S30V or D2

CPM D2 was a limited production from CPM, I've heard talks of them bringing it back but as of now it is not being produced. Spyderco did a small sprint run using this steel in their military and para military models, Kershaw seems to have purchased a large amount of this steel as the are using it in yet to be released blades and have several in production sporting CPMD2. Though basically the same steel their performance is veryy different.
 
knifenut1013 said:
CPM D2 was a limited production from CPM, I've heard talks of them bringing it back but as of now it is not being produced. Spyderco did a small sprint run using this steel in their military and para military models, Kershaw seems to have purchased a large amount of this steel as the are using it in yet to be released blades and have several in production sporting CPMD2. Though basically the same steel their performance is veryy different.
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How would you describe the difference between the two? I am about to get a morpho 32 and it is D2.....I am sure you will get to see it soon.:)
 
CPM D2 is another leader of sharpness and slightly better at holding a edge than S30V. Its very easy to get sharp like M4 but has issues with micro chipping at low edge angles. This issue is also the same with standard D2 but seems to happen more often with CPM D2. Its a good steel for smaller blades IMO while I would rather have D2 on larger blades (if that was the only steel choice).

The main differences are easier too sharpen, extremely easy to mirror polish, and the ability to get stupid sharp.
Almost forgot, D2 resist impact better still gets very sharp and holds a great edge. Its a little harder to sharpen but it also can take a very sharp coarse grit edge that lasts and lasts.
 
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i have the 940 in d2. love it. don't believe the brittleness bit. no chips and there damn well should be. i dont have a sharpmaker... yet. sent it to richardj. it came out of the box with uneven bevels but shaving sharp. sent it to rich and he gave it back sharp enough to groom my beard. no joke. stayed that way for a week cutting card board, etc till i was digging harley's out of their tin and cardboard crates... blindly cutting hit a few girders. not so sharp now, but no chips or anything. reacted far better than it should have for being raped like such

haven't tried the s30v, so idk which is better but the d2 hasn't given me any reason to want to try it. bm940d2 is fantastic. if it takes a great ht to keep d2 from being brittle, then benchmade provides just that.
 
I haven't been able to try D2 yet, but have been wanting to when reading about the edge retention and impact handling of it versus S30V. I'm the kind of guy that runs his edge into staples and crap too much, so it'd be awesome to have something that doesn't dent or roll too much.

However, I will say that of the steels I have S30V is my favorite because it holds its toothy edge for so long. It's almost deceptive in a way because if you use a lot of slicing cuts, it will just go on forever as a great cutter whether it can push-cut or not.

My only problem with it is rolling the edge, which can probably be solved more with a thicker grind.
 
D2 is brittle when lateral stress is applied or when the edge is ground too thin. Direct impact is not a issue though, D2 tool steels common use is for punch pressing other steel parts.
 
knifenut1013 said:
D2 is brittle when lateral stress is applied or when the edge is ground too thin. Direct impact is not a issue though, D2 tool steels common use is for punch pressing other steel parts.
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gonna call false. i believe richard ground it to 30 degrees total, so 15 per side? pretty thin. and i've pried with it.

so... i'm sure many d2 blades have that problem. but not mine :D
 
15 per side is not thin, 8-10 PER SIDE is and will cause chipping of the edge.

Being able to pry and flex without breaking are also two different things. Instead of bending D2 likes to snap when laterally stressed too much. Also if you had a larger sample and smacked it on its side against a anvil it would shatter like glass.
 
Like most steels these two are going to perform different depending on the heat treat and final hardness. If I hear opposing views on which steel has better "wear resistance" I don't automaticly think something is up, or someone is doing something wrong.

S30V really changes charachter when you take it from a RC 57 final hardness to a RC 61 final hardness ( about the highest you typically see with this steel after tempering). It won't gain much toughness at the lower hardnesses, but it will gain noticable wear resistance and edge stability when run at RC 60-61. Enough to make it worthwhile to me.

IME, chipping problems are more a product of finishing and wire edges, and geometry than they are being run too hard. IMO, it's a damn good folding knife steel, not a fixed blade steel as while the toughness is ok for a folding type knife, there are much better choices than S30V for hard use fixed blades. All my opinion, BTW, I'm not trying to present this as fact. Everything, including what is tough, or hard use is very subjective so we all won't agree on this stuff.

D2 does like certain finishes, and hardnesses better than others. Anybody who has experienced a Dozier knife at 60.5 can attest to it. About the only notable I have with D2 is that the gains in edge stability and wear resistance at higher hardnesses is there, but not as dramatic as S30V with the 4% vanadium and 2% moly, and the carbides they produce. Everything else has been covered very well by Knifenut1013, amongst others.

Joe/raleigh
 
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In the edge retention tests that one of the posters has done on here, benchmade D2 placed very low in the rankings. Dozier's D2 is #1 however. His methodology has been criticized, but unless it is really poor, it seems to say that benchmade D2 performs pretty poorly in this area. Just something to consider.
 
I'm going to leave my comments about the "testing" out but will say from my experience BM runs their steel softer than others.
 
Kirk_Ferentz said:
In the edge retention tests that one of the posters has done on here, benchmade D2 placed very low in the rankings. Dozier's D2 is #1 however. His methodology has been criticized, but unless it is really poor, it seems to say that benchmade D2 performs pretty poorly in this area. Just something to consider.
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Vassili did that testing, the method is somewhat questionable, as I don't think cutting an inch of manila rope(I assume push cutting) is fair to the brittle but hard ZDP-189. That said, it does give a bit of an idea of how well the knives will do in certain types of cutting.

While Dozier D2 will reign as king for most general cutting, ZDP-189 will do better in the kitchen with nothing tougher than celery. I also suspect ZDP-189 does better on cardboard and maybe carpet because of the fairly high carbide volume.


I would go for S30V if more stain resistance is desired, and D2 for better edge retention. Though if they're both going to be HT by Benchmade, it might just be better to go with S30V.

An idea might be to get the S30V and have the blade heat-treated by Phil Wilson. Not sure if Bob Dozier does D2 heat-treat on other knives.
 
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