8670 vs 80CrV2
The two steels most often shouted across the same argument: what is the best cheap tough steel for a hard-use knife? They solve the problem with different chemistry — 8670 leans on nickel, 80CrV2 on chromium and a whisper of vanadium — and land close enough that price and availability decide as many builds as performance does.
Quick Verdict
Choose 8670 for maximum toughness per dollar at ordinary hardness — it is the closest thing to an unbreakable budget blade. Choose 80CrV2 if you want to run higher hardness (62+) while keeping good toughness, or want slightly better edge wear from the vanadium. Neither choice is wrong for a camp knife.
Toughness
8670 at typical working hardness (58–60 HRC) — its nickel puts it in the elite 5160/15N20 class, with test values other budget steels cannot touch. 80CrV2's party trick is holding its good-not-elite toughness up near 63 HRC, where 8670 is not usually taken. At the hardness most makers actually run, 8670 wins.
Edge Retention
80CrV2 by a nose — its vanadium contributes a little real wear resistance where 8670 has essentially none. Both are low-wear steels that sharpen in moments; do not pick either expecting powder-steel endurance.
Corrosion Resistance
A tie: both rust like the carbon steels they are. 8670's nickel and 80CrV2's chromium are there for toughness and hardenability respectively, not stain resistance. Oil both.
Heat Treat
Both forgiving, one slightly more so. 8670: 1500°F soak, fast-or-medium oil, linear 300–450°F temper with no embrittlement trough — nearly foolproof. 80CrV2 wants a touch more precision (around 1550°F and a proper soak) to dissolve its chromium and earn its high-hardness capability. Forge heat treating suits both; 8670 forgives a bigger miss.
Grinding
Both grind like friendly carbon steels with no carbide surprises. 8670 commonly ships thin (band-saw heritage), which saves hogging on smaller blades; 80CrV2 comes in a fuller range of knife-sized flats. On the belt you will not tell them apart.
Best-Use Scenarios
8670: choppers, machetes, batoning camp blades, throwers, first knives, any build where bend-not-break is the whole brief. 80CrV2: hard-use fixed blades that also slice for a living — hunting knives, bushcraft blades run a little harder, tough kitchen workhorses.