Cru-Wear - Suitable for sword length blades

[neocryptica 0]

I have some Cru Forge V (CRU-WEAR) on order and was wondering if this type of steel is suitable for sword length blades (26+" in this particular case)?

Here is the composition of it:

 

carbon 1.05%

Chromium 0.50%

Vanadium 0.75%

Manganese 0.75%

 

Cheers!

[Doug Lester 293]

Just going by what my reference material say, I'd say that it's too high in carbon to make a user. That said, most swords these days could be made of A36 and most people would never know the difference; they are not used for their original purpose. It might very well chip out if you use it for some serious cutting or even break. Most swords are made from something with 50-70 points of carbon for toughness.

 

Doug Lester

[Sam Salvati 76]

Too high carbon? You'll reach higher RC numbers but you only have to temper it a bit more to get the toughness required for a sord. It's a myth that too high carbon is always too brittle, until you get in the UBEReutectic.

[matt venier 3]

I've used W1 and W2 (about 1% Carbon .3-.5% manganese) for swords a bunch of times and always do a little "brush clearing" testing to make sure they are tough. I do do the hamon thing so the backs are much softer than the edge but I still get a little hardening on the bask to help control the curve during quench when I quench in water. Now the steel you're talking about will harden a lot deeper than W1 or W2 because of the higher manganese so that's something to think about.

 

Matt

 

PS Sam, what's the deal with the shirtless photo? You lookin' for a date at Kerry's??? :lol:

Edited March 6, 2010 by matt venier

[Sam Salvati 76]

what's wrong with no shirt?

 

I have been dying to make a sword out of cru-v!

[Matt Gregory 6]

Temper the spine back with a torch and it'll be plenty tough for the purpose.

 

CruForgeV and CruWear are NOT the same, btw.

 

CRU-WEAR®

Carbon 1.1%

Chromium 7.5%

Vanadium 2.4%

Tungsten 1.15%

Molybdenum 1.6%

[neocryptica 0]

Thanks for the information guys. I think I will weld some of it together with 1045 to offset a little (aka for fun). also thought about welding it with L-6 or 5160 and see what kind of blade becomes of it.

 

Matt, thanks for the info. I was laboring under an excited misconception.

 

Sam, I have the same kind of tan...I usually refer to it as flourescent (that's what I get for being a geek though)

Edited March 8, 2010 by neocryptica

[Brian Madigan 17]

Neither are shallow hardening steels. They will both air harden in blade dimensions. If you have high temp salts you can probably get what you want.

Thats a lot of chromium.

[jake cleland 442]

the first analysis you posted looks like good sword steel - i reckon you could make it pretty shallow hardening with multiple normalisations, as the vanadium would offset the manganese and chromium by pinning the grain size. the second steel, with 7.5 chromium, i would be wary of for long blades.

[neocryptica 0]

Thanks Jake,

 

It came in today, so I'm gonna give it a go. As prompted by Dee, I'll take pics and upload some personal notes on the project throughout. I figure if I've asked the question to myself, surely others are as well. Wish me luck!

 

Cheers!