AbstractThe effect of vanadium (0–4%) on the morphology and amount of eutectic and eutectoid carbides in high speed steels has been investigated using scanning electron microscopy and image analysis. It was found that vanadium promotes the formation of MC carbide and M2C carbide, but inhibits the formation of M6C carbide. In the vanadium free steels, the eutectic carbide consists solely of skeletal M6C. For each steel composition, there is a critical vanadium content at which the skeletal eutectic changes to lamellar eutectic and the critical value decreases as the molybdenum content of steel increases. The effect of vanadium on the total amount of eutectic carbide differs in tungsten alloyed and molybdenum alloyed high speed steels. Theδeutectoid has a rodlike morphology in tungsten high speed steels;δeutectoid is not present in Mo–W or molybdenum high speed steels. Increasing the vanadium content leads to an increase in the size of eutectic and eutectoid carbides.MST/1264