Fun with D2

JTknives

JTknives

Joined
Jun 11, 2006
Messages
8,651
So I was in the shop tonight cutting steel and doing heat treating and wanted to do something fun. Being that I have not forged anything in a good long time I fired up the forge. Being that this was just a "for fun" project I grabbed a planer blade and said why not. Being these blades are D2 I figured I would not get very far. After loosing a few points and having to trim them off I got the hang of it. I figured what better says forged then leaving the forged finish. I then proceeded to try and forge the blade to as close to 100% finished as possible with just a hammer. My plan was to get it to where it just needed sharpening. Not sure where I'm going to go with the handle, or if I will take it that far. Just thought I would share this with you guys.

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Must be pretty good if you can cut the horn of the anvil like that ! :rolleyes:
 
Yes, but what D2? I was told there werer 57 types of this steel. I did a lot of knives in planer blades many years ago. I gave one of my very experienced hunter friends one and was pleased he was able to use it soon afterward. His comments were that it didn't stay sharp as long as the ATS-34 one I had made previous for him that had seen quite a bit of use and as well was far more difficult to sharpen. I will find it most interesting to read the results you get through forging and your heat treating than what was already done to the planer blades direct from the manufacture co..
Frank
 
I cut the tang off and then used a hammer to brake off the end of what was left on the bar. I was expecting coarse grain and very brittle. I was surprised when it took 2 very heavy blows from a hammer to snap it off. The grain is very fine, I cant see the individual grains with my eye. I then ground the small chunk and tested the hardness which was 63rc. I'm half tempted to temper it and use it as is. The wife found this deer bone a few years ago and has been bugging me to make her something out of it. My thought is a simple copper guard and wrapping the bone with something to bring up the diameter. maybe wrap it with twisted copper wire.

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Very interesting ! Original hardness made for a certain job and angle while you moved ahead to one well suited to knife use. I believe this to be a great find for some makers who may have easy access to some of this material and forge!
Frank
 
I have so much of this steel that I had to find a use lol. It's not wide enough for anything besides a pukko. Each blade is 26" long

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I gave it a 400 deg 2hr temper and after cleaning up the tang it measured a very consistent 60rc along the entire tang.
 
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