Clarification on steel toughness

[Hunter21]

Hello everyone, brand new to the forum so I apologize if this is something that has been answered before. I've been collecting/using knives for a long time and even made a couple at home but I have a question on toughness. I know the infamous INFI steel is supposed to be up there with the best of them, but recently when I was doing some testing of my busse's edge stability on concrete I noticed that it seems like it actually deforms more than my knives I have made in d2. I have always understood d2 to be far less tough than INFI in this kind of application so I am a little confused. The two knives I was comparing were a busse tank Buster and a knives of Alaska light hunter. Both of these knives are sharpened to 25 degrees per side, are both at pretty much the same RC and even have fairly close edge thickness accodting to my calipers. So basic question, why is not so tough d2 seeming as good if not better than infi? Thanks in advance to anyone who bothers.

 

[Silvanus]

recently when I was doing some testing of my busse's edge stability on concrete

Thats probably the worst way to test a knife. Not only because its abusive, but its testing a product in a way it was never intended to be used. As far as your question, define "deform". Do you mean chipping, rolling, denting, etc? Also, even though the two knives you were "testing" have the same edge angle, the overall geometry is probably too different to compare with each other.

 

[michaelm466]

Are all variables controlled? Same force, angle, the different rocks in the concrete are different hardness, same amounts of strikes, repeated at least 10 times each knife and you found the average and compared them with hard numbers, otherwise one can't really get any true results/comparisons

 

[garryhowel1888]

Some off the operations like austempering CADI are helpful in making the toughness of iron or steel. This is the perfect idea about the toughness off iron or steel.
With the help of these topics we can make the hardness off iron or steel.

 

[unit]

Concrete is pretty variable. We have testing facilities for concrete and you might be surprised to learn how broad the spectrum is for "concrete".

In any event, it is always best to test an item for its intended purpose, if you use a knife for processing concrete, you are wise to test it accordingly.

That said, you might save a bit of cash my operating like a technician instead of an engineer. Spec the right tool for the job instead of blaming the tool for the spec failure. You are looking for a chisel, not a knife.

 

[MOCraig]

I don't know how exactly you were testing these knives on concrete. However, I was under the impression that one of the strong points of INFI was its ability to take abuse without chipping or causing complete damage. In other words, I would expect it to "deform" on something like concrete, not chip or tear, and would also expect it to be able to be brought back to life pretty easily.

I could be wrong, but I believe your testing may have just confirmed the superiority of INFI over D2.