D2 from China? Considering a Civivi

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nutsforknives

Joined
May 1, 2010
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I'm looking over Civivi's lineup and they have some really great designs, but they are mainly in D2 from an unknown source. Anyone have experience with these knives? I feel like good D2 makes the cut (no pun intended) for something I would carry, but low quality or poorly heat treated D2 is basically junk. If anyone has tried out one of these Civivi D2 knives or similar, how easy is it to sharpen? Does it hold an edge well? Do you polish the edge, or leave it coarse? Would a Civivi make a good beater/gift knife? For me, it's gotta do better than 8Cr13MoV or AUS-8 to get pocket time.
 
nutsforknives said:
I'm looking over Civivi's lineup and they have some really great designs, but they are mainly in D2 from an unknown source. Anyone have experience with these knives? I feel like good D2 makes the cut (no pun intended) for something I would carry, but low quality or poorly heat treated D2 is basically junk. If anyone has tried out one of these Civivi D2 knives or similar, how easy is it to sharpen? Does it hold an edge well? Do you polish the edge, or leave it coarse? Would a Civivi make a good beater/gift knife? For me, it's gotta do better than 8Cr13MoV or AUS-8 to get pocket time.
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I recently purchased the stratum.
I like the knife yet I bought it as a pretty gentleman's knife.
I don't know how it sharpens as I haven't used it alot.

I do think the rat 1 in D2 is a fantastic knife.
If you are interested in a knife that can take punishment and look great.
It's also available in carbon fiber.
 
I wouldn’t worry about Civivi and their quality. It’s the questionable companies you should worry about.

I have owned several Civivi knives. They are great! The Damascus is excellent too!!
 
Civivi does a really nice job. Fit and finish tends to be excellent. Action is consistently good. I've had three of their knives now in 9Cr18Mov and one in D2. Having only had poor-quality examples of 9Cr18Mov in the past from companies like Schrade, the former blew my mind. Both Civivi and Real Steel do a fantastic job with 9Cr18Mov. The D2 is holding up well but I haven't had as much time with it.

I've had a bunch of knives in Chinese D2 now. My Civivi Exarch is just the latest. I honestly haven't noticed much difference in Chinese D2 across major brands. It's solidly "okay". An issue that's been raised by critics, including some of the YouTube cut testers who've done more controlled testing, is that Chinese D2 doesn't stack up against the reputation earned by more expensive American knives in D2. The Chinese D2 might not be as tightly controlled and I wouldn't expect mass-produced budget knives at these prices to have the same care in heat treatment. So long as you understand that, you'll be fine. You'll get decent edge retention at a reasonable price. Versus a few years ago, a lot of these knives are pretty amazing for the price.
 
Civivi knives are very good quality. I own one and wouldn’t hesitate to buy another. Civivi is the budget line of WE knives, so you shouldn’t worry about getting some junk steel with a D2 stamp on the blade.
 
Not just Civivi but I've heard good things about Bestech, Artisan, CJRB (Artisans budget line), Real Steel, and Steel Will providing good bang for the buck knives in D2.

I will also second the idea of an Ontario Rat 1 or 2 in D2. The price is right on par with the above makers. I own 3 Rat 1s in D2.
 
My Steel Will Intrigue knife has excellent D2 and is made in China. It's <$50. I don't baby it. I believe it's a harder than my Taiwanese D2 from Ontario, and it has not chipped. I use it in the kitchen too. It has a great full flat grind.
 
Add me to the chorus, my Civivi knives have given me no qualms about buying more of them. I beat on my franken-Naja quite a bit and it has done very well.
 
Civivi makes a great knife. They use actual within spec D2 and heat treat it well. Benchmade might have slightly better D2, but at less than half the price you're getting nearly as good performance. I've not found it to be as hard to sharpen or as chippy as Ganzo D2, but it takes both a fine and toothy edge like a good D2 should. Civivi also grind their blades to actually perform, so you might be able to surpass the performance of most D2 knives out there.

Artisan, Steel Will, and Twosun do as well with D2. Steel Will does better than the rest on grinds, but Twosun has the best HT, despite having awful grinds for performance (not super deep grinds with nearly 4mm stock). Artisan grinds better than Twosun, but their HT is a little softer usually.
 
I have 2 civivi knives, a praxis with 9cr and a brazen with D2, they are both very nice, action is smooth, they are solid feeling, they seem like a great knife, only got them a few weeks ago, both passed the paper test with the factory edge.....however I carry the brazen with the D2, Ive opened a couple boxes...not slicking the cardboard just the tape and then I cut the tip of 2 tubes of caulking....no longer passes the paper test, For D2 id think it would take a bit more than that for the edge. So take it for what its worth, I got them specifically to be a decent looking beater knife anyways, I am getting a work sharp precision adjust to be able to sharpen my own knives so will see how it is after that, the praxis is fine but Ive only used it a few times slicing some peppers and some meat. Is the soft plastic nozzle on caulking really that brutal on the blade or is the blade just weaker than I hoped?

