Any experience with Nathan's D2?

Agith

Agith

Joined
Nov 29, 2010
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Hello! Currently looking for a new bushcraft knife and I've been curious how Nathan's D2 performs in that category. Woodcarving, maybe a bit of batoning etc. I've seen a lot of positive comments on his usage of 3V, but I ca'nt really find much regarding his D2!

So if anyone has any experience with it, I'd appreciate it.

Thanks!
 
Just my limited experience, it's wonderful! Purchased two skinners around 10 years ago, with one ground extra thin, gave that one to my wife for kitchen duty, it has been he go to blade all this time. Takes a toothy edge that holds up great! Have not batoned with it but broken down a bunch of beef and pork with no concerns. Very easy to sharpen, and have never had any corrosion on the blade. I don't think we use it anything really hard but it has held up beyond exception. Just like all of Nathan's work, the blade was made to do a certain task, and it does it easily. Looking forward to a EDC in D2 since a toothy edge will hold up to cardboard and carpet well.
 
I realize this is not directly related to your question but is still valuable info.
Nathan the Machinist said:
They have similar corrosion resistance. D2 has better abrasive wear resistance than 3V in a knife edge (despite what Crucible says) and an inherently toothy edge that cuts hide and meat even when blunted. 3V has better edge stability and better toughness, which means better edge retention in rough use, but in "normal" use you'll find the D2 stays sharp longer, particularly in abrasive materials, making it a good fit for a small thin knife. And although D2 is not as tough as 3V, you'll find it's more durable than most of the stainless steels you may have experience with. It's a great all around steel, particularly for a small knife that will see a lot of use. You'll be amazed how well it holds an edge.

The biggest down side to D2 is reduced edge stability due to the large amount of carbide and retained austenite, which necessitated a cutlery specific heat treat for good performance in a knife. If you've ever used a D2 knife that didn't hold an edge as well as you thought it should, it probably has the industry standard HT which was developed for stamping tools that minimizes distortion and risk of cracking and dimensional changes, but doesn't work in a knife. Learning to get the most out of D2 taught me a lot about edge stability that I applied later to 3V.

Interestingly, I feel the conventional D2 works better than the PM D2. I'm using Crucible steel, but not their CPM version. I didn't do this as a cost savings (amounts to ~$1 per blade difference) I did this because the larger carbides in conventional electric arc melt steel don't fall out of the edge like the small rounded carbides in the CPM version and allow it to stay sharp longer in real use in a knife edge.
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I probably have more experience with my D2 than anybody, I have them around the shop, my own skinning knife, and my steak knife. I use it all the time, it's probably my favorite steel and it has been running circles around and handing out spankings to the stainless super steels for years.

D2 is probably my favorite steel and I do a very good job with it. My heat treat for it has developed over the years and I feel it represents the best in the industry. I've been very open with other makers about what I'm doing with it and my techniques for it are now widely adopted to the point I see new makers talking about the process and unaware where it came from.

Complex steels like D2 usually have a basic "built in" grain size that results from their alloy and its reaction to an anneal. By default D2 is usually around 12-13 intercept grain size which is relatively fine grain.

Pre-quenching in D2, M2 and other complex steels is a grain refinement step that violates the "only one austenitizing per anneal" rule for these steels meant to avoid the extreme grain growth they're prone to on a second heat which creates a large fish scale style fracture. When done improperly it can have no effect or can lead to intercept grain size as low as 1 (extremely coarse).

Prequenching, when done properly, can refine the grain upwards of 17 or more, which is a very fine grain condition. This is based on research by Teledyne VASCO.

Before going further, let me state that grain refinement to this level serves no purpose in-of-itself and very fine grain, beyond a certain point, doesn't make a better knife. This is a widely misunderstood concept among makers and knife nuts. That's not what this is about.

There are a couple steps about pre-quenching I don't recommend to other makers because they have to be adjusted for each heat batch because the variations in alloy content and material condition effect the heat treat response and can lead to problems if done improperly. This is one reason I don't use D2 much any more, because every single batch needs special attention to be fully optimized. This is particularly true going from one manufacturer to another, because D2 is like hotdogs, they can all put different ingredients into it, and a .8 vanadium will react differently than a 1.2. But, when the time and temp is dialed in it refines the grain (which is not a bad thing) and puts carbon into solution, reducing the soak time and temp for the second heat which I believe may be very significant in minimizing naturally occurring structures that play hell with edge stability such as RA that converts in temper rather than during the quench.

The end result of a fully optimized D2 is a durable knife with outstanding edge retention, good corrosion resistance, and that toothy D2 edge that just keeps cutting. While not as durable as 3V, it's more durable than most, and it just keeps cutting and cutting.

Sometimes D2 can be somewhat brittle, but our final cut testing yesterday of a knife from this batch had a thin D2 knife at 18 DPS at HRC 63 cutting some 4D nails without chipping.

We're using Crucible D2 for this batch, but not their CPM version. This was not to save cost (less than $2 difference per blade) but to avoid the small rounded carbides that fall free from the edge. It's a good process to promote toughness, but it spoils one of the best properties of D2 in a knife, so we use a conventional melt.

If you'll try it, I promise you'll like it.
 
You're one hell of a salesman on top of all the praise!! I'll have to see for myself
 
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