5160/D2 "blend"?

J W Bensinger

J W Bensinger

Joined
Mar 26, 2009
Messages
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This has been driving me nuts.
A certain purveyor/designer/importer (with whom I have no beef whatsoever) describes the steel in his blades as a blend of D2 and 5160. I've been at this a long time and I have absolutely no idea how that would work.
Anybody have any ideas? I hate to be that dude, but it sounds like gibbertydish.
 
Could it be a san mai? I don't know how difficult it would be to achieve but I could see the benefit of a D2 core with 5160 cladding to reinforce it.
 
J W Bensinger said:
This has been driving me nuts.
A certain purveyor/designer/importer (with whom I have no beef whatsoever) describes the steel in his blades as a blend of D2 and 5160. I've been at this a long time and I have absolutely no idea how that would work.
Anybody have any ideas? I hate to be that dude, but it sounds like gibbertydish.
Click to expand...

I just found what your talking about. On their page they talk about how they started using each separately but didn't like it so they blended them. Idk what that really means. And further on he says they use a special quench and gas carburizing. Hmm. Hopefully this mystery gets solved.
 
Chris Larrikin said:
Could it be a san mai? I don't know how difficult it would be to achieve but I could see the benefit of a D2 core with 5160 cladding to reinforce it.
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I it was almost anything but D2 I would wonder that, but D2 is tricky enough to forge, let alone forge weld normally. It can probably be done, butI sure don't want to do it.
 
Sounds like balderdash to me, but I've been wrong before. Forge-welding or laminating the two together seems, shall we say, unlikely... and I very much doubt anyone is melting them down and mixing them together :D

I don't really see the point of "blending" them, anyway... if one wanted high wear resistance and high toughness with pretty good corrosion-resistance and nice fine grain, why not just use CPM-3V?

If I had to guess, I'd say he might have found a third alloy that has the characteristics he likes, and just wants it to sound mysterious and special.
 
The austenitizing temperatures of 5160 (1,525°) and D2 (1,850°) are very different. Which temperature would you use when heat treating?

Chuck
 
Alpha Knife Supply said:
The austenitizing temperatures of 5160 (1,525°) and D2 (1,850°) are very different. Which temperature would you use when heat treating?

Chuck
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That's kinda what I was thinking, to say nothing of forge welding D2 to anything. The grain structure of 5160 quenched at 1800+ sounds like it'd look like kosher salt at the break.
I think James is right, although my guess is it's just 5160.
I haven't looked into the gas carburizing in the blurb yet...
 
I though I read somewhere...that 80crv2 "performs" like a mix between D2 and 5160?
 
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I once did experiments with sanmai, core d2 sides 420, temperature control is very important, one of the billets sprayed d2 like mayonaisse when pressed...:eek: Other billet once made knife had very brittle spots, the 3rd billet is yet untouched... I would say d2 is not the best core selection for a sanmai...


Pablo
 
Don Hanson III said:
There is no need, or good reason to combine these two steels!
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Yup. As Jim and Chuck said about lamming and HT, it just doesn't add up.

timos- said:
I though I read somewhere...that 80crv2 "performs" like a mix between D2 and 5160?
Click to expand...

That also seems mighty unlikely. I'd prefer 80crv2 over "5160" for various reasons if I wanted to use a good clean "carbon" steel, but I don't see how it would have wear-resistance approaching D2 levels. There's hardly any carbide-forming stuff in it.

Y'know what "performs" like a "mix" between 5160 (very high toughness) and D2 (pretty high wear-resistance), with very fine grain and nice crisp edges? CPM-3V. :)
 
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