Oil quenching W2?

sph3ric pyramid

sph3ric pyramid

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Jul 24, 2002
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I've been reading up on W2, and it's a water-quenched steel, right? The thing is, I'm worried about warping and cracking from such a hard quench, especially because my knives have a "zero" bevel, and are so thin at the edge.

So would an oil quench do sufficiently well? I'm aiming for HRC 60-61 or so (although I've no doubt that it'll get way up there, worried about complications that might arise, that I'm not aware of).
 
Do not water quench it. Also are you sure its W-2, I would think its W-1 since W-2 hasn't been made for a number of years. I think the main reason they call it water quench is if your doing something quite thick and large. W-1 or 2 in the form of a knife blade will certainly crack....
 
The 'W' stands for water quenching .However as Raymond mentions , in thin sections it might cause problems and of course with the thin sections oil will give full hardness and minimize cracking.
 
I used a good amout of W steel starting out and always oil/ATF quenched it with good results. About a 50/50 mix.
 
W-2 is still made in the UK, and is still made at times in the US for custom melts. It's not readily available, but you can find it if you look hard enough.

You can water quench just about anything if you do your homework and do things carefully.

If you don't have either a great deal of experience, and/or very precise temperature control...I'd say use oil. I forge most of my blades out of W1 and W2 these days, and have very good success in both Tough Quench from Brownell's, and water.

Good luck :)
Nick
 
Nick, Where you getting the W-2? I thought I had some lined up earlier this year but the company that had it couldn't locate it so I just gave up on it.....
 
This came up on another forum as well. i found a guy who sells drops from machine shop type places. If you have the ability to work larger stuff down, this may work for you. Here's our correspondences:
Here's a guy that has drops of W-2 from machine shop jobs. I contacted him and here's what he offered:

>>
>>
Don, here goes my first try. I have two lots of four pieces each. All steel is W-2, all measurements in inches, some hot rolled edges, some saw cut, priced accordingly.

Lot 1 - Price $27.50 for lot, approx 19.5 lbs.
9/16 x 3.375 x 7.5
1/2 x 2.5 x 10.75
1/2 x 3.625 x 9.75
11/16 x 3.25-3.75 x 8

Lot 2 - Price $24.75 for lot, approx 17.5 lbs.
9/16 x 3.5 x 6.25
3/4 x 2.25 x 6.625
1/2 x 3.375 x 12.5
5/8 x 2.625 x 6.625

Plus UPS at actual cost from Ohio, figure 2-4 lbs for packaging. Our zip is 44904 to get a quote or give me yours and let me know residential or business delivery. If these are the wrong type of sizes let me know and I will try again.
Thanks
Brian


DonHalter@cs.com wrote:
I'm a knifemaker and will be hot-forging to shape, so anything "in that ballpark" of size would probably work. Those just happen to be the most efficient. Length needs to be over 6". I'm looking for about 10-20 lbs, pending price. I know several others looking for the same, though, so I'll pass on any info you can provide. W2 is the only one I'm looking for.

Thanks,
Don


brian jones wrote:

>I will not be at the facility until Thurs PM and will try to look then. I realize that it may be based on pricing but assuming you like it what length do you want and approximately how many pieces. No order is too small just want to see if we have what you are looking for. Lastly, do you want me to look for any other grades.
>Thanks
>Brian Jones
>
>
>donhalter@cs.com wrote:
>I see you list W2 in your steel list. What kind of drops do you have in this? I'm looking for small sections of 1/2"-5/8" rod or 1/4" x ~1" flat bar.
>
>Thanks,
>Don
>--------------------
__________________
Don "Krag" Halter
KragAxe Armoury
 
Kevin Cashen once told me that the only thing he uses water for in his shop is for drinking. There are quenching oils available that are very close to water in quench speed, without the risk of stress cracking.

Properly heat treated W2 takes a wicked edge like few other steels.
 
Wonder why its not in demand any longer?? Why don't they make it? Was it made for some particular use that became not needed or did another analysis replace it for that use? I don't know but I have seen elsewhere besides here that W2 is used for custom knife making and all I have seen is that of forging it.
 
Yep, Brian is the guy I last bought some from. Just don't all you guys buy it all before I get a couple 500 lb. pallets from him. I couldn't find the contact info, thanks for posting it.

W-2 is considered obsolet by many people in industry. And I suppose with all of the specialized metals there are now for job-specific purposes...it probably is.

There is a tool steel locater here in Washington, and they thought I was nuts when I asked for W-2. He told me it was a dinosaur and it couldn't possibly do as well as something else could.

I told him that with it being very basic, but with Vanadium thrown in, it is nice to forge and can be hardened in any fashion and show a whicked hamon. He still said, "Well, on the paper here, it looks to be a dinosaur."

Well, on paper a '68 Charger with a 426 is a dinosaur to a fuel efficient 3 cylinder Metro...but which would you want to run the 1/4 mile in? It's all relative ;)

W-2 will sharpen fine. It is tougher than some as the Vanadium makes the edge very wear resistant...but that translates to a killer edge.

And don't listen to Danbo, he doesn't quench in oil or water :p :eek: :p HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

Nick
 
Roger, you're right, but they're one of the ones I was talking about...check shipping from Sheffield or Coventry to the US!!!

:) Nick :)
 
Nick, I missed that. Sometimes I don't read all the postings completely enough. Sorry for the redundancy. BUT dag gone, I just love this metal stuff :confused:
 
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