80CRV2, blade 10 inches, handle stabilized curly maple, brass fittings.

First time working with 80crv2. There were a lot of lessons learned on this one. I was really unhappy with a lot of things and spent double the time fixing them.

The etch didn't go well at all. The hamone didn't take. The etching polka-dot pitted the whole blade which I had to clean up. Gave up and just went with 800 grit flat finish. I know 80CRV2 is more of a through-hardening steel. But I've hamoned 5160 before with better results. I assumed 80CRV2 would be similar, but it wasn't. The pin on the brass didn't match the brass of the bolster as well as I hoped, and it shows. That's my fault, something went wrong polishing the pin or pin holes I'm guessing, or maybe pin is not 316 brass, which I thought it was. I was still able to pretty-up but it was something I was disappointed in. And finally... my stabilization on the maple didn't go well. So I had to play games evening out the color as the stabilization didn't fully soak. I usually leave my scales under pressure for at lest 12 hours, then let them soak overnight. But it didn't take fully.

Basically a lot of mistakes that added up to a lot of pain. Fixing things is an awesome learning experience, but at some point I should have just started fresh, as it would have saved me like 8 hours on the build.

80CRV2 seems to finish significantly better than O1 if you're familiar with hand sanding O1, you'll know what I mean.

Balance was pretty good. Basically right on the bolster, but just barely, so it sits really nice with a chef's pinch grip. I was pretty proud of the edge geometry on this one. I put a slight convex on the edge at about 220, then polished with a cork belt, then stropped. It just glides through. Very sharp.

I was hoping the customer would hate it so I could keep it, but no such luck haha.

Feedback much appreciated 🙂

Thanks,

Nick