Steel question

[fool]

A few years back, when I used to frequent this forum (some other name--account expired I'd guess), it seemed two tool steals had the potential to become pretty popular. The two steels being D-2, which has become VERY popluar from what I see, and M-2, which I guess didn't take off. I know Benchmade came out with an M-2 knife which I guess performed well from what I read--very favorable to the ATS-34 eqivalent. I also had some M-2 stock and thought very highly of it, so I was surprised it did not find its way into more knives. Why? Was it the easy-to-rust nature of the material, the reported brittleness, cost, or what? Just curious, because I just loved the stuff. (I have no experience with D-2, so maybe it's even better?)

 

[Cliff Stamp]

It is expensive, difficult to machine, and HSS in general are difficult to heat treat because of high soak temperatures and very precise timing, they get damaged very quickly if oversoaked.

-Cliff

 

[fool]

Thanks, Cliff. The stuff I had was (1)free, and (2)already heat treated. That's why I had no clue about the real world factors you enlightened me about. Except for the machinability--I know the stuff is crazy to grind. Of course, I was grinding hardened (62 HRC), cryo-treated planer blades--just experimenting. But man, did it make a nice edge. At least to me. Oh well, thanks again.

 

[Steve Hayden]

In my experience M2 is about 3 times as expensive as D2 and 1 1/2+ times as much as CPM 3V and S30V. Otherwise I would have tried it out by now.