H&K axis mini black folder....D2 good?

S

suedeface

Joined
Aug 31, 2004
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Just bought one of these and am awaiting it's arrival. I was wondering about Benchmade's D2 steel as I have never used it before. I'm most familiar with AUS-8 and VG-10, so how does the edge holding and toughness compare to D2? Also, although the blade is coated, I'm interested in the corrosion resistance as well as it is not quite stainless. When I go for my first sharpening (edge pro) what is a good angle to sharpen at?

I really like the looks of this knife, and the size. I didn't know this model existed until about 2 days ago (new for 2015) I've wanted a g-10 handled knife for some time, but most of the Benchmades that have G-10 handles have grooves or other decorative designs on the handles. I like the plain jane handles of the HK line. Kind of reminds me of the first gen Benchmades, like the cqc-7, stryker and AFCK models, more plain and tactical. Hopefully I should get it this week some time.
 
suedeface said:
Just bought one of these and am awaiting it's arrival. I was wondering about Benchmade's D2 steel as I have never used it before. I'm most familiar with AUS-8 and VG-10, so how does the edge holding and toughness compare to D2? Also, although the blade is coated, I'm interested in the corrosion resistance as well as it is not quite stainless. When I go for my first sharpening (edge pro) what is a good angle to sharpen at?

I really like the looks of this knife, and the size. I didn't know this model existed until about 2 days ago (new for 2015) I've wanted a g-10 handled knife for some time, but most of the Benchmades that have G-10 handles have grooves or other decorative designs on the handles. I like the plain jane handles of the HK line. Kind of reminds me of the first gen Benchmades, like the cqc-7, stryker and AFCK models, more plain and tactical. Hopefully I should get it this week some time.
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I am not a steel expert but I can say that you will be impressed with D2! With my limited experience with sharpening D2 I have found that its toughness to sharpen is a bit harder than S30v but it hold and edge longer than S30v and I would definitely consider it several notches above vg-10.
When you go to sharpen it I would recommend sharpening it on a medium grit stone and then going to a strop to get those little ''micro serrations''
on it and the edge will last quite awhile, well with my experience which isn't much. I would check out cliff stamp on youtube for some great information on steels, hope this helps!

TFS
 
Benchmade's D2 is great stuff and holds an edge for a long time between sharpenings. The trick is to keep the blade from going dull, and with your EdgePro should not be an issue. I use 320 down to 600 on my Apex with good results. Angle? The factory does something close to 25 inclusive, I like 20.
 
jkarp_53 said:
Benchmade's D2 is great stuff and holds an edge for a long time between sharpenings. The trick is to keep the blade from going dull, and with your EdgePro should not be an issue. I use 320 down to 600 on my Apex with good results. Angle? The factory does something close to 25 inclusive, I like 20.
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This. :thumbup:

D2 holds a great edge. The coating on the blade should protect it fairly well. As a precaution I wipe my D2 blades down with Tuf-Cloth, and I live in Georgia where the heat and humidity can nasty at times, but have never had rust issues with my D2 blades.
 
Sounds good. I personally don't have an issue with rust on any of my knives and I tend to carry a small tuff cloth in a mini ziploc if I am using hc steels or otf knives. So I am good there. Should I just re-sharpen at the factory edge if it performs well? I like to keep as much steel on my blades as I can especially if it is a more expensive model.
 
suedeface said:
Sounds good. I personally don't have an issue with rust on any of my knives and I tend to carry a small tuff cloth in a mini ziploc if I am using hc steels or otf knives. So I am good there. Should I just re-sharpen at the factory edge if it performs well? I like to keep as much steel on my blades as I can especially if it is a more expensive model.
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Many will tell you that they don't like the factory angles. I'm personally good with them. The thinner the edge the easier it is to roll or chip it.
 
I have a full sized Grip in D2 with the BK1 coating, it's good stuff. Mine came ground to around 42 degrees from the factory, I had a knife store adjust it to 40 inclusive so I can easily maintain it on my Sharpmaker. It definitely is time consuming to sharpen by hand, but the tradeoff is that the edge lasts a long time. Recently I cut of a few dozen cardboard boxes with mine and saw only minimal loss of sharpness afterwards. As far as rust, well D2 is right on the border of being stainless with 11.5% Cr (12% is generally the cutoff point), mine has the BK1 (cerakote basically) coating on the blade and I have never seen any rust develop. I'm actually tempted to do a salt water test, maybe I'll do that overnight tonight when I get home and report back.
 
Been very pleased with its performance in my small Bone Collector.

Holds an edge, but don't let it get too dull. Kinda hard steel when sharpening.
 
Never experienced any type of corrosion issues with BM D2. I suppose it could be an issue in certain environments but that goes for most steels.
 
suedeface said:
Just bought one of these and am awaiting it's arrival. I was wondering about Benchmade's D2 steel as I have never used it before. I'm most familiar with AUS-8 and VG-10, so how does the edge holding and toughness compare to D2? Also, although the blade is coated, I'm interested in the corrosion resistance as well as it is not quite stainless. When I go for my first sharpening (edge pro) what is a good angle to sharpen at?
Click to expand...
AUS-8 doesn't hold a candle to D2 in edge retention. VG-10 is closer, but still not there. You will be impressed with it. I would recommend ignoring Benchmade's hand sharpened angles and put your own angle on it. For the small HK, a 15-17º per side angle should be good, 20º per side at the most.

As for corrosion resistance: My 32 Morpho in uncoated D2 has yet to see any hint of rust.
 
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