling.

 

[jdm61]

I remember you talking about that , but I didn't know which version of L6 you had. Do you still use it for axe bits?

Ive still got some republic L6 that I got from Aldo a long time ago. Its got Moly like champaloy. I love the steel but it can be a pain to work with. It came in 3/4" thick, 2 " wide, 4" long chunks so it needs a hammer or press work up.. It will air harden to a good degree so it must be spheroidized after its forged to shape to do much grinding on. id say it will hit high 50's just laying on the work bench..
I accidentally put a 1/4" thick piece in the middle of a 15n20/1084 billet once and it ripped the billet in two while laying on the bench cooling.

 

[Kentucky]

Occasionaly yea but Lisa uses so much W1 for the other stuff she sells that normally we end up using W1 for the cutting bits too. W1 is a very good steel to, makes well a good cutting tool for about anything really.
That republic L6 if Im not bad mistaken has about .72 carbon and about .25 Moly

 

[the possum]

I recall reading that Tim Zowada mainly uses the RDS L6. He could be a good resource of info if you contact him.

 

[jdm61]

How hard do you run the W1 bit in an axe?

Occasionaly yea but Lisa uses so much W1 for the other stuff she sells that normally we end up using W1 for the cutting bits too. W1 is a very good steel to, makes well a good cutting tool for about anything really.
That republic L6 if Im not bad mistaken has about .72 carbon and about .25 Moly

 

[Kentucky]

How hard do you run the W1 bit in an axe?

Still pretty hard to be honest, you know how W2 withstands edge damage at high hardness? it seems W1 withstands it pretty good to(not to the extent of W2 but good). Id say 57rc-58rc on a lot of them especially green woodworking axes. Now in a large axe that's going to hit a lot of hardwood its a little softer but not much.
Truth be told I carried a hawk with a W1 bit for a long time that I know was 58-59 easy and never had an issue with chipping and I butchered with it and everything. Beat the crap out of it. Though all the edges are tested before they go out to. They are aust around 1465°-1475° and quenched in parks. Then tempered in three hour cycles.