S30v

L6steel

L6steel

Joined
Sep 23, 1999
Messages
5,855
I just got finished flat sanding 19 feet of 1" wide s30v I bought from Crucible. This stuff is a dream! It's ten times slicker out of the box than any other regular bar stock I've ever bought. I slicked up both sides on all 19 feet with just two 120 grit belts.I could have gotten more out of the first belt but my arms were aching :o There were only a couple small sections that had any pitting at all. Also, it seemed to work very easily. Towards the end I decided to crank up my grinder and see how it worked at higher speeds. I cranked the grinder up from 30% to 70% and the stuff was even easier to grind. I sure hope I get the same results when I start hollow grinding! Oh yeah, I use aluminum oxide belts.
 
I didn't see a big difference between it and 440C before hardening. It drills easily and grinds smoothly. After hardening though, it is much harder to get the fine scratches out.
 
Michael,
Keep us posted on how this stuff takes a finish. according to Jerry Hossom it is REALLY tough to get a good Satin finish done after hardening this stuff. I am really curious because I want to use it for Flat ground satin finished Bowies. Not easy to do even on a good day!
 
Maybe it's just that on a blade that's 12" long it seems tougher. It hollow grinds pretty easily. I've had the most trouble getting scratches out of flats. If you find it easy to finish, you'd better check the hardness. :)
 
I have used S30V for a few blades. love the steel. grinds easily before Ht. and after isnt too bad. i brought the plunge line back about 1/2" after it was HT to 61 and then hand finished the whole blade to 400 or so hand finish. Norax belts really work well on this steel and its easy to finish the steel up from there. I have 2 11" blade bowies on order from S30v and i will be starting those shortly, as soon as the material comes in. grinding, it wasn't noticealy different than D2 before they were heat treated.
 
i find it easier to machine and drill than 440c. with norton hoggers it put out puffs of shavings that look like brillo pads. i just recived more s30v. www.trugrit.com has it in stock now.
 
You guys that have used s30v - how machinable do think it is compared to ATS-34? I want to get some s30v but have some ATS-34 I want to use up first. The ATS is (to me) a little more difficult to machine than the O-1 I started out with but still not bad at all I think.

Thanks; RL
 
its AFTER the 180 grit that you run into problems......it does NOT give up the scratches easily, either before or after h/t.
 
Norax belts make S30V go much faster in terms of grinding. i know i said it before, and i will say it again. NORAX. these work great on S30V. I go up to 320 and then 500 norax, and then hand sand from 320 to 400, to 600 from there with no problems.

On a side note, i took a D2 blade, 61 rockwell and a s30v blade, 61 rockwell head to head today, or i should say edge to edge. the S30V chipped out 3 times as much as the D2. Also, hitting the back corners of the blade together, the S30V was damaged a lot more. is it really more brittle at 61 than D2? the edges were pretty close to the same thickness and everything, and i just thought it was wierd. the D2 resisted chipping more and chipped out less. Any ideas???
 
All of my initial testing of S30V was at Rc60, and it is definitely NOT more brittle than D2 or much of anything else for that matter. I now have it run at Rc59 as does Rob Simonich and we both find it almost indestructable. Taz, I have to think something went wrong with that temper...
 
Taz, sounds like a bad heat treat, I put S30-V through some bad torture and the blade I destroyed at RC59 was tougher than D-2, ATS, 154 or even A-2. Did you cryo? What was the profile of the heat treat?
 
The HT was by paul bos to 61 rockwell, and i believe it had the cryo done. Maybe 61 is too hard for this steel? maybe i got it too hot when i finished grinding it? didnt change colors, though. the hits werent that hard, wasn't trying to completely destroy the blade, but I was suprised when the D2 blade has much less damage to the edge and back.
 
:D One thing I learned long ago. When you send a blade to Paul, just tell him to make it what he thinks is right. Never fails. Even at Rc61 though, it should have been tougher than D2. Strange.
 
I usually let Paul choose the rockwell, or i ask around to several different people or read posts about it. Several people i talked to said go to 61 with the S30V, so thats what I did, but that was a while ago before the testing was done at 59. It was just really strange, i did the test a few times to make sure i wasnt favoring the D2 blade.

On another note with S30V, i live this steel. Customer up in canada got bored so he decided to polish the edge of the knife up with 4000 grit sandpaper, and then 8000 grit rouge. he said the steel sparkles like a mirror now and he said the cutting action is incredible. I can get the S30V to shave easily, but its hard polishing out the belt scratches, esp using a convex edge. I usually sharpen at 120, 220 belts, then go to 320, 400 with the norax, and then strop with a leather belt and white rouge. When i try to convex edge, the edge seems to get rolled over and doesn't get very sharp. Am i making too many passes on each side? What are some of the sharpening procedures that you guys use on S30V??
 
I use a slack belt for all sharpening, varying the belt recipe some according to the steel. For most I start with 120, usually worn, then Norax 65, 30, 16 and strop lightly with white compound on a plain cloth belt. With CPM-3V and S30V, which will take a very fine edge, I add in a Norax 5 belt before the polish strop.

I can't imagine why your edges roll unless it is simply too thin. If anything, a convex edge should be less prone to rolling.
 
i wish crucible would do a powdered 154cm for us who like a really fine finish.

but you guys should go to flat grinds and stones to finish. last night i decided to see what all the fuss was over s30v. J.W. Smith sent me a piece and i ground 3 blades out of it. annealed it ground as easy as ats34 to me with 3M 977 belts.
I figured after heat treat was where the problems would begin. I finish ground a dagger blade with some yellow klingspor belts that i was going to throw away cuz i didnt like them so i figured if s30v was so nasty id try them on it. i used 220 for the finish grind then went to my diemakers stones in kerosene. 400 grit stones went through it as easy as ats34:P then i went to 600 then 1000. i finished from 220 belts to 1000 grit stones in about an hour but now heres the bitch...getting an even scratch pattern with 1000 grit paper! s30v does not like sandpaper for more than one pass lol. so this is where the trouble seems to be.
 
There is a powder version of 154CM/ATS-34. It's called RWL-34. Michael Walker sells it here. I got mine from Wolf Borger in Germany. It takes the most amazing polish I've ever seen. Looks like liquid Mercury.

Tim for the price of a beer at the Guild Show, I'll tell you the easy way to get an even brush pattern on S30V. Has to be good beer though... :)

BTW, who did your heat treating?
 
Call this place, and get a sample kit of Micro Mesh MX, is is much better than conventional wet and dry, and leaves a more uniform scratch pattern on any metal. Use it the same way as regular abrasives, a lube on the blade as you sand. I use WD-40.
http://www.micro-surface.com/
 
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