Sharpening D2 tool steel blade

Gunmike1 - I will post on Monday after trying to see if I get past the "bad" part of the edge or determine it is a bad heat treat or just faulty steel.

I just may take you up on the offer.

I have no desire for BM to replace the blade with softer steel. I generally like D2 - I wish they would have used S30V, but it is what it is!!
 
Toyz said:
Gunmike1 - I will post on Monday after trying to see if I get past the "bad" part of the edge or determine it is a bad heat treat or just faulty steel.

I just may take you up on the offer.

I have no desire for BM to replace the blade with softer steel. I generally like D2 - I wish they would have used S30V, but it is what it is!!
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Good luck with it, I hope you get to the good steel. If not I can use my DMT Coarse to rebevel it slightly and get down to good steel, then refine the edge to a polish on my waterstones. If that doesn't work then I would say ship it back. If everything ends up working out it would be interesting to get the knife RC tested. I have had several of mine tested with some interesting results.

Mike
 
gunmike1 said:
Good luck with it, I hope you get to the good steel. If not I can use my DMT Coarse to rebevel it slightly and get down to good steel, then refine the edge to a polish on my waterstones. If that doesn't work then I would say ship it back. If everything ends up working out it would be interesting to get the knife RC tested. I have had several of mine tested with some interesting results.

Mike
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Where do you live? Where do you get it RC tested?
 
OK - it's not Monday but better late than never.

I beat the crap out of the knife over the weekend - I hacked thru different types of scrap wood, cut plastic drainage pipe, rope, cardboard by the mile, and old newspapers. The use did take some of the chips out of the edge, and surprisingly, the edge held up very well. It was not dull after all the forced use.

I then sharpened the blade on my India stone, going from coarse to fine. I then stropped the edge (I use an old leather belt). The blade still has some remnants of the chips, albeit very faint at this point. The edge came back very sharp. I did not use the ceramic rods this time. Sharpening the blade on the stone does not create chips in the edge.

So now I am confused - the edge held up after all the cutting, the edge was restored with the stone, but the edge still shows some chipping. I tried to take photos, but I cannot get enough detail to show the edge clearly.

Maybe this is a bad heat treat, or maybe the edge was burned while sharpening at BM? The steel does seem to exhibit the characteristics of D2.

I plan on another hard weekend of use to try to force the edge dull. This time I will finish the edge off on the ceramic rods to see what I get.
 
I would do the use/sharpen cycle a couple more times. It sounds like you are getting into some well heat treated steel.
 
I am going to try to do just that - use / sharpen, except that I need to start cutting some heavy duty stuff, like carpet, to dull the blade.

Anyone else have ideas about what materials you can cut that really put a hurting on blades? I already do cardboard, wood, plastic pipe, rope.
 
Drywall, manila rope, more cardboard, carpet....
 
Damn - sorry I have been out of contact for over 2 weeks - 2 jobs and family in hospital has kept me busy. I'm just coming up for air.

I used the knife extensively cutting carpet and rope and dulled the crap out of the blade. It did take a little while, but the backing on the carpet helped a lot.

I now need to stone sharpen the blade and hope to do so this weekend. I'll run it down the ceramic afterwards to see if it still chips. More to follow...
 
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