CV blade steel

[atlatl55]

OK, CV or {chrome valadium} SP, steel blades are highly prized around here so I would like to be educated on this issue over other blade steels.
So I would guess its better than SS or high carbon? I personaly would rather have something that is more stain resistant than carbon blades. I love VG10 steel in my hunting knives or 440c or 154cm, ect.Thanks

[glenn]

What about D-2?

[atlatl55]

Like R2D2 the android and CP3o ? I think they were all stainless
But what is the super steel CV?????
May the force be with you.

[atlatl55]

So is CV more prone to rust than ss or how does it rate?

[Darksev]

CV steel isn't really a super steel, it's a form of carbon steel (i.e. 1095) with some additional stain resistance (though not that of a true stainless steel) from the addition of small amounts of Vanadium and Chromium. Care and performance are about equivalent to any good carbon steel.

CV and other carbon steels have earned much love and respect by those that use them regularly (I say use, because if it's requirements are to sit in a case and be shiny, then aluminum foil works just as well) They have been around for many many decades of hard use, whereas most of the stainless steels and "steel of the week" type materials have yet to be vetted by time. I sometimes wonder if this will ever happen in some cases... People in most of the world simply do not use knives the way they were used 50-100 years ago. Though I am a steel junkie, and I love to try out different materials, in the end it seems that often all we are doing is trying to make a better mousetrap.

(I'll explain my analogy. if you consider basic carbon steel to be your simple, effective solution to the problem of a knife blade (ala wire spring mousetrap) then all these new steels are really just trying to make a dent in what, for lack of a better term is centuries of "perfection", kinda like those silly glue traps and plastic jaw thingies.)

[atlatl55]

Thanks Adam, that was very informative and enlightening.
I very much enjoy reading your post.

[tongueriver]

Adam's comments are right on, in my view. However, I must add something. Some mice don't play nice. They just take the cheese. (And consider this: "The early bird gets the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.") Moreover: If you have a mouse that is too smart for your Victor, try this: Get a cup of Portland cement, or sift some out of a bag of concrete mix, and mix it half and half with powdered sugar. Put it into a jar lid, or some such, and place the bait strategically. They can't resist it, and it sets up in their little tummies, to ill effect. I have seen (and I swear this is the truth) a little pile of petrified mouse guts lying in a camper trailer, and the rest of the mouse was gone.

[Owd Wullie]

Look up L-6 Tool Steel. Typical Chemistry:C .75 Mn .70 Si .25 Cr .80 Ni 1.5 Mo .30.

Been around forever. Used for about everything from saw blades to lathe tools. Higher nickel content than normal high carbon steels. Very slightly more stain resistant than high carbon steels. Fun to work when annealed to dead soft and will get hard enough to cut glass. Seems to be a happy camper at about any Rockwell C range.

I have had knife blades that I forged and then hardened, break on me while sitting on the shelf waiting to be tempered. I figure that was mostly my fault for not getting the forging right and doing something stupid (like hit one more time when you knew it was going cold but just had to smack it one more time before going back to the fire)to make the internal stress blow it up.

[OLD GAR]

My papa was a self taught engineer, mechanic, machinist and the last 30 years of his life, a saddle maker. Some of his talents also covered some blacksmithing. He did horse shoeing and use the forge to fit the steel shoes to the hooves. He had lots of favorite sayings but one particularly applies to forging or forming steel parts. "More blacksmiths have gone to hell for pounding on cold iron than any other reason".

Chrome Vanadium steels can have different carbon contents and the higher the carbon the better or harder the heat treatment. Chrome does not give as much stain resistance as it does strength and wear resistance. Nickel alloys are the stainless genre and they have been around for almost as long or longer than C/V. They can be almost as strong with the proper alloys but not nearly as malleable.

[atlatl55]

Thanks folks Iv learned alot here about steels allready.
Also enjoyed the petrefied mice inerds,Make some nice knife handles.