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D2 Chipping?
- Thread starter jvcuevas
- Start date
Thank you all for the replies. I just feel sad(Mad) about this, because the reason for this knife was for me to use it with out "babying" it. I guess now I'm just going to have to keep in my mind what I can and cannot do.
thank you for the interesting discussion.
J
thank you for the interesting discussion.
J
- Joined
- May 5, 2003
- Messages
- 2,494
I don't think you have to baby the knife. My 710 in D2 has seen some heavy use and has never showed a chip.
I've read where hasty factory sharpening can cause the edge to be a bit brittle on some hard steel knives. After they're sharpened a couple of times manually on a stone or Sharpmaker, etc., the extra-hard edge is removed and the blade stays chip-free from that point.
I had a Spyderco Native in VG-10 that chipped in several places the first couple of times I used it. I was really disappointed. After giving it a good workout on the Sharpmaker, starting with the diamond rods, it has been a great knife and never chipped again.
Hopefully, that will be the case with your Benchmade.
Stay sharp,
desmobob
I've read where hasty factory sharpening can cause the edge to be a bit brittle on some hard steel knives. After they're sharpened a couple of times manually on a stone or Sharpmaker, etc., the extra-hard edge is removed and the blade stays chip-free from that point.
I had a Spyderco Native in VG-10 that chipped in several places the first couple of times I used it. I was really disappointed. After giving it a good workout on the Sharpmaker, starting with the diamond rods, it has been a great knife and never chipped again.
Hopefully, that will be the case with your Benchmade.
Stay sharp,
desmobob
Lol, so that post has made up your mind but you're going to ignore these ones?
He is a selective person that's all 
- Joined
- Aug 27, 2004
- Messages
- 12,957
D2 is a steel with larger carbides and generally speaking its one of those that shows a lot of light reflected back to you when looking on the edge and even quickly compared to other steels. This doesn't mean it won't continue to cut though. In a lot of ways those micro saw teeth that are created as you knock out carbides using it are contributing to why the steel can suddenly seem to perform better once its been used a while. You can sharpen a D2 or S30V blade both of which are larger carbide steels and cut old used carpet remnants for example. Both edges could be nice straight edges with no light reflecting back at you when you look down on the edge in sunlight and after just a few cuts you will notice some dings in the blades with the D2 showing more. After several more cuts these grow progressively. Its normal but what happens is that even though you think based one what you have probably been taught that now the knife edge needs straightened out and you have to sharpen it. No you don't. In fact it will suddenly in many hands be noticed to be cutting easier now because its slicing even better thanks to that micro saw effect.
If however there are big chunks missing then you have a problem but if its just micro in size and you are seeing just places where the edge has some light reflection back at you from the carbides pulling out it may be normal. You can actually only take D2 and S30V and other larger carbide steels down to a certain thinness and then you do nothing good for the edge but weaken it. .018 - .020 is about where I like my bevel thickness right above the bevel at that part of the blade not quite sharpened yet. This allows it to cut and slice but still be thick enough to be strong. You can take it down to .015 and get away with it but if you take D2 thinner than this in my experience it weakens it too much to be all that useful or practical for edge keeping. Of course this is just my opinion but it is one of my favorite steels and one I use a lot.
D2 probably looks the worst on the edge of any other steel shortly after use even when its just been sharpened. It doesn't mean its not going to continue cutting for a long time. That edge will actually get more aggressive after its formed a bit of a micro saw for you and you'll probably notice that it slices better than it did with the apex of the cutting edge all nice and straight.
STR
If however there are big chunks missing then you have a problem but if its just micro in size and you are seeing just places where the edge has some light reflection back at you from the carbides pulling out it may be normal. You can actually only take D2 and S30V and other larger carbide steels down to a certain thinness and then you do nothing good for the edge but weaken it. .018 - .020 is about where I like my bevel thickness right above the bevel at that part of the blade not quite sharpened yet. This allows it to cut and slice but still be thick enough to be strong. You can take it down to .015 and get away with it but if you take D2 thinner than this in my experience it weakens it too much to be all that useful or practical for edge keeping. Of course this is just my opinion but it is one of my favorite steels and one I use a lot.
D2 probably looks the worst on the edge of any other steel shortly after use even when its just been sharpened. It doesn't mean its not going to continue cutting for a long time. That edge will actually get more aggressive after its formed a bit of a micro saw for you and you'll probably notice that it slices better than it did with the apex of the cutting edge all nice and straight.
STR