D2 or ____________?

Hibuke

Hibuke

Joined
Mar 28, 2002
Messages
317
Hey anyone and everyone,

I'm inspired to make a full-custom shortsword/trail clearer, similar to the likes of Jerry Hossom and/or Ontario's "Swords of Blackwind". I'm now trying to decide on a suitable steel. Now I know, in terms of usage and length, differentially heat-treated Mid-to-High-Carbon Steel would be ideal, but due to my state of finances, experience, and equipment (or rather, lack of most of these), I tentatively decided on D2.

My decision is based on the following;

D2 is relatively easy to obtain for me.

I plan on having the shaped blade heat treated at an industrial/commercial heat treatment centre, which also does cryogenic treatment...

I've heard nothing but good reports and high praise of D2.

There is a United Cutlery "Ninja Sword" made of 420J2 stainless, which I regard as just a rip-off Ontario's better (IMOHO) design. My friend has it, and has yet to be convinced that it is not a real sword... I want to have a much tougher, a bit wider, better profiled, false-edged version of it...

So now, I need your comments, suggestions, etc., as to my choice of steel..... What other steel options are available?





Much Thanks
 
Bear in mind that whether or not you can get these HT'd depends onwhere you're sending it off too.

But Most of the 10xx series steels and O1 would also work well in this application. I know Cold Steel uses 1050 for their swords, as do many other makers. Basically, any good high carbon, non stainless steel would probably work for this project(at least that would be my choice). You'd want it temepred to a bit lower Rockwell than a smaller knife, to make sure it doesn't get damaged. Longer blade== longer lever, so if you're hacking into something, with the longer moment arm, if you have it too brittle, it will break.

But any good high carbon steel should do you just great. I think L6 would qualify too, but I don't know anything about it. Others will chime in. And any high carbon steel, properly heat treated, will do better than that POS little 420 thing. Seenit, don't like it at all. It's a toy. But it will stand up to corrosion better than yours.
 
I'd go with 5160 all the way. D2 stays way too hard and brittle. It's great for smaller knives, though. If you can get D2 easily, I'd be happy to trade you for some 5160. I have some in 1 1/4"x1/4" HR bars from Admiral steel.
 
The two 51's. I knew I was forgetting one major branch of steels listing off the high carbons. Glad Mr. Fowler didn't see that mistake. ;)

5160 would definitely make another very good choice. Teach me to stay up all night. :)
 
I like the idea of using L6 for this application. Definitely not D2 though.
 
I really like the idea of using carbon steel for it's toughness.
5160, L6, 52100,or 10xx. If however, you need to have one of the
commercial heat treaters do the heat treat, they will mostly do
air hardening. If so, you might use A2. It is a lot tougher than
D2, and is readily available and inexpensive. A guy named Criswell
makes swords out of it. It is not STAINLESS!
 
Absolutely, Jerry, I just thought that he wanted to use something
locally available and locally heat treated and inexpensive. No doubt, the best of all worlds would be CPM S30V for stainless type and CPM 3V for having some stain resistance and tremendous toughness. All of these would have to be heat treated by Paul Bos, of course.
 
Sorry, I just noticed his location and realized he's not in Kansas anymore. :)

CPM's are tough to get down there, so the suggestion of A2 is a good one. I've made swords in A2 and a couple have made some pretty prodigious cuts without problems.
 
10 years ago several makers were doing D2 swords. D2 is sufficiently tough when tempered to 55HRC or lower. There are better materials but it'll do.
 
When you make a sword there are a couple conspicuous differences from making a hunting knife. As a lot of people indicated you need a lot more toughness in a sword blade and you need to move (or remove) a lot more material when you shape a sword. Even in the annealed state it takes a lot more work to grind the higher alloy steels like A2, D2, CPM-3V or S30V. Forging is probably out of the question.

What would be much easier to shape would be the simpler steels. The basic 1050, 1075, 1095 series would be easy to work with and 5160 is another good choice. I would suggest something with a modest amount of carbon for better toughness. I would probably try 5160 as a first choice. It is very forgiving and you could even try heating and beating it if you could find a forge.
 
I'm not saying it'll fall apart, but it works better in shorter, stouter blades designed for tough cutting chores eg.- skinning. The other way to look at it is what the other guys have already said - there are cheaper, less finicky, more durable steels available for that type of project.

The only high-alloy steel I'd think about for a large whacking piece is A-2 or O-1 (not really a high-alloy) with a properly done HT. The tough sword steels like 1050, 1060 or even 1075 and 1084 tempered a bit softer, 5160, L-6 are tough as nuts and can be forged to make your sword blade. I saw a friend forge a Roman "Gladius" with a 16inch blade from a single piece of old truck suspension leaf-spring (5160), HT and tempered in the forge itself and then sharpened it on a stone in his backyard and chopped down a tree with it ! 5160 is very versatile stuff.

If you can get it, S-7 is another very tough steel.

Just a few cents worth. Jason.
 
Forging D2 isn't out of the question, just hard. It's really tough under the hammer, dents cheap anvils, and you have to be very careful with your temperature range or it will crack. It's also less stain-resistant after several heats.
 
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