D2 for a camp/chopper

olymon

olymon

Joined
Apr 27, 2017
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188
I have a friend that wants to try and make a camp/chopper style utility knife. Would D-2 be OK for that with the proper heat treat and temper on it? The only reason for the D2 is because I have a thick enough piece. I thought about having him use a leaf spring too. Should I steer him towards something else? Stock removal first knife for him.
 
It would not be my first choice. Or my third choice. But you can make it work.
 
I used O1 for my competition chopper. It is a great choice for this application. A better choice would be M4, but it's pretty expensive and I didn't want to use it for my first chopper.
 
Yeah, this will probably be a crude first "knife" for him. It's hard to get people to slow down when showing them how to possibly make a knife.

I'll have to look at the D2 heat treat suggestions. Kuraki, any certain advice if I do use the D2. I really like your work and your knowledge base.
 
If you do use the D2 for this I would draw it back below 60RC and give it a thick supporting edge, .020" or so. Others here are more experienced with D2 in knives than I am, and may know a better way to go about this, but I'm not impressed with it's durability and edge stability in thinner edges and the type of transverse stress chopping puts on the edge.

I think M4 is excellent for this like Kevin said, and that's probably why it's been so popular in cutting competitions.

As loathe as I am to use reclaimed materials, given the type of project (first knife, free for a friend, worried he won't take his time/advice from you) I'd be inclined to use the leaf spring and treat it as if it were 5160.
 
I'll mention it to him and see if he wants to buy some. Knowing him though, he'll stop at a local muffler shop and see if they have a broken spring they'd give him for free. I may look into some "new" steel types for myself though. 154vm, ats34, and d2 are all I have.
 
I've used D2 for big blades in the past. I'd suggest following kuraki's advice with the HT. I've since found better steels like S7, 4V, 3V, O1, 80 CRV2,M4 and A2.
Scott
 
D2 is a great steel, but I wouldn't want it in a big chopper unless you were just chopping a bunch of soft abrasive materials.


kuraki said:
As loathe as I am to use reclaimed materials, given the type of project (first knife, free for a friend, worried he won't take his time/advice from you) I'd be inclined to use the leaf spring and treat it as if it were 5160.
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^ this
 
Nearly everyone here uses some really nice belt grinders. I on the other hand have no access to one beside a wimpy 4" x 36" one. Which one of the better camp/chopper steels listed could I actually tackle by hand and not regret even starting the project.
 
olymon said:
Nearly everyone here uses some really nice belt grinders. I on the other hand have no access to one beside a wimpy 4" x 36" one. Which one of the better camp/chopper steels listed could I actually tackle by hand and not regret even starting the project.
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5160
 
5160, 80CrV2, 1075, L6

All easy to work with and finish.

If you have only simple means to heat treat ( such as a forge), 80CrV2 or 1075 are easiest.
 
Luckily I have access to a large heat treat oven at work that we heat treat our 17-4 and custom 465 in. I may have to run the oven through a heat cycle to check it out because we rarely go above 1125 f
 
I was going to say heat treating 17-4 is more like high temp tempering 900-1150 depending on the desired hardness. One of my favort stainless out there. Been looking for a carbon steel to forge weld with it, need somthing that will take a 900° temper. Sorry a bit of a side track rant.
 
That's a great idea JTknives JTknives

I love 17-4. 3d machined my 9mm can's omega baffles from it.

How about Z-Wear? I have a couple knives floating around that I didn't cryo but did HTT on and they are performing very well. Cryo and LTT is likely the route for optimal performance but it can certainly handle the temperatures 17-4 precipitates at.
 
testing D2 camper blade (cryo hardened and tripple tempered)...work, just be careful and do not hit the stone accidentally on the ground ;)
IMG-20160625-_WA0004.jpg

IMG-20160625-_WA0009.jpg

the friend's blood because he was a bit fierceo_O
Splitting wood is http://www.wood-database.com/european-hornbeam/
Hornbeam is considered difficult to work on account of its density and toughness.:thumbsup:
 
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Chumaman, FFG (does this mean full flat grind) on that blade? Nice looking blade/handle. How thin did you take it. Nice to know it's been done. For his project, I think a new piece of 5160 might be good for him. McMaster had some good prices on bar stock.
 
kuraki said:
That's a great idea JTknives JTknives

I love 17-4. 3d machined my 9mm can's omega baffles from it.

How about Z-Wear? I have a couple knives floating around that I didn't cryo but did HTT on and they are performing very well. Cryo and LTT is likely the route for optimal performance but it can certainly handle the temperatures 17-4 precipitates at.
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My first thought was somthing like D2 but it's 900° temper is a little lacking. I have not looked at Z-wear but I will. I had thought that CPM-3v would be just about perfect with its 1900° quench and 900-1000° temper. The 1900° quench would set the 17-4 in condition A and harden the 3v. Then the 900° temper would precipitate the 17-4 to around 45-50rc and temper the 3V. I had started down this road once already but quickly relized I needed to start with much thinner 3V and not the big block I have on hand. I'm sure there are quite a few other aloys out there that share the 1900° & 900° treatment. Best bet would be start thin and tig weld the edges and just do a forge weld and not try and draw it out much. If it happened to work you would have a steel that was just about impossible to destroy.

Cru-wear looks to be very simaler in alloy as z-wear with a dash of manganese and silicon. It is probably as perfect of a match as any. Thy list optum hardness with a 1850-1950° quench and a 950° temper which gives around 62-63RC.
 
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