How to Drill Hardened D2?

What the hole for? Drilling a tang or raw steel?
 
Leason learned will be worth the cost of carbide. Go slow and keep fresh cutting oil on it.

RL
 
blgoode said:
What the hole for? Drilling a tang or raw steel?
Click to expand...

A long time ago I experimented with using "goop" followed by "plastic dip" as handles. It actually works quite well. It just doesn't make sense, though, to put crappy plastic handles on D2 blades. I just found a couple of these old knives in a drawer and thought I'd put real handles on them. I asked about using epoxy without pins in another post and was told it wouldn't work. That particular knife will get a cord wrap, I guess. I have another blade, though, that has room for pin holes...if I can drill them.

Scott
 
put the blade in water and heat the tang to soften the metal. Then use carbide drill bits like RLinger said. It will work :)
 
If you're using carbide, don't use any coolant/oil unless you can keep it flooded. Carbide works beter in this instance dry, just a little heat.

Jamie
 
Good luck. You will be drilling hardened steel with a high percent carbide, including some Vanadium carbides that are right up there in hardness with the Tungsten carbides the bit is made from. Go slow and keep it cool.
 
blgoode said:
put the blade in water and heat the tang to soften the metal.
Click to expand...

This sounds like a great idea. How hot will I need to get it? Does it need to glow? Will it even glow with the blade in water? It seems the cooler blade would disipitate much of the heat. Will this return the tang to it's pre-hardened state? Or will it simply be a little softer that it is now?

You guys are full of good ideas. Thanks!

Scott
 
Dont make it glow .... the heat that gets to the blade thats in ICE water may be too much.

I'd just get it...say purple. Try to drill it and if its still hard, go a little higher in heat till it softens.
RL will know the heat on this one I think.
 
http://www.bucorp.com/Products/ColdWorkSteels/DataSheets/aisi_d2.pdf

The link above is to Uddeholm's data sheets on D2. You can see that annealing takes a 18 hour cooling to about 1200°F. Look at the tempering graphs to see what hardness you will get with heating to various temperatures. It looks like at about 1100°F you get down to 50 HRC. That is still pretty hard to drill on D2 due to the carbides that don't start to dissolve until between 1400° and 1500°F.
 
Scott, do you know for sure how hard the steel is? Try your local machine shop supply store and ask for HiRoc drills. They claim to drill holes in steel up to 65C Rockwell hardness. Pat McGroder
 
I've drilled Rc 62 D2 with a carbide before. If you buy a new drill it won't have any problems drilling through it without the need to heat the blade at all.


If it gets hot cool it but if you take your time it won't need cooled down.

Also, clamp the knife down so it doesn't get away from you because that could really be nasty and wear safety glasses. I always use a piece of scrap metal behind or underneath the blade or metal I'm drilling because it seems to reduce the chances of the carbide shattering apart upon exit. Carbide drills are extremely brittle. It isn't full proof but it seems to help, at least for me anyway. Some guys drill until the tip of the bit is just poked through and then turn the blade over and come in from the other side but I've never done that.

Anyway, good luck.

Steve
 
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