I had a thread on here earlier about an unidentified knife with an imprint of D2 on it. The knife was a Pry bar kind, sorta like a BK3. What confused me was that everyone was puzzled by the use of D2 steel for a pry bar knife. My question is, why would D2 be a bad choice for that type of knife, I always thought D2 was one of the stronger steels?
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D2 Question
- Thread starter Cutwater
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- Joined
- Aug 27, 2004
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- 12,957
Its not the toughest steel thats for sure. Mostly its going to excel with smaller slicers which is why its seen often in small skinning and field knives and folders. Some use it in choppers and it can be used for this if its thick enough. Personally I don't think its the best choice for a chopper or a pry tool but for some applications I'm sure its fine. D2 has large carbides and they can tend to chip out if the edge is too thin. So long as the primary grind and edge geometry are designed around the use requirements you can certainly make D2 work. A2 is much tougher by comparison and 5160 as well as some other non stainless choices like 1095,85,75 and others. Where D2 is going to beat these steels is in chromium content where it will behave more like stainless since it is the most stainless like of the non stainless steels as I recall.
If thick enough it could function as a pry tool and the heat treat as well as Rockwell hardness could be adjusted to make it tougher than those seen and used in blades of the same steel.
STR
If thick enough it could function as a pry tool and the heat treat as well as Rockwell hardness could be adjusted to make it tougher than those seen and used in blades of the same steel.
STR