Odd heat treat question

mike finder

mike finder

Joined
Mar 26, 2018
Messages
13
So at the moment my favorite steel is 80crv2, andre I've started working with thinner blades close to 3/32 for EDCs.

While Searching for ways to improve my heat treat for the steel I found a few posts that said a quick 5 to ten minute soak at 1250f really takes its toughness up a notch. I've done a blades with this added soak but haven't seen much of a difference. I can't even find the blade article on the ht of 80crv2.

I am not an expert, however, so here's the question: do any of you do the extra soak? What benefits does it have and why?

P.s I'm not to the point of selling knives yet. I'm just giving them away at the moment
 
I wouldn’t expect any change by doing that 1250 heat , except even more spheroidizing of the steel (not what we want to do). If it’s from Aldo :

1600f cool to black
~1500f””””
~1475f””””
~1450f””””
1500f 5-10 minutes quench
Temper.
 
That is basically the ht method I follow.

I thought the same thing about spheroidizing but the people claimed it had to be much longer than five or ten minutes to cause it
 
I don't think any spheroidization would occur in 5-10 minutes at 1250°F. I also don't think any sub-critical soak will do anything to increase the toughness. The above listed thermal cycling to establish good structure prior to quench should be sufficient.
 
You probably read about a stress removal cycle, which is typically done at 1200-1250 F. It relieves stresses either from grinding/forging or that were in the steel from the mill, and helps to prevent warp on quenching. Commonly recommended times for stress removal cycles are 1-2 hours, though.
 
Once again, Stacy caught something I skipped right over. Correct, there would essentially be zero change of anything in the steel with only 5-10 minutes at 1250f. I just saw the 1250f, and my mind immediately went to an hour or two, because that is the usual soak time for that temp. If one is stress relieving OR spheroidizing the steel. Just to note, the spheroidizing at that temp will need the blade to be quenched at or around critical temp prior to the 2 hour soak at 1200-1250f. Without the quench at critical, one would be simply stress relieving.
 
No, but the 1250 soak may (?) help prevent warping. I haven't been able to tell a difference on monosteel blades (assuming a proper normalization/grain refinement). But I find that if you have symmetrical grinds, normalize, and quench in an appropriate speed oil, warping is not a major problem. Hell, even with clad steel, I dont see much more problem assuming the cladding is symmetrical.
 
Looks like the jury is in on this one, thanks for the stellar replies guys.

On a side more anyone know where I can find szilaski's article on 80crv2 heat treat? Someone said March 2015, but that issue isn't even on the magazines website.
 
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