Quote:
Originally Posted by jdale
Just wanted to give the group a heads up. I was concerned after reading Aldo's W2 was being shipped from the plant coarse spheroidized so I emailed Aldo to see if this was true.
I was hoping to get an email from someone in his sales department but I didn't.
I did however just get off the phone with Aldo who personally called me (talk about customer service).
We had about a 10 minute conversation during which he assured me that the W2 is not coarse spheroidized and is ready to be worked with on arrival.
He did say that he doesn't like to HT carbon steels in an oven due to the oxygen rich environment. So now I am going to buy some anti scale powder. I know about brownells anti scaling compound, but I remember reading a thread a while back about a different anti scaling compound that was getting good results too. If anyone remembers what the other one is please let me know.
|
If he told you that....then try it. He does have new W2 tool steel, I think this is generation number 4, possible 5...I've lost count. Generation 2 and 3 in particular had so many reports of not hardening that many many smiths simply decided to not use it ever again. Guys were writing on the forums about how it would not harden without normalizing. Guys were reporting that it wouldn't harden correctly even when it was normalized. Guys were reporting that their batch would not harden at all unless it was normalized at 1900F, which is 250F hotter than standard W2 normalizing temp of 1650F. It may be that the mill is fine spheroidizing the steel now...which it should be. I never, for the life of me, knew why he had his steels like 52100 coarse spheroidized, as it only presents more work with very very few benefits. If you had CNC machines and were working his 52100 extensively, then coarse spheroidized would be nice to have, but for grinding/filing/drilling.....fine spheroidized is plenty soft, and only requires a 10 minute soak to break up the carbides and put the carbon into solution.
Those of us who work with Aldo's German steels have figured out that if you don't want to waste time and cuss the steel because it didn't harden properly normalize and thermal cycle it. That means his 1084, W2, and 52100. I konw the 80CrV2 and 1095 are good to go. And of course O1, A2, and the CPM steels are ready to go. As far as I know his 52100 is still received coarse spheroidized, and assumed his W2 is like it has always been. The 52100 from Chuck at Alpha Knife Supply is fine spheroidized.
Do a search about Aldo's W2 on Bladeforums and read all the talk about it, if you care to.