D2... beyond scary

A

Alberta Ed

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Jun 29, 1999
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So I was cutting an orange the other day with my trusty 710 - D2, but instead of gliding through as usual I had to poke a hole with the tip to get through the rind. Odd, I thought; must be a tough orange, since the 710 usually just zips right through soft stuff. Then I looked at the edge. After about four or five of months of honing on the DMTs, the edge had degraded to a much thicker angle. Hmm, I thought. D2 is supposed to be pretty tough stuff; it doesn’t need an angle this obtuse to be able to stand up to ordinary day-to-day slicing, and this is a user, like all of my blades. It was obviously time to haul out the ancient Buckmaster honing guide (no longer manufactured, alas), and thin the edge back some. So I did. After half an hour on the carborundum, followed by DMT coarse (blue), regular (red) and ultrafine (green) hones, I had thinned back the edge a tad. Yowzah (insert personal expletive)! It’s amazing what a little difference in edge geometry makes! Don’t let anybody tell you that you can’t achieve a Screaming Sharp (new classification) edge on D2. It’s beyond scary! I’m going to cut up a whole bunch of stuff and see how well this edge holds up.:thumbup:
 
Alberta Ed said:
Don’t let anybody tell you that you can’t achieve a Screaming Sharp edge on D2.
Click to expand...

[youtube]SrknF_Uwo8w[/youtube]

:D

I find that with higher wear resistant steels, thinning the edge out makes it a lot easier to get them quite sharp. ZDP, D2, S30V etc.
 
This is the thing I was trying to say in another thread. I have had knives in D2 that I couldn't sharpen so good, and now I have one in the same steel that is plenty sharp...

Same steel, different heat treat and edge geometry. Ergo, the type of steel is really just the first chapter of the story!

Cool vid by the way...
 
Anything over 15 degrees with S30v,D2,Zdp189 and S90v is a waste of good steel in my opinion.:cool:

Once the edge is set right it only takes 10 minutes to get one back screaming sharpe.

I love that DMT red. It puts a great utility edge on zdp-189.
 
D2 is a great steel, takes a great edge and keeps it a long time. My Doziers are usually my gold standard for testing edge retention against other knives. Having said that, this little Queen 4180 in D2, once I thinned it out, is my cardboard cutting monster. I have a couple of knives that will beat it, but only a couple. Not bad for a knife under $40. :D

http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q203/sodak_photos/p1010007-4.jpg
 
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