D2 Chipping

I don't consider D2 to be the best choice for a chopper, camp knife or whatever. But agree it surely is bad individual blade. I think 1095 is the better choice for this type of knife, but love my D2 drop point hunters for doing deer and pigs.
 
After the last D2 chipping argument came about I decided to call Kershaw to find out why my outcast with 10 inches of D2 blade never had any of the issues talked about with D2. I've hit rocks with powerful swings, chopped, chopped, and chopped some more and never seen a single chip. Even when I have hit rocks its only flattened the edge.

When I got the call back it was explained to me that the Rc of the blade was kept a little lower to improve toughness 57-59 and that D2 if taken near its max of around 63Rc with a thin edge angle would be a Chip master.

Ontario D2 seems to be hit or miss on their HT, this wouldn't be the first time I've heard of their D2 loosing chunks.
 
You'd do us all a favor if you had someone local do a hardness test on the broken knife and post the results here.

Ontario's website claims their RAT knives are RC 57-58 and makes no distinction for the heat treat on the D2 versions. Supposedly there have been problems with heat treat in some batches of Ontario knives.

Concerned people should probably have their knives tested to see what they've got. You could probably sell either a hard or soft D2 Rat knife on the exchange to someone looking for just that characteristic.

http://www.ontarioknife.com/adventure.html
 
Ed178 said:
Hello All,

I had an interesting experience with an Ontario Rat RC-3 this weekend while out backpacking. I was gathering some wood for a fire for the evening and batoning some downed long, skinny limbs and chipped the blade badly. The chip is close to 1" long and maybe 0.5" deep. Needless to say, the blade is useless now.

I was batoning a relatively small limb, but it was very seasoned, old hardwood. It makes me question the use of D2 for a survival blade, or is this a heat-treat issue? I have a few folders in D2 that I have had no problems with, but, of course, they aren't using for batoning.

Thoughts?
Click to expand...

Was it particularly cold out that day? If not, it sounds like you had a defective blade.

A while back, I was batoning some dry oak in my back yard with my D2 Ontario RAT 7 (It was around 70F outside). On one particular strike, I managed to put the knife through the log, through the old door mat the log was resting on, and into the concrete patio. The tip was severely blunted, but it wasn't anything a diamond rod couldn't fix.

I know D2 (while tougher than most cutlery grade stainless steels) isn't the toughest steel around, but with a proper edge and under normal conditions, it should win vs wood. I would contact Ontario and see about getting a replacement.
 
Most likely a bad heat treat...Probably HT'ed too hard on the rockwell scale, thus brittle and chip prone....I have never had a problem with properly HT'ed D-2...I have had the opposite that you may have encountered....The grind and blade geometry may have been too thin as well with the poor HT....It is possible....I could recommend Paul Bos for future HT's....Peace
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top