S90V steel

[zardoz]

Don't often venture into this part of the Forum among the sweaty hammerers, but can anyone tell me a little about S90V steel?

I've been looking longingly at a Scott Cook hunter, and one of the blade steel options is S90V at a whopping $75 extra!

Scott Cook (http://www.scottcookknives.com/hunters.htm)

Anybody have any experience of this steel? I've tried looking for reviews and on the Crucible site
Crucible steels PDF (http://www.crucibleservice.com/datash/dss90v7.pdf)
but there's not a lot of layman's type info about.

[Roger Gregory]

Oi Muppet, what are you doing in the forge :land:

Disclaimer: the following may be complete nonsense....

S90V is also known as 420-V and was intruduced by Crucible as an improvement over 440-V (S60V). It is supposed to be very hard-wearing. It has lots of Vanadium in the alloy.

Here's what Rade Hawkins has to say about it:


I have been using it since it first came out. I have the highest regards for it. In my opinion it is the very best of all the knife steels available at this time. It is hard to get a mirror finish and hard to grind when hardened, BUT it is tough and holds a edge as good as any thing out there and it wont rust under any normal conditions. The very best stainless avalible period.

Roger

[bagman]

Oi Muppet, what are you doing in the forge :land:


LOL

I know it is a complete b*****d to sharpen :rolleyes:

I have a Kevin Wilkins knife in 420V (as Roger says now called S90V) and sent it back to him to refinish for me (thanks Kevin) as I had made a bit of a bodge if it :rolleyes:

[zardoz]

Hiya Baggi! This is a strange dark place among the forums, you can almost feel the heat, it's like I've descended into the third level of Hades...

So for a woodlore knife, it might be better to go for something a little easier to maintain in the field? S30V or BG-42 maybe?

[bagman]

Kermie baby :D

I thought high carbon rather than stainless steels were the order of the day for the woods type knives?

I think the idea is that you can, if needed, sharpen on a suitable flat stone from the river, not something to be tried with most of the "super steels" unless you have several days/weeks to kill????

[The General]

S30V is great! I have been really impressed with my Military in this steel.

S90V is one of the best steels (stainless) ever made IMHO

Get a good knife and carry a duo dmt diamond... Sharpen anything, rock, stone, boat or goat! :biggthump

[toot]

CPM S90V is a unique tool steel made by the Crucible
Particle Metallurgy process. It is a martensitic stainless
steel with a high volume of vanadium carbides for exceptionally
good wear resistance. S90V offers substantial
improvements in wear resistance over 440C and D2, and
other high chromium tool steels, with corrosion resistance
equal to or better than 440C. Its high vanadium content
favors the formation of hard vanadium carbides instead of
chromium carbides for wear resistance, leaving sufficient
chromium in the matrix to provide good corrosion resistance.
The wear and corrosion resistance of S90V make it an excellent
candidate to replace 440C, where increased wear is a primary
concern. It can replace D2 or other tool steels in applications
where improved corrosion resistance is also of benefit.
Impact Toughness.

The CPM process also begins with a homogeneous molten bath similar to conventional melting. Instead of being teemed into ingot molds, the molten metal is poured through a small nozzle where high pressure gas bursts the liquid stream into a spray of tiny spherical droplets. These rapidly solidify and collect as powder particles in the bottom of the atomization tower. The powder is relatively spherical in shape and uniform in composition as each particle is essentially a micro-ingot which has solidified so rapidly that segregation has been suppressed. The carbides which precipitate during solidification are extremely fine due to the rapid cooling and the small size of the powder particles. The fine carbide size of CPM steel endures throughout mill processing and remains fine in the finished bar.

The powder is screened and loaded into steel containers which are then evacuated and sealed. The sealed containers are hot isostatically pressed (HIP) at temperatures approximately the same as those used for forging. The extremely high pressure used in HIP consolidates the powder by bonding the individual particles into a fully dense compact. The resultant microstructure is homogeneous and fine grained and, in the high carbon grades, exhibits a uniform distribution of tiny carbides. Although CPM steels can be used in the as-HIP condition, the compacts normally undergo the same standard mill processing used for conventionally melted ingots, resulting in improved toughness.


CPM S90V offers higher impact toughness than 440C at
comparable hardnesses.
Wear Resistance*

CRUCIBLE CPM S90V®
(CPM 420V®) Issue #7
Carbon 2.3%
Chromium 14.0%
Vanadium 9.0%
Molybdenum 1.0%

The CPM process results in a finer, more uniform carbide
distribution imparting improved toughness and grindability
to high alloy steels. The CPM process also allows the
design of more highly alloyed grades which cannot be
produced by conventional steelmaking.

[The General]

I will be doing some field testing quite soon with a fixed blade in this steel. Sub 5" blade and I will see how strong it really is. Can't be more specific as its all hush hush right now but watch this space... :)

[MushiSushi]

:rolleyes:

[Noddy]

doh post!

[John N]

epic threadnecro noddy !

[Noddy]

Aye - whole archaeological layers I had to get through to :lol:

[Rick Lowe CPM]

Well said toot , the data sheets are available on www.crucible.com The more HARD wearing Vanadium the touger it is to grind, grinding is wear..... so this iis why vanadium steels wear so well.
If you need stainless or just a high wear steel CPM has a wide range of steels.