why no more knives in M2 ?

N

Neo

Joined
Sep 12, 2002
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M2 isn't seen much these days.
Benchmade among others had a few knives in this steel.
What are the best attributes of M2?
 
What are the best attributes of M2?
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It's tough, wear resistant, takes a nice edge and holds it well. I really like the steel and would love to see more of it at RC 62 or higher. It was nice in Benchmade knives but it is nicer when hardened higher than they ran it ( they claimed RC 60-62 but they really ran it around 58-59) but it's nicer above RC 63 and can even do pretty well up at RC 65 in slicer and skinner type knives. No, it's not stainless but it never was a problem for me.
 
M2 is the classic steel used for straight knives in jointers and planers, so that gives an idea of how tough it is. Straight knives in a cutterhead take tremendous shock loads, and the best tempering of M2 gives good toughness plus good edgeholding.
 
What about T1 it is also used in planer knives (its being replaced by M2, and proprietary variants due to increasing costs of tungsten), its supposedly more wear resistant in that application, but I have never seen a knife made from it?
 
Nebulae said:
What about T1 it is also used in planer knives (its being replaced by M2, and proprietary variants due to increasing costs of tungsten), its supposedly more wear resistant in that application, but I have never seen a knife made from it?
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Might not make for a easily workable cutlery steel or bar stock might not be readily available would be my guess. There are more and more alloys being developed specifically for the cutlery industry. I would think this makes it more cost effective for knife companies. I suppose you could find a custom knifemaker that would try and make a blade out of it.
 
Actually I make knives from T1 planer knives. I would think that since its been around for about a century where as M2 and other HSS are much more recent, it would be, or would have been much more common
 
Nebulae said:
What about T1 it is also used in planer knives (its being replaced by M2, and proprietary variants due to increasing costs of tungsten), its supposedly more wear resistant in that application, but I have never seen a knife made from it?
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Key knives on line and mocking bird hill knives .biz ,have made knives using M2 steel for me.
 
Nebulae said:
Actually I make knives from T1 planer knives. I would think that since its been around for about a century where as M2 and other HSS are much more recent, it would be, or would have been much more common
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I think the more "popular" alloys are what drives sales ultimately. The new super steels are what's hot at the moment. Most of the cutlery steels being produced by Carpenter and some clasics from Crucible are what rakes in sales. I would bet that with some marketing and some basic testing T1 might just be a go to knife steel that would sell. No one has really pushed that angle though.
 
I used M2 for the last knife I made (2 years ago) and am planning on making 2 more, which will exhaust my stock. I find it to be an excellent steel for knives, though CPM M4 has replaced it. By all accounts, CPM M4 is better in all categories of performance except price. I have not used it to confirm this.

I found M2 to be quite tough for a blade hardened above 63 HRc (64-66 are the specs on the steel I used, I think). It takes dropping, a little throwing, enough prying to dig through a 1 x 6, batoning with a steel hammer (3lb), and several 90 degree flexes with no concerns. The blade is only 0.055" thick with a 10 degree convex/scandi grind, which accounts for a lot of the above (flexing, dropping, batoning).
 
me2 said:
I used M2 for the last knife I made (2 years ago) and am planning on making 2 more, which will exhaust my stock. I find it to be an excellent steel for knives, though CPM M4 has replaced it. By all accounts, CPM M4 is better in all categories of performance except price. I have not used it to confirm this.

I found M2 to be quite tough for a blade hardened above 63 HRc (64-66 are the specs on the steel I used, I think). It takes dropping, a little throwing, enough prying to dig through a 1 x 6, batoning with a steel hammer (3lb), and several 90 degree flexes with no concerns. The blade is only 0.055" thick with a 10 degree convex/scandi grind, which accounts for a lot of the above (flexing, dropping, batoning).
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Holy crap!
 
I'll have a few Leafstorm folders with M2 blades later in the summer. I'll probably have the blades coated with TiAlN which help some to prevent rust.

M2 is hard to find in flat stock. I bought a plate about 10 years ago and am still using it (no, I don't have any to sell).

Makes a blade that holds an edge for a really really long time.
 
Farid has made T-1 knives for years. The T1000 folder IIRC. I have my doubts if any steel as expensive as T-1 with 18% tungsten, amongst other things will ever make it as a popular steel with knife makers and manufacturers. Grinding difficulty, cost not only of steels but abrasives and time of knife makers, and not the least of which is hardening temp's in the 2375 degrees F range. If knife users needed and would pay for the red hardness this was designed for it might be different but we normally don't need it in our EDC knives. Machinists or woodworkers OTOH might, but that brings up the same performance with newer and cheaper steels question. T1 is far from the newest in the T series, much less the M series of super high speed alloys..
 
Kevin Wilkins said:
I'll have a few Leafstorm folders with M2 blades later in the summer. I'll probably have the blades coated with TiAlN which help some to prevent rust.

M2 is hard to find in flat stock. I bought a plate about 10 years ago and am still using it (no, I don't have any to sell).

Makes a blade that holds an edge for a really really long time.
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An M2 steel Leafstorm would be very cool.
 
T1 is a great steel, it has 18% Tungsten (W), very wear resistant but in the annealed state it is easy to work with, it's just after heat-treatment when you have to grind to finished size that most people would have difficulties, but it's a great steel, you can practically take the T-1 blade out of your folder and use it to machine steel or titanium on the lathe.
Here is some info on the T-1 high speed steel.

Take care all

T-1 is classified as High Speed Steel and it was patented by Crucible Steel Co around 1910. T-1 Carbide steel was designed primarily to out cut M-2. Soon after it became so popular, in engineering and Tool manufacturing it was discovered that with it’s 18% (w) Tungsten and special heat treating developed by Taylor and White it actually not only have a tremendous red hardness capability but it actually out cut the M-2 steel by 30-35%.
The matrix of the alloy was 0.7% ( C ) carbon, 18% ( W ) Tungsten, 1.3% ( V ) Vanadium, 4% ( CR ) Chromium and 0.3% (NI) Niobium. The specification of the T-1 steel was standardised for 40 years.
During the World War II the serious shortage of raw material meant that in order to keep producing steel the manufacturers had to significantly lower the alloy contents of special steels. This decision was primarily to lower the percentage of Tungsten and Vanadium and later on Niobium in steels like the T-1. It must be said that the basic alloy design of T-1 has allowed other steels to be produced just by adding other alloys to it , Such as ( CO ) Cobalt, higher ( V ) Vanadium and higher percentage of Carbon.
The latest T-1 steel that is now being produced in Germany on state of the art equipment is an extremely high quality product. In comparison to other steels the T-1 is actually 10% heavier due to it’s extremely high contents of Tungsten (W).
The heat treating of the T-1 steel is no cheap or easy task in comparison to other lower spec Tungsten steels. Hardening takes place at around 2350F.

In short, the T-1 Carbide steel was designed to cut other steels and it did that for over 40 years before it became too expensive to produce in large quantities and was replaced largely by cheaper High Speed Steels. Taking in to consideration after heat treating, the 18% Tungsten Carbide in the matrix of the T-1 steel , well that’s impressive.
 
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me2 said:
I used M2 for the last knife I made (2 years ago) and am planning on making 2 more, which will exhaust my stock. I find it to be an excellent steel for knives, though CPM M4 has replaced it. By all accounts, CPM M4 is better in all categories of performance except price. I have not used it to confirm this.

I found M2 to be quite tough for a blade hardened above 63 HRc (64-66 are the specs on the steel I used, I think). It takes dropping, a little throwing, enough prying to dig through a 1 x 6, batoning with a steel hammer (3lb), and several 90 degree flexes with no concerns. The blade is only 0.055" thick with a 10 degree convex/scandi grind, which accounts for a lot of the above (flexing, dropping, batoning).
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The first complete knife I ever made from scratch was made from a fully hardened power hacksaw blade of what I'm 99% certain is M2 steel. I can tell you that it was an absolute terror to grind compared to knives I made later from annealed 1095. I haven't tested it like you have but the edge holding ability is like almost no other knife I own with possibly the exception of my S90V Spyderco.
 
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