Its not enough to not get anbother civivi though, they are very nice for being budget blades
 
GT99 said:
I have 2 civivi knives, a praxis with 9cr and a brazen with D2, they are both very nice, action is smooth, they are solid feeling, they seem like a great knife, only got them a few weeks ago, both passed the paper test with the factory edge.....however I carry the brazen with the D2, Ive opened a couple boxes...not slicking the cardboard just the tape and then I cut the tip of 2 tubes of caulking....no longer passes the paper test, For D2 id think it would take a bit more than that for the edge. So take it for what its worth, I got them specifically to be a decent looking beater knife anyways, I am getting a work sharp precision adjust to be able to sharpen my own knives so will see how it is after that, the praxis is fine but Ive only used it a few times slicing some peppers and some meat. Is the soft plastic nozzle on caulking really that brutal on the blade or is the blade just weaker than I hoped?

Its not enough to not get anbother civivi though, they are very nice for being budget blades
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In my experience and that of some others, their 9Cr18Mov is better than their D2.

Again, remember that factory edges are almost never a true indication of performance. The steel along that edge is almost always fatigued from heat during factory grinding. Whether a factory edge seems good or bad, it generally improves once you've sharpened past that fatigue. It's just a question of how deep it goes and how quickly you'll see improvement with subsequent edges.
 
Chronovore said:
In my experience and that of some others, their 9Cr18Mov is better than their D2.

Again, remember that factory edges are almost never a true indication of performance. The steel along that edge is almost always fatigued from heat during factory grinding. Whether a factory edge seems good or bad, it generally improves once you've sharpened past that fatigue. It's just a question of how deep it goes and how quickly you'll see improvement with subsequent edges.
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I've been very impressed by Civivi's 9cr based damascus. Haven't yet needed to sharpen, but then again, they are not "heavy users" more just edc fun to mess with stuff, light duty cutting tape etc.

I can't say I'm a fan of D2, especially from China. I would upgrade if you can afford it.
 
Chronovore said:
In my experience and that of some others, their 9Cr18Mov is better than their D2.

Again, remember that factory edges are almost never a true indication of performance. The steel along that edge is almost always fatigued from heat during factory grinding. Whether a factory edge seems good or bad, it generally improves once you've sharpened past that fatigue. It's just a question of how deep it goes and how quickly you'll see improvement with
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Thanks for the info, I didn't know that, hopefully that's the case and it's better after sharpening, I have the Tanto brazen but want to pick up another brazen but the drop point and think that one is 14C, will see how that compares to the 9cr and D2 from civivi
 
GT99 said:
Thanks for the info, I didn't know that, hopefully that's the case and it's better after sharpening, I have the Tanto brazen but want to pick up another brazen but the drop point and think that one is 14C, will see how that compares to the 9cr and D2 from civivi
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I really like 14C28N in budget knives. It has a great balance of properties including decent edge retention and good corrosion resistance. The fine microstructure and high toughness make it friendly for sharpening and trying different things. I imagine you'll have fun with it as you get deeper into sharpening.

While it is definitely better when run a little harder, it also doesn't seem to suffer as much from an iffy heat treatment as some other steels. Contrast that with D2, where a subpar heat treatment really robs it of potential. For instance, a lot of the budget D2 is lucky to reach half its potential on edge retention via various charts and ratings. Meanwhile, the worst 14C28N I've had is still usually competitive given the price of the knife.

lonestar1979 said:
Id get one of their 9cr knives,that steel is pretty good,even better than Chinese d2
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Generally, 9Cr18Mov is an underrated budget steel. It's a significant step up from 8Cr13Mov in terms of both edge retention and corrosion resistance. While not quite the darling that we see in 14C28N, WE's 9Cr18Mov in the Civivi, Sencut, and Ferrum Forge knives get an exceptional heat treatment. They've really mastered this steel and it shows in cut-testing versus both Chinese D2 and 9Cr18Mov from other companies.

I had one of my Civivi knives in 9Cr18Mov tested and it was 60HRC on the dot. All sharpened with repeat 15dps edges on a KME, it outperformed Spyderco's VG-10 on cardboard and was competitive with some of the imported knives in S35VN and M390. What they say is true. Heat treatment matters!
 
I would never trust the factory edge to be representative of what the knife will be like long term. You could have an edge that has been damaged by too much heat in the factory sharpening process, and there could have been a burr that wasn't removed properly as well. Also, it's possible that cutting through tape may have left some sticky residue that will affect cutting performance.

I would wait until I've sharpened it a few times before making a judgement on how well it holds an edge.
 
I have a Civivi Brazen Tanto in D2. At first it was a real b*tch to sharpen. It does not take well to higher grit stones. So I sharpen on a 1000 JIS stone and call it a day. I own two Civivis in 9Cr and much prefer this steel to Civivi D2, although this is a small sample. The Brazen will cut paper just fine, but it does not have the feel of a slicer like my Backlash and Chronic in 9Cr.
 
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