J. Hoffman
Dealer - Purveyor
I just recently got some 80CRV2 and started playing with it. I broke the spine when grinding one knife and just used it as heat treat test. That blade was brought to 1575° with a 10 minute soak, and quenched in Parks 50, tempered at 400° for one cycle and then snapped. I was impressed because the blade almost bent 90° before snapping. The grain was a little courser than I liked, but the Rc was right at 60.
I did some reading and found people are austenizing at 1500° with good results. So I did two more samples. The first one got a thermal cycling treatment. 1600° for two minute soak then 1500°, 1450° and 1400°. It was cooled in vermiculite after each heat. I then austenized two samples, the one that had the cycling and one that did not. I did both at 1500° for 10 minutes with a quench into Parks. I did a 400° temper on both. The non-cycled piece came in at 60 Rc and the other came in at 57 Rc again. Both pieces are very short and I'm having a hard time snapping them to get the grain size. I need a longer lever to snap it. I'm curious as to why the one is so much softer than the other.
Any suggestions would be appreciated.
I did some reading and found people are austenizing at 1500° with good results. So I did two more samples. The first one got a thermal cycling treatment. 1600° for two minute soak then 1500°, 1450° and 1400°. It was cooled in vermiculite after each heat. I then austenized two samples, the one that had the cycling and one that did not. I did both at 1500° for 10 minutes with a quench into Parks. I did a 400° temper on both. The non-cycled piece came in at 60 Rc and the other came in at 57 Rc again. Both pieces are very short and I'm having a hard time snapping them to get the grain size. I need a longer lever to snap it. I'm curious as to why the one is so much softer than the other.
Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Last edited: