heat treating d2

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Big_TM

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Mar 7, 2013
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Hey guys,
Finally getting around to using some d2 that I bought at blade show, I'm wanting to heat treat in house. And I was wondering what steps you all use to get the best results out of d2.

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I do have an evenheat oven, but no liquid nitrogen.

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My current D2 heat treat protocol is
1825° 30min,LN 5hr, 400° 2hr x3
From all my reading and research I have found that D2 need a cold treatment to really bring out its best qualitys. Without a cold treatment some guys go to the higher 900° tempering which takes care of the retained austionate but forums large carbides.
 
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If you don't have LN2, you could try dry ice and antifreeze. . If you don't have access to either one, you may have to go with the high temper. Try some experimenting with the austenizing temperature to get max hardness with minimal as-quenched retained austenite. Then take care of the RA with the high tempering temperature. You'll lose some toughness and corrosion resistance, but gain some wear resistance, though it won't be drastic.
 
Acetone and dry ice will work fine for the sub zero quench on d2. I highly suggest the sub zero quench and low temper for d2
 
JTknives said:
My current D2 heat treat protocol is
1725° 30min,LN 5hr, 400° 2hr x3
From all my reading and research I have found that D2 need a cold treatment to really bring out its best qualitys. Without a cold treatment some guys go to the higher 900° tempering which takes care of the retained austionate but forums large carbides.
Click to expand...

1725' sounds low, did you mean 1825'?

Hoss
 
Oh wow yeah 1825°, I got panicked and ran to the shop and he led my last firing schedules and yeah 1825° for 30min
 
Sounds good guys, I think I can get some dry ice, so I'll go that route. I will also try one blade with just the high temper and do a little testing of the two. Thanks for the help.

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I use dry ice and denatured alcohol. Use a gallon of alcohol from the hardware store and about 5# of DI from a grocery store ( many large groceries carry it).

Crush up the DI into chunks and put it in the container of alcohol. It will foam up a bit at first, but keep adding the DI until you have it all in the container. Once it is all in, give it a stir, and place the blades in for a while. You only need a few minutes at the -100F temp technically, but I leave them in for an hour or so, then take out and let warm up. Immediately temper twice at 400F.

Leave the DI slurry in the container until all the DI has sublimated, then pour it back into the can for re-use. I loosely cap the can for a day, give it a shake to release any dissolved CO2, and tighten the cap down.

To find dry ice, do a search for "dry ice near zip code". You will be amazed that it is readily available almost everywhere.
 
So does a D2 heat treat/followed by cryo/followed by 2, 2 hour tempers at 400 yield the same results as D2 heat treat/ no cryo/followed by a 950 and then 900, 2 hours each?
 
No. You may end up with the same hardness, but the results are not the same. The low temper with cold treatment is generally though to be better for knife applications, though there are those that disagree, such as Bob Dozier, who is generally considered a pioneer in D2 use. I don't know what his procedure is but he is not a proponent of dry ice or liquid nitrogen treatment for D2.
 
I like the sub zero quench in D2..It seems to have much better fine edge stability..Thats just me
 
IMHO , since D2 has a Vanadium content of 0.9 % , It would definitely benefit from a higher tempering temperature 500-520c ( 940 ~ 970 F ) compares to a lower temper done at 200c ( 710F ) . Its okay if its SKD11 ( V0.3 % compares to D2 V0.9 % ) . You should get a final hardness of 56-59 HRC if the heat treatment was dione correctly at 1020c ( 1870F ) .

I do kinda agree that sub zero treatment does helps in the edge stability . If sub zero treatment is not available , you may actually reduce the amount of RA by tempering it 3 times . Another point is do not delay temper the steel after quenching ( maximum 1 hour after quenching ) as this would leads to dimension instability .
 
What if you quenched it faster? Like in an oil bath as opposed to with air/quench plates?

I dont have a clue if this would work, just a thought. It would be interesting to explore IMO.
 
According to Verhoeven (section titled "Optimizing Martensitic Stainless Steel for Cutlery Applications"), using oil to quench stainless steel indeed helps to reduce retained austenite, as well as helps to prevent K1 carbide precipitate, which in turn helps corrosion resistance.
 
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