Heat treating S30v

Lerch

Well-Known Member
Hi everybody

well im getting ready to do my first knife in CPMS30V and i am reading mixed stuff on how to heat treat it. I will be plate quenching and cryo treating as well

i have read to heat treat it just like 154cm and i have read to do it around 1950deg and closer to 2000deg

most of the variance has come on the tempering recipes though, i have seen anywhere from 350 to 500deg with a wide array of temper results

can anyone clear this up for me??

thanks
steve
 
Ok, I don't have any data for S30V, but I immagine that it's a pretty complex alloy that has two hardening peaks on the tempering chart. One is going to probably be around 450 degrees and that's where enough of the martensite is reduced to a workable hardness. Then, usually closer to 1000-1200 degrees for most of the high complexity alloys, there is a second peak that is caused by native carbides being formed that actually offset the loss of hardness from the further reduction of carbon content in the martensite. With alloys like tungsten and vanadium this really increases wear resistance too. The higher austinizing temperatures that you listed has to do with the tungsten and vanadium carbides melting at a higher temperature to release the carbon into solution in the austinite.

Doug
 
Spec sheet here.

The different austenizing temps give you different possibilities for final out come. You can see that cryo makes a huge difference in the Heat Treat of this steel. That's part of the reason for the different tempering recommendations you've seen. The other reason is probably differing preference of hardness an S30V blade should be. This alloy gets it's excellent edge retention largely from Vanadium carbides, so it performs very well in that RHC 58/59 range. Some makers feel it's even better at higher hardness. There is indeed a secondary tempering range as Doug pointed out. It may lead to slightly lower corrosion resistance and it will leave more oxides on the blade than the lower range.
 
well these knives are going to a couple of SWAT officers for attachment to there molle gear. they will more than likely never be used but they will show them off to eachother and show how sharp they are (and hopefully talk each other into buying more :) )

so really edge retention would be my primary concern But God help one of these guys and he has to use it then toughness would be a massive concern as well
 
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