Nitro-V- third time's (not) a charm

[Kevin McGovern]

I have used a lot of AEB-L, and lately, Nitro-V. I haven't seen much difference in performance over AEB-L, but I have had this happen three times now. A crack that I discovered while grinding. The hardness is the same as I do my AEB-L at (61-62), but this issue is a bummer. When this stock is gone, I'm back to AEB-L.

 

[john april]

yuk ! sorry about the wasted time. but thanks for the warning.

 

[timos-]

wow, that really sucks. I guess I have been lucky, finished about 10 nitro v blades now and none of them have been cracked like yours and others i have seen. I would ask Brad @ Peters about this steel....he has done mine good so far.

 

[i4Marc]

I'm also about a dozen blades into Nitro-V and no problems yet. I hope I don't have one of those waiting for me. I hope you get that figured out.

 

[Kevin McGovern]

I've done about 20 others that had no issue. Several from the same batch with no issues as well.

 

[Rhinoknives1]

I've done about 20 others that had no issue. Several from the same batch with no issues as well.

I wonder what’s causing this? I haven’t had any issues with N-V at around 30 blades.. Sorry for the headache you’re having!

 

[AVigil]

I think Charlie Mike had the same trouble when using Nitro V

 

[Charlie Mike]

Yeah, I don't use it.

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

What was the HT regime, and who did it?

 

[Willie71]

This comes up often enough. Has Aldo addressed the problem?

 

[Darrin Sanders]

Nitro-V is all hype anyway. Its basically 14C28N with a fancy name. In my testing, 14C28N offers very little, if any, gain in performance, with a significant increase in cost over AEB-L. That doesn't even take the cracking problem into consideration.

 

[Kevin McGovern]

I

What was the HT regime, and who did it?

I did the heat treat. 1725- 20 minutes, plate quench. Ramped oven to 1975. Inserted blades once oven stabilized. Once oven got back to 1975- 12 minutes. Plate quench to too temp, straight into DI bath for 20 minutes. Tempered at 325- for two 1 hour cycles. RC was 61-62 at completion.

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

It might help to add a 300F snap temper before the cryo.

 

[DeadboxHero]

Nitro-V is all hype anyway. Its basically 14C28N with a fancy name. In my testing, 14C28N offers very little, if any, gain in performance, with a significant increase in cost over AEB-L. That doesn't even take the cracking problem into consideration.

Higher working hardness is the advantage over aebl.
Also more carbon then 14c28n and more available.

 

[Kevin McGovern]

It might help to add a 300F snap temper before the cryo.

Won't that negate the sub zero benefit?

 

[Willie71]

Won't that negate the sub zero benefit?

Any retained austenitite that stabilizes during that temper will not convert once in the dry ice. Not all will stabilize though.

It’s preferable to be able to go straight into the dry ice or LN.

I’ve done over 100 air hardening steel blades now, and have put test samples in LN for up to 48h prior to tempering. I’ve had zero cracks so far, so three cracked blades in the same steel points to a steel problem, not a process problem.

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

I don't use a snap temper either, but suggested it as a possible cure for his cracking during the DI bath.

In industry, it is more of an issue with cryo and complex parts.

 

[Kevin McGovern]

Thanks gentlemen .

 

[Huntsman Knife Co.]

I was very happy with my machete run I did in Nitro V but there is clearly a problem with some batches of this material. Ill be staying away from it until they get it sorted out.

 

[ShannonSteelLabs]

Damn. Im hoping my nitro v is in the good batch. It seems that lots of people are having issues with it. Makes me nervous as i have nearly 3.4 feet left from a order (only sold in 4 foot lengths.)
I will be keeping an extra close eye on the customers who have this steel in knives i have made.