- Joined
- Oct 21, 2002
- Messages
- 14
Why D-2?
Hi guys! Eric is on the road right now and I wanted to take this opportunity to address some of the questions that have been raised concerning our use of D-2 tool steel in our upcoming series of hunter and utility blades. D-2 has recently gained a lot of popularity in the knifemaking community. Not surprisingly, Jerry (my husband) had used D-2 for many years when he was a custom maker. Recently while clearing out his original shop he decided to inventory his stores of bar stock. As it turns out, he had amassed quite a bit of his favorite tool steels including many tons of A-2 and D-2 tool steel. He put over 41,000 pounds of D-2 tools steel on the For Sale boards at over 90% off of the regular selling price! One of the deterring factors to using D-2 is its high price. Normally a 1/8 thick x 1 ½ wide x 18 long bar of precision ground D-2 Tool Steel costs $40.34 per bar. You can only get two 9 OAL knives out of a single bar. That means your raw steel cost per blade is over $20.00! That is over 3 times more expensive than using some of the other grades of cutlery steel!
Eric, called and asked about using the D-2 Tool Steel stock for Swamp Rat. Dont you just hate when a great idea is sitting under your nose and you dont see it yourself? Keeping in mind that Swamp Rat is all about saving Rat lovers money on high performance bladeware, I just couldnt say no to the idea. After consulting with our production team on advantages and disadvantages of D-2 tool steel, we moved in and purchased over 30,000 pounds of the stock from Busse Combat.
Jerry is a big fan of D-2 blades when everything is done right on the knife. We have taken his advice on design, heat-treat, edge geometry, etc and, in concert, with our superior Resiprene C handles will bring the finest, highest performance D-2 Tool Steel blades to the market. I asked Jerry to answer some questions about D-2 and here are his responses.
Why not stick with SR-101? And how does D-2 compare to SR-101?
Jerry:
In the performance arena, it is nearly impossible to match what Swamp Rat is getting out of SR-101 in certain areas. The combination of incredible edge holding and toughness are unparalleled in the industry (except for INFI . . Sorry, I had to throw that in
) . D-2 has a much better resistance to the elements in an uncoated or satin finished format than does SR-101. D-2 rivals ATS-34 for stain resistance and in fact proves to be nearly identical in this area in our accelerated salt spray corrosion tests. Surprisingly, or maybe not so surprisingly, the heat treatment and finish of D-2 can have a major impact on its corrosion resistance. When done properly, a D-2 blade requires minimal maintenance. Cleaning and oiling are a good idea but simply wiping the blade off and keeping it fairly dry will usually be all that is required for proper care.
In edge holding D-2 is an excellent steel and easily surpasses SR-101 when cutting harder materials such as steel banding, bone, etc. . . In soft to medium materials they are very similar in edge holding. In chopping and high impact applications, SR-101 easily surpasses D-2. Because of this, I do not recommend that any D-2 blades be longer than 5.
In extremely thin edges, such as are planned for the Hunter/Utility line, D-2 will prove to be a superior choice. The same qualities that make SR-101 a great steel for abuse, play against the house when it comes to extremely thin cross sections. Under contact (cutting not chopping) with harder materials such as metal banding, bone, rock, etc. . . SR-101 will roll whereas D-2 will prove to be the clear winner in these applications. However, if you do any heavy lateral stressing on a thin cross sectioned D-2 blade, you may be glad that your Swamp Rat D-2 blade is backed by the best no BS warranty in the industry!
D-2 also has a much greater resistance to high heat applications. What does that mean to you? Well, for us, as manufacturers that means that very fine edges can be satin finished with little worry of affecting the temper along the edge. This is not the case with SR-101, or any other simple high carbon steels, where extremely thin sections along the edge can be greatly affected by the heat generated from polishing.
So, in summary, for an uncoated blade with extremely thin cross sections, where cutting is the only intended application and hard materials such as bone, metal banding, etc will be in contact with the edge, D-2 will prove to be a superior steel in edge holding and resistance to the elements.
In more abusive applications where cutting is to be coupled with prying, lateral stressing, high impact, and overall toughness, SR-101 will prove to be far superior to D-2. --- Jerry Busse
So, when looking at the properties of these 2 steels you can see why we chose D-2 for our thin edged, bare metal, slicers.
Swamp Rat D-2 Tool Steel blades will prove to some of your favorite Rats. They will also stand as the only D-2 blades on the market that are covered against any and all major damage. . .
Thanks!
Jennifer
Hi guys! Eric is on the road right now and I wanted to take this opportunity to address some of the questions that have been raised concerning our use of D-2 tool steel in our upcoming series of hunter and utility blades. D-2 has recently gained a lot of popularity in the knifemaking community. Not surprisingly, Jerry (my husband) had used D-2 for many years when he was a custom maker. Recently while clearing out his original shop he decided to inventory his stores of bar stock. As it turns out, he had amassed quite a bit of his favorite tool steels including many tons of A-2 and D-2 tool steel. He put over 41,000 pounds of D-2 tools steel on the For Sale boards at over 90% off of the regular selling price! One of the deterring factors to using D-2 is its high price. Normally a 1/8 thick x 1 ½ wide x 18 long bar of precision ground D-2 Tool Steel costs $40.34 per bar. You can only get two 9 OAL knives out of a single bar. That means your raw steel cost per blade is over $20.00! That is over 3 times more expensive than using some of the other grades of cutlery steel!
Eric, called and asked about using the D-2 Tool Steel stock for Swamp Rat. Dont you just hate when a great idea is sitting under your nose and you dont see it yourself? Keeping in mind that Swamp Rat is all about saving Rat lovers money on high performance bladeware, I just couldnt say no to the idea. After consulting with our production team on advantages and disadvantages of D-2 tool steel, we moved in and purchased over 30,000 pounds of the stock from Busse Combat.
Jerry is a big fan of D-2 blades when everything is done right on the knife. We have taken his advice on design, heat-treat, edge geometry, etc and, in concert, with our superior Resiprene C handles will bring the finest, highest performance D-2 Tool Steel blades to the market. I asked Jerry to answer some questions about D-2 and here are his responses.
Why not stick with SR-101? And how does D-2 compare to SR-101?
Jerry:
In the performance arena, it is nearly impossible to match what Swamp Rat is getting out of SR-101 in certain areas. The combination of incredible edge holding and toughness are unparalleled in the industry (except for INFI . . Sorry, I had to throw that in
) . D-2 has a much better resistance to the elements in an uncoated or satin finished format than does SR-101. D-2 rivals ATS-34 for stain resistance and in fact proves to be nearly identical in this area in our accelerated salt spray corrosion tests. Surprisingly, or maybe not so surprisingly, the heat treatment and finish of D-2 can have a major impact on its corrosion resistance. When done properly, a D-2 blade requires minimal maintenance. Cleaning and oiling are a good idea but simply wiping the blade off and keeping it fairly dry will usually be all that is required for proper care. In edge holding D-2 is an excellent steel and easily surpasses SR-101 when cutting harder materials such as steel banding, bone, etc. . . In soft to medium materials they are very similar in edge holding. In chopping and high impact applications, SR-101 easily surpasses D-2. Because of this, I do not recommend that any D-2 blades be longer than 5.
In extremely thin edges, such as are planned for the Hunter/Utility line, D-2 will prove to be a superior choice. The same qualities that make SR-101 a great steel for abuse, play against the house when it comes to extremely thin cross sections. Under contact (cutting not chopping) with harder materials such as metal banding, bone, rock, etc. . . SR-101 will roll whereas D-2 will prove to be the clear winner in these applications. However, if you do any heavy lateral stressing on a thin cross sectioned D-2 blade, you may be glad that your Swamp Rat D-2 blade is backed by the best no BS warranty in the industry!
D-2 also has a much greater resistance to high heat applications. What does that mean to you? Well, for us, as manufacturers that means that very fine edges can be satin finished with little worry of affecting the temper along the edge. This is not the case with SR-101, or any other simple high carbon steels, where extremely thin sections along the edge can be greatly affected by the heat generated from polishing.
So, in summary, for an uncoated blade with extremely thin cross sections, where cutting is the only intended application and hard materials such as bone, metal banding, etc will be in contact with the edge, D-2 will prove to be a superior steel in edge holding and resistance to the elements.
In more abusive applications where cutting is to be coupled with prying, lateral stressing, high impact, and overall toughness, SR-101 will prove to be far superior to D-2. --- Jerry Busse
So, when looking at the properties of these 2 steels you can see why we chose D-2 for our thin edged, bare metal, slicers.
Swamp Rat D-2 Tool Steel blades will prove to some of your favorite Rats. They will also stand as the only D-2 blades on the market that are covered against any and all major damage. . .
Thanks!
Jennifer
