New Steels - 80CRV2 and 8670

Fiddleback

Fiddleback

Knifemaker
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Hi guys. I know y'all have noticed the knives we've been putting out in 80CRV2, and there will be a few other steels we're going to try as well. Thought I'd drop a note here about the steels and why I decided to give them a shot.

A lot of the why is simple convenience. We carry these steels at Pops, so its just a matter of grabbing a bar and giving it a shot. A lot of it has to do with Joey, who is always trying new stuff and is really passionate about metalurgy.

The 80CRV2 was appealing to me because of its toughness. Its bombproof. Our local buddy Kevin S. who makes knives and shops at Pops a lot (thanks Kevin) really got 80CRV2 stuck in my head. Kevin has arms bigger than both my thighs together. He had a blade warp and decided to break it to see the grain. He put it in a vise, used a pipe for leverage, and didn't have the strength to break the 5/32 blade. Hmmmmnm. I couldn't get the picture out of my head. Plus Joey... I really like working the stuff, and even though it will/does rust, it is a very good knife steel.

Now Pops has picked up a good source of 8670. I've noticed a lot of makers use this carbon steel including Don Hanson. I'm intrugued. We got the stuff in on Tuesday. Joey and I are making test blades to beat up in the side yard here. (I'm making a Leuku from 5/32.) Its very tough at very high hardnesses. We're getting rc63 (tested) out of quench and are hoping to temper to rc61 and still have a tough blade. I'll make sure we post pics of the testing fun. If I like what happens with that Leuku, I'll be making a few knives out of that as well.

There are others I may try out too. We have 15N20 in the shop now as well and I'm hearing a lot of great stuff about it AND its stainless, so I may give it a shot soon.

Still love A2. The one on my hip today is an A2 knife. (A dud with bone handles and tiffany blue liners.) Its been passing the Pops Knife Supply test with flying colors. Pops is hard on an edge because we open lots of bosxes that are contaminated with the abrasives inside them. Its actually been a very useful testing ground for the knives. Convenient.

I may start putting out a few in CPM S35VN as well. I have a production Runt on the shelves in the belt storage area, and that stuff is amazing at the edge.

Little update. More to come. You can see the steels we carry at www.popsknifesupplies.com . There are quite a few nowadays, thanks to Joey.
 
Fiddleback said:
Hi guys. I know y'all have noticed the knives we've been putting out in 80CRV2, and there will be a few other steels we're going to try as well. Thought I'd drop a note here about the steels and why I decided to give them a shot.

A lot of the why is simple convenience. We carry these steels at Pops, so its just a matter of grabbing a bar and giving it a shot. A lot of it has to do with Joey, who is always trying new stuff and is really passionate about metalurgy.

The 80CRV2 was appealing to me because of its toughness. Its bombproof. Our local buddy Kevin S. who makes knives and shops at Pops a lot (thanks Kevin) really got 80CRV2 stuck in my head. Kevin has arms bigger than both my thighs together. He had a blade warp and decided to break it to see the grain. He put it in a vise, used a pipe for leverage, and didn't have the strength to break the 5/32 blade. Hmmmmnm. I couldn't get the picture out of my head. Plus Joey... I really like working the stuff, and even though it will/does rust, it is a very good knife steel.

Now Pops has picked up a good source of 8670. I've noticed a lot of makers use this carbon steel including Don Hanson. I'm intrugued. We got the stuff in on Tuesday. Joey and I are making test blades to beat up in the side yard here. (I'm making a Leuku from 5/32.) Its very tough at very high hardnesses. We're getting rc63 (tested) out of quench and are hoping to temper to rc61 and still have a tough blade. I'll make sure we post pics of the testing fun. If I like what happens with that Leuku, I'll be making a few knives out of that as well.

There are others I may try out too. We have 15N20 in the shop now as well and I'm hearing a lot of great stuff about it AND its stainless, so I may give it a shot soon.

Still love A2. The one on my hip today is an A2 knife. (A dud with bone handles and tiffany blue liners.) Its been passing the Pops Knife Supply test with flying colors. Pops is hard on an edge because we open lots of bosxes that are contaminated with the abrasives inside them. Its actually been a very useful testing ground for the knives. Convenient.

I may start putting out a few in CPM S35VN as well. I have a production Runt on the shelves in the belt storage area, and that stuff is amazing at the edge.

Little update. More to come. You can see the steels we carry at www.popsknifesupplies.com . There are quite a few nowadays, thanks to Joey.
Click to expand...

I was wondering about the blade steel offerings .. thanks for 'splaining! :thumbsup:

Ummmm, you DO KNOW that if you want to test breaking a blade, all you need to do is send it to good ole Big Deal Bmurray Bmurray :D:D:D
 
I’ve bought a knife from a fairly new maker and he uses 8670. He said it has some superb chemistry. Ive been using it a lot as an edc but the jury is still out on edge retention until I get some more time with it. So far so good.

Dave Wenger swears by the 80crv2 for his blades as they’re all hard use designs. He’s a good guy that may be able to throw you a few ideas with it.
 
Fiddleback said:
I'm hoping the 8670 is as Bobproof as I think the 80CRV2 is...
Click to expand...

I heard that John Greco used 8670 and had good results. Andy, if you want, if I can find it, I can send it to you to try. It is a small bowie, but know any results would spend his w he did his heat treatment. Someone had said that it was like 5160 but held an edge longer.
 
Would like to hear your results using the test knife in 8670. Keep us informed as you can. Appreciate it.
 
Friday afternoon bout time to go home
Joey Berry chopped that sapping down in the background w/ his test blade....(slightly larger than the Leuku)
2v2HYK1yFxurAoi.jpg



I started some more 8670 this morning(purple) w/ the first batch from the Open books orders..
2v2HY4HLrxurAoi.jpg



We've got Allen doing some Curly Q's in O1 today as well
2v2HY4HgjxurAoi.jpg
 
With all these different steels, are you going to run out of Dykum colors?
 
Joey and I took the 8670 test knives out for a spin this weekend. We were out on Lake Lanier with our ladies having fun. During stops at beaches to relax we did a bit of edge testing on the blades.

The first thing we cut was lime for our beers. The edge sliced right through that lime with zero edge damage. LOL.

Then we hacked around and chopped on seasoned wood on the beach there. No trouble with that either. Then we did a bit of batonning with some firewood we found on the beach. The spine on these knives is 1/8" thick. I wailed on my Leuku with a bigger branch than I usually would and along the way I did a lot more prying than I usually do with a knife.

Handled it like a breeze. I was impressed that there was no edge damage by deflection or chipping. I ground this thing to almost zero because I wanted to really give it any excuse to fail.

So far my impressions are of a very tough steel, on par I think with 80CRV2, but much more stain resistant. No fingerprints stuck on the blade, and mine didn't even darken out when cutting the lime. Zero edge damage, and the knives were still hair poppin sharp after an hour or so of testing. This stuff is so easy to heat treat, and so stable (ie no warp even on 1/16" thick filet knives) that it is a knifemakers dream IMO.

Fun day too.

2v2HYCKe3xurAoi.jpg


2v2HYCKQUxurAoi.jpg


2v2HYCKKuxurAoi.jpg


2v2HYCKcdxurAoi.jpg
 
Good info, I think the key is your heat treatment and your edge bevels. Thanks for getting out and using them.
 
WOW Andy that 8650 LEUKU is the medium/large all a-rounder to go for... looking forward to seeing it debut on Fiddleback Friday in the near future :thumbsup::thumbsup:
 
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