Comparable stainless steel to D2

"Best edge retention", "toughest", "strongest", and "sharpest" are not terms that are easily agreed upon here! You need to read a lot here, and buy and try a few to really get an idea of the differences between steels. They are many differences between them that are difficult to describe in a few sentences. How and what you cut makes the difference on which is the best steel for your use.

Toughness is particularly hairy - are you going to cut with it (not much toughness required), chop it into wood (slightly higher level of toughness required), or beat on it with hardened steel (a much higher toughness required)? I have chopped wood all day with D2 and 440C big knives, but I wouldn't pry with them or beat them with a hardened face hammer, and if I planned on doing a lot of batoning, I'll bring a knife with tougher steel and use a piece of wood to baton with.

Edge retention is meaningless without a definition - slicing or push cutting, and what cutting medium. For cutting manilla rope using a 3" slice, higher wear resistance and higher hardness means better edge retention. For pure push cutting of manilla rope, maybe not as much premium on those properties...
 
I delimbed an entire large poplar that fell in a recent storm with my busse hell razor.
It still shaves hair.
 
The blade shape, thickness, profile and hardening is much more important the steel itself--especially between good steels.
Bob Dozier's knives are nearly all D2 and only a fool would complain about the edge retention on his beauties.
Greg
 
Greg said:
The blade shape, thickness, profile and hardening is much more important the steel itself--especially between good steels.
Bob Dozier's knives are nearly all D2 and only a fool would complain about the edge retention on his beauties.
Greg
Click to expand...

Recently he starts making CPM S30V beauties.

Thanks, Vassili.
 
nozh2002 said:
Any top stainless steels starting from CPM S30V is much better in edge retention then D2. In particular BG-42, 154CM, CPM S30V, CPM S60V, CPM S90V, ZDP189...

Thanks, Vassili.

P.S. Here Crucible data:

CPM-06.jpg
Click to expand...

I'm not sure about "(d2)", but "(cpm d2)" will out perform bg-42,154cm,and cpm s30v.in edge holding .And for the other three they are superior then cpm d2.
 
alexander80 said:
Bob Dozier D2 is almost stainless! I use my Dozers from about 8 months and I like him a lot! Never have problem with rust!
Click to expand...

All D2 is "almost stainless".

In general I think that to be considered a stainless steel, a steel must be at least 12% Chromium. According to AG Russell's steel chart, D2 is between 11 and 13% Chromium. So just by definition / composition D2 is almost a stainless steel, regardless of who makes the knives that use it.

As far as the original question goes, I don't really know. I would say that it is pretty comparable to most of the popular stainless steels. It won't take as good an edge as most steels in my experience, but holds the edge that it will take very, very well..

Also, D2 is itself so stain resistant, that to me trying to find its stainless counterpart is silly.
 
nozh2002 said:
Any top stainless steels starting from CPM S30V is much better in edge retention then D2. In particular BG-42, 154CM, CPM S30V, CPM S60V, CPM S90V, ZDP189...

Thanks, Vassili.

P.S. Here Crucible data:

CPM-06.jpg
Click to expand...


Wow, check out that CPM M4. :eek:
 
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