Zapp Z-Wear experience and heat treat

You refer to this often. Have you explained what you mean by it before? It's hard to take your posts as relevant if the way you heat treat is radically different from the way the rest of us heat treat, so much as to necessitate identifying it as different. But I may have just never seen something you've posted about it in the past.

"(at least for my ht process anyway)"
 
My apology.

Best to ignore my ht process because it is definitely a distraction rather than contributing to this thread.

I just thought, my results may add some relevancy to Warren's recent post about cru-wear. and sort of follow up my older posts about buying some cast cruwear to test. If these results turn out to be a distraction as well. Sorry about that - I will refrain further posting (yeah augment to ST Mod's advice to include results).

kuraki said:
You refer to this often. Have you explained what you mean by it before? It's hard to take your posts as relevant if the way you heat treat is radically different from the way the rest of us heat treat, so much as to necessitate identifying it as different. But I may have just never seen something you've posted about it in the past.

"(at least for my ht process anyway)"
Click to expand...
 
It most likely has manganese and silicon, they don't always list everything.

I think all steels have manganese.

Hoss
 
The 1.1% silicon is not likely to be ignored though. If it was trace amounts, I would agree with you.
 
Silicon is what gives this grade it's toughness. I would be very surprised if it's not in there.

Z-wear is a copy of the original vasco-wear. Not listing an element is not the same as not having it.

Hoss
 
You may be correct. I'm going to contact Zapp and see what they say.

In any event, this steel is pretty incredible. I wonder if it's possible to make high alloy steel Damascus?
 
I've done damascus clad pd1 core before, also did some 3V/154cm damascus in a few simple patterns. Possible but expensive.

Hoss
 
On of the things I want to do when I get my press finished is make stainless or low carbon damascus, then sandwich it over something like a thin Z-wear or M4 center.

Willie71 said:
You may be correct. I'm going to contact Zapp and see what they say.

In any event, this steel is pretty incredible. I wonder if it's possible to make high alloy steel Damascus?
Click to expand...
 
The original alloy was developed by Teledyne Vasco as part of their line up if vanadium tool steels. Vasco= vanadium steel co.

It is a cousin to A2 and is based on A2 chem composition. Additional carbon, chrome, moly, vanadium, and silicon(based on S2), were added to create a steel with greater wear resistance than D2 and higher toughness than A2. Tungsten was later added.

3V is very close to the original composition but with only .80 carbon for even greater toughness.

This alloy has been copied by many tool steel producers.

I'll be curious to find out if Z-wear has the silicon in it. It is very possible that it is not needed now because of the PM process. The original grades were cast/wrought. They still make this grade in both PM and cast/wrought today.

Hoss
 
IMG_1070 by Wjkrywko, on Flickr

Z-wear at Rc63/64. 0.007" behind the edge, 15dps. This one was austenitized at 1950f, cryo, 400fx4 temper, and the user doesn't baby his knives. I'm looking forward to his feeedback. For "regular use" this heat treat takes and holds an edge that I would have only used on a kitchen knife before. If Randy damages the edge, I'll know I need to go to 1925f, or possibly 1900f for guys who push their knives harder.
 
Update on Z-wear @61-62HRC.
I didnt do much testing on the medium sized camp knife as it was a customers blade. But i tested the small knife i made. 2" blade.
Test materials were news paper, manila rope, cardboard, ferro rod (to sart a fire) penny.
Tested edge fresh off the buffing wheel. Shaves hair with some effort. (600 grit belt, then white and green compound to break burr) slices phone book paper easily. Lost count of how many rope cuts i had but it didnt even slow down for quite a while. Tested atleast 50 cuts on cardboard still sliced paper. after all the rope and cardboard it wouldnt cut phone book paper very well. Next test penny. Hammered the knife tip through the penny. No edge damage, minimal dulling still cut printer paper, no shaving though.
The larger knife i did the same sharpening, except i stropped it after.
-600 grit belt (silicon carbide)
-Buff edge with white then green to break burr.
-strop edge on paddle strop, started with white coarse, finished with green medium fine.
Results were amazing. My sharpest knife off the grinder ever. Shaved hair with no effort at all. Push cut manilla rope. To me it was truly scary sharp.
Definitely going to make more knives with this steel. May shoot for 62HRC this next batch. Seems like its tough enough to do so.
Its definitely hard to grind after HT but its predictable and i liked it. Way wayy eiasier than S90V.
 
Willie71 said:
IMG_1070 by Wjkrywko, on Flickr

Z-wear at Rc63/64. 0.007" behind the edge, 15dps. This one was austenitized at 1950f, cryo, 400fx4 temper, and the user doesn't baby his knives. I'm looking forward to his feeedback. For "regular use" this heat treat takes and holds an edge that I would have only used on a kitchen knife before. If Randy damages the edge, I'll know I need to go to 1925f, or possibly 1900f for guys who push their knives harder.
Click to expand...
Beautiful blade man. Well done!!
 
Alpha knife supply now carries CPM Cru-Wear. If anyone was curious.
I plan on using more ZWear in the future. Perhaps a heavy duty outdoor kitchen knife. Should be a fun project.
 
ShannonSteelLabs said:
Alpha knife supply now carries CPM Cru-Wear. If anyone was curious.
I plan on using more ZWear in the future. Perhaps a heavy duty outdoor kitchen knife. Should be a fun project.
Click to expand...

I've got a few z-wear kitchen knives in use. They take a pretty fine edge, and hold it a long time. It has a slight toothy feel compared to W2 or Hitachi White, but less than S35VN. I find it's easier to do a quick touch up on the sharpener rather than stropping. Stropping takes too long. I go 3-4 months between touch ups with daily use. It's crazy good at edge holding, and stable at 0.003" before sharpening.
 
Last edited:
I have one little blade out there with a needle tip, that I took to a zero grind before sharpening. The guy is using it as his box opener/lime cutter/edc. He's telling me he's not resharpened it in the 2 months he's had it doing these things. Not even a stropping. I don't know if he means cutting tape or breaking down boxes, I'll try to get more info.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top