Chrome Vanadium ??

Can anyone give me any information on using Chrome Vanadium carbon steel. What are its characteristics with regards to heat treating and edge holding?.
As some of you know I'm in the U.K and have a little difficulty getting decent knife steel and HT work done so would this type of steel be easy for me to work at home ?

Andy..

C/V is primarily a steel for wrenches. It can be heat treated OK, but does not get super hard as it is designed to be a tough steel.
It will make a tougher blade that gives up some edge holding abilities for the additional strength.
Forgable?, YES!
Wrenches for example, are drop forged.

Gene/Andy,
Funny this should come up. A couple of weekends ago, my next door neighbor came over and he needed to make a special tool to work on a brake caliper on a Ford Taurus. Basically what he needed was a large (1 1/4 inch) socket ground down leaving two ears on opposite sides of the circumference. So we cut where the ears were to go on my bandsaw and I proceeded to grind the unneeded material off each side of the ears. I noticed right off that the sparks were EXTREMELY hot! I put leather gloves on and the material at one point built up on one of the fingers of the glove. I then noticed at one point, MY FINGER WAS BURNING! It did a fine job of blistering my finger before I was able to dunk it in water! I have never had that happen before with any steel. It burned a hole in the leather glove! I could see ti doing this but I never expected this from this Chrome Vanadium steel you are referring to. I was amazed at the toughness of this steel but it actually cut on the bandsaw with ease. Just remember the hot sparks! I had a constant reminder for a few days.

Craig

Thanks Gene and Craig,

I have noticed that a few factory knives are made of C/V such as Case. If this steel is easy to forge and heat treat then why aren't more knife newbies making use of it or would I be better of having a go with O1 instead ?.

Andy..

I don't know what steel Case uses in their "Chrome Vanadium" knives, but here are some specs I just found on the net when searching for "Chrome Vanadium":

Carbon - 0.47 to 0.55%
Silicon - 0.15 to 0.40%
Manganse - 0.70 to 1.10%
Phosporous - 0.04% Max
Sulphur - 0.04% Max
Chromium - 0.9 to 1.20%
Vanadium - 0.10 to 0.20%

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Hey Gene,
My Craftsman wrenches are Chromium Molybdenum.

Geesh Terry, tell your tool man that that wrench is dangerous!

Jeff

Andy
if you send your email address to me i may be able to help.
I shall be seeing Wolf this weekend if you need any thing.
regards Alan