D2 corrosion resistance

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paulwesley

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Sep 5, 2005
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I know D2 has 11.0-13.0 chromium but is that enough to keep it pretty stain resistant?? How about with a good coating like bt2
 
Yes it is stain resistant.The stainless steels with higher chromium will be more corrosion resistant but you shouldn't have problems with D2.
 
A lot of it depends of course on how humid it is in Austin (I really have no idea myself), but D2 is fairly stain resistant. It's much more rustproof than A2, M2, or other high-carbon tool steels. Keep it dry. If you get it wet, wipe it off. Coat it once in a while with a protectant like Tuf-Glide. If it's very humid, putting a protectant on it once a day is fine, if that much. You only really need to worry about it if you use it to the point that any protectant is gone, and you get it wet/gunky, and you let it sit a while without cleaning.
 
My maintenece routine for D2 is to wipe the blade down once a week with rem-oil or inox, after a week of regular use, if for any reason the blade gets blood or sweat on it, then wipe it off ASAP and re-oil that evening when I get home.

Since I started this routine I haven't had any more problems with pitting from D2.
 
D2 is the most 'stainless' of all the non stainless steels so you got the best one of all the high carbon steels. I've never had any problems with D2 pitting or rusting on any of mine. The edge will degrade some if I cut a lot of tomatos or oranges with it but it is a snap to bring it back to life.
D2 is one of my favorites for a pure cutting tool. Great edge keeper and all.
 
paulwesley said:
I know D2 has 11.0-13.0 chromium but is that enough to keep it pretty stain resistant??
Click to expand...

No because of the really high carbon, the chromium only adds to corrosion resistance when it is free, when it is carbided it does not. D2 has about 1/10 the corrosion resistance of 440C in acidic (food grade) solutions for example (Crucible), it also pits really heavily when exposed to salt water (did that myself). Some of the other tool steels with finer grain can actually take less damage due to pitting in hard conditions, 1095 for example.

-Cliff
 
At a very basic level, the steel in knife blades consists of two parts, the actual steel itself which is the vast majority, and very small clumps called carbides which are carbon bonded to either iron or some alloying element. Think of it like concrete is a mix of sand (the steel) and rocks (the carbides).

The carbides are *much* harder than the steel, they can in fact be harder than several types of sharpening stones. Many alloying elements like Chromium and Vanadium can form carbides, some are stronger carbide formers than others and in fact even prevent others from doing it, or even break down the other carbides and carbide themselves.

Chromium is one of the weaker and softer carbides, but still significantly harder than the steel itself. If you add a lot of carbon then the chromium won't be free in the steel but bound up by the carbon in the carbides. If it isn't free then it can't form the oxide layer by combining with oxygen which is what protects from corrosion.

It is a nice steel though for cutting knives, working best in very thin profiles to take advantage of its strengths, though M2 is a much better choice but much harder to heat treat as it requires much hotter temperatures, but many just grind it as hardened from power hacksaw blades.

-Cliff
 
My experience with Queen knives in D2 is that they hardly ever "rust" in the classic sense, but instead "pit" with little black pepper spots that will eat straight into the steel if not prevented or cared for.

Especially from exposure to sweat that is not wiped off promptly.

Once I started my above routine, I haven't had any more problems with D2.

Heat treat may have something ot do with this, I have a D2 knife that was done by Scott at Razorback, that has never pitted or rusted even though I have left it in a leather sheath for extended periods.
 
D2 seems pretty good from what I can tell.

In me experience, bead blased blades of ATS 34 rust faster that a nicely polished D2 blade.
 
I also live in Austin and have EDCed D-2 blades for years. The stuff does require occasional care, but not much. I wipe mine down with a Tuf-Cloth every few weeks and they've been fine.

--Bob Q
 
Generally it takes a decent amount of effort to rust most tool steels, the only ones I have seen which were a realy problem are L6 and similar, these can rust so fast that if you cut up an apple or lemon and don't wash it right away then it will stain right in front of you, Randall's O1 does much the same. D2 is far more corrosion resistant than that, as is M2. Generally rust is only a concern with these if you soak them in something corrosive like salt water or food acids, or live in a really hot and humid enviroment, or are one of those people with really acidic sweat. If you keep it simply dry and rinse it after exposure to salt/acid odds are you won't have a problem. The occasional oiling should definately stop any problem.

-Cliff
 
Even though D2 is said to have 11 to 13 percent chromium, that amount is lowered during the hardening process. Of all the knives I've made in D2 (100+) I've heard no complaints of pitting or rusting. D2 will take on a patina, but with care it usually doesn't rust.
Scott
 
I have about 5 blades in D2 and have never had any staining or rusting issues. I did mess up Benchmade's Coating on the Griptillian trying too reprofile it in a hurry on a cardboard gringing wheel. Looks kind of crappy, but it has a hell of an Edge after I put the final edge on with my Edge Pro.

And D2 holds that edge very well!
 
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