I forgot my bitcoin wallet passphrase, can I use the bitcoin wallet key?

[HITTI2]

Imported the private key to a new blank wallet, it is password protected and encrypted.

Also, this private key is for my main BTC address not the address's that received the remaining balance that sits in the wallet.

Only thing is to keep and trying to recall the PW from 2014.

Did you create a new wallet in bitcoin core or other wallets like Electrum?

In bitcoin core you just need to protect the wallet with a passphrase and export the wallet.dat file, this file will be protected with your password used to encrypt the wallet.

Wait, do you still have funds in this wallet from 2014? I got confused here because I thought you had restored everything using the private key.

I created a new blank wallet from the guide in this post. In Bitcoin core cmd line.

Then I imported the private key, took 2-3 hours to scan the blocks for the new wallet with private key.

My main wallet some reason has multiple address's, the BTC received in the wallet is to a different address than my Main address in the same wallet. The private key only imported my Main address which it is zero balance.
https://www.blockchain.com/explorer/addresses/btc/12NcNYb2oEh6ANo95AakEjPqQdgbcxh4m9

The other receiving address's in this wallet has the BTC balance of 0.00075263 BTC.

The funds in the wallet are from 2017 and a few transactions prior.
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5549042.msg65559202#msg65559202

I created the wallet in 2011.

[HITTI2]

Ha!

Found a second backup from 2017! With the right PW that don't work for the 2014 backup wallet.dat.

This is a great Day!

[mcdouglasx]

Ha!

Found a second backup from 2017! With the right PW that don't work for the 2014 backup wallet.dat.

This is a great Day!

If you still don't have access to the 2014 wallet.dat file because you can't remember your password, your best option may be to brute-force the password using tools like bitcoin2john to extract the wallet hash, which is most likely Berkeley. Then, use hashcat with a dictionary based on the possibilities you remember or clues about what your password might have contained like words, symbols, numbers.

Don't forget to always work with a copy of your wallet.dat file so you don't directly manipulate the original and thus avoid any risk of corruption